UK BOINC Team Forum

The other day I went into my local supermarket and noticed a new addition in the entrance area. It was a large brightly lit machine emblazoned with the words "Turn your coins into cash". Now call me old fashioned but when I was a lad roaming the back streets of Halifax coins were cash! Does anyone recall when the law changed to demote our precious coins?

Anyway, I thought I'd take a closer look and read the small print on the machine. 'Insert your coins', it says, 'and a voucher will be printed out for use in the store.' Ahh, so now not only are coins not cash but vouchers for the store are cash. I must be more out of date than I thought.

And the best bit...

They only charge you 7.9% for the privilege of taking your coins and printing you a voucher!

What saddens me most is that when I went into the store yesterday there was someone using the machine.

Chris.

There are loads of machines about, I have seen people bringing in bucket loads of coins, they would rather pay up to 10% instead of bagging them up themselves! (you can change the voucher for "real" cash in the ones I have seen).  :lol:

These machines are a regular feature at most supermarkets in this area (Nottingham). As you say they charge 7.9% each time they are used. Very popular with the local student population around here though..

They are useful for some as the Banks will only take a certain amount of small change off your hands. They are very useful for lazy people (like me).

I agree the wording is wrong.

Free of charge up here and you can also turn the voucher into cash

Must admit we've used them. We collect all the change in a bottle and just before Christmas nip into Asda's to exchange it. Usually comes to around £200/£300. (It's a BIG bottle!)

Now imagine trying to sort out that lot into plastic bags, taking them to PO or bank and getting them to change them into notes.

We tried that - waited in queue with a bag of money bags (heavy as well), got to counter then spent a good 20/30 minutes while they checked for weight every bag. Of course some were overweight, some were underweight, people muttering in the background 'why don't they... whatever'. Right pain in the butt.

The next year (jeez I hate forking out 7.9% for the privalige but they got to make money I suppose) we used the machine. Just poured the coins in, gave it a few shakes. Within 5 minutes we had over £200 in cash to do the Christmas prezzies. It cost us over £16 for the use - but it was so much less hassle!

Now if I can get to Halifax and find the free one....

Its in Sainsburys is our free one, dunno why its free but it is, will probally charge at some point soon I guess

UBT - Mikeejones wrote:Must admit we've used them. We collect all the change in a bottle and just before Christmas nip into Asda's to exchange it. Usually comes to around £200/£300. (It's a BIG bottle!)

Now imagine trying to sort out that lot into plastic bags, taking them to PO or bank and getting them to change them into notes.

We tried that - waited in queue with a bag of money bags (heavy as well), got to counter then spent a good 20/30 minutes while they checked for weight every bag. Of course some were overweight, some were underweight, people muttering in the background 'why don't they... whatever'. Right pain in the butt.

The next year (jeez I hate forking out 7.9% for the privalige but they got to make money I suppose) we used the machine. Just poured the coins in, gave it a few shakes. Within 5 minutes we had over £200 in cash to do the Christmas prezzies. It cost us over £16 for the use - but it was so much less hassle!

Now if I can get to Halifax and find the free one....

The alternative would be-not to let the coins pile up..pay them into an account as you go along (usually banks accept at least 5 bags) and earn interest through the year instead of paying to use your own cash (7.9% charge, interest lost say 2.5%= over £1 in 10 lost!!

Sounds fine in theory - probably what I should do but it would be so tempting to go to bank and draw it out rather than paying it in!

Going a bit off topic but this reminds me of a George Burns story...

Always famous for having a cigar wherever he was, whatever he was doing.

An interviewer was giving him a hard time and George was getting a bit miffed (he was allowed to - he was in his eighties at the time).

The interviewer was not happy about the amount of smoke coming from George's cigar.

"Do you have any idea how much you've spent on cigars?" he asked
"Haven't a clue" replies George
"Over a lifetime - it must be thousands and thousands of dollars"
"Probably right" says George
"Think of all the money you could have saved if you didn't smoke!"
"Hmm" said George "you could be right. Tell me - do you smoke?"
The interviewer straightens up and says proudly "Certainly not!"
Old George takes a long drag in his cigar and said...
"I see - and what are you going to do with all the money you have saved?"

All the machines got knicked by mine with the help of a JCB, even the telephone box got ramraided with a 4x4, but what confused me most was they flattened the flowers on the new roundabout, why bother with the flowers ?