Best ways to exchange coins at a bank.

Stand-and-deliver_2

Hi all, I have a general question that I would like to float out there regarding the above, it’s been asked before but I can’t find any recent history on the discussions pages. Anyway here goes.

For years I’ve collected loose change throughout the year, come Christmas I count it all and bag it and have always exchanged it at the local pubs who have been more than happy to take it as they are charged for ordering change. I normally get a couple Of free drinks as an act of gratitude and everyone’s a winner. I should say that I normally collect between £700-£800 worth of change each year.

Last year due to the pandemic I didn’t cash the change up but just rolled it over, and now find that I have probably double the amount if not more, very nice it will be as well. However, coronavirus has had an effect on the way that people pay, with the vast majority using card payments as their preferred means of paying, which in turn means that my usual outlets have little need for my change.

So my question is, can anyone advise me on the best way to exchange my coins, Do banks still hold coin machines, I appreciate with the amount involved it may take several trips, or will they just allow you to pay it into your bank account, and what do they charge for such a service. Just to narrow things down I currently bank with Nat West, Lloyds and Santander. Any thoughts and guidance would be greatly appreciated.

elsien

Natwest has in branch  coin machines. Money gets paid straight into my current account, no charge.

Just be careful how quickly or how many you put in. It’s not a lot of fun overloading the machine and having them all spat back out again to take home. 

strawb_shortcake

I've always found Lloyd's good for accepting change, most I change was around £1k in £2 coins but that was a few years back. 

My fall back plan for future is Natwest and pay into my Mum's account to transfer 

jimjames

With your quantities it might be more difficult but an easy way to get rid of lots of spare coins is to pay for shopping at the self service tills with them. Shopping paid for and no charge to do so

General_Grant

elsien said:

Natwest has in branch  coin machines. Money gets paid straight into my current account, no charge.

Just be careful how quickly or how many you put in. It’s not a lot of fun overloading the machine and having them all spat back out again to take home. 

I believe the machine for coins in my local branch spits out a receipt for the amount counted and then the receipt is taken to a teller for the amount to be added to your account.

AskAsk

my friend tried to put coins into the bank as he took out about £600 in 50p coins to try and pick up the rare ones.  he said he was told by his bank that there is a daily limit on how much coins they can accept from a personal bank account which means he would have to make several trips to the bank.

Stand-and-deliver_2

Thanks very much for all your input, there’s some good information there. Sadly Jimjames  although I won’t dismiss your suggestion out of hand, I’ll shuffle it to the bottom of the pack 😁 The idea of collecting all this change throughout the year is to give me extra spending power at Christmas. I think it may take until next Christmas to spend all this change on my weekly shop. 😂

First port of call will be to see if my branch of NatWest does indeed have a change counting machine. 😉

Thanks again everyone.

24Tweezers

We used to have a Bookers card and we always paid our account with coins.  They happily took them, obviously they needed to  be correctly bagged up beforehand.  More recently, a local chip shop put a request on his facebook page asking for coins, maybe try your local chippie?

Brie

@jimjames
I tried using my coins at the local Tesco self serve till and they would take very few.  I don't know if there was a limit to the amount or the volume but it's going to take quite a few trips.  

For the OP - the post office will take them as long as they are bagged up, it's a full bag for that denomination (so £5 of 20p) and that they are to be deposited into your account.  I think they have a daily limit and have got really cranky with me in the past but that's probably as they had a queue all the way out the door and only one person working.  Lots of huffing and stomping of feet from the other customers (understandably)

molerat

I still can't believe that coin counting machines are not the norm in banks.  When I was in Germany in the 1980s all bank branches had them although not for customer use, you just handed a bag of coins over the counter and the assistant put them into the hopper then got on with serving other customers until the machine pinged. The machine even wrapped the coins into paper rolls - no plastic bags as in UK.  But they were ahead of us in many ways, household recycling bins, domestic battery recycling points in shops - Yes the 1980s !

emmajones1976

Brie said:

@jimjames
I tried using my coins at the local Tesco self serve till and they would take very few.  I don't know if there was a limit to the amount or the volume but it's going to take quite a few trips.  

I once paid for a £40 shop in Asda in coins, mainly 20p pieces and under. It will also depend how full the "hoppers" in the machine already are, of course.