How to exchange your pennies for dollars at banks
Banking companies have different penny exchange policies, so you need to be clear on how to exchange your pennies if you wish to do so; we will also show you other exchange options.
Let’s face it: how many of us despise coins and pennies, collect them, put them away, and when we least realize it, we’ve collected a few extra dollars? The problem with having an endless supply of coins in cash is that it is difficult to use them in stores. It may seem easy to change them at a bank, but unfortunately, not all of them do it for free or at a low rate.
The best way to exchange your pennies at a bank is to go to a local bank or credit union. The vast majority of these relatively smaller financial institutions than the large corporate ones offer to exchange coins of any denomination for bills for free.
“More banks are actively seeking coin depositories to help meet demand in their branches and among their retail customers who rely on coins for transactions,” Steve Kenneally, senior vice president of payments at the American Bankers Association, told Bankrate.
Many large corporate banks have phased out their coin-counting services in recent years. On the other hand, regional banks or credit unions that offer coin exchange at no cost to customers. There may be a small fee for non-customers to use the bank’s coin counting services.
“Different banks have different coin acceptance policies,” Kenneally notes. “Some accept rolled coins and some accept loose coins for processing through a coin counting machine. If they have a machine, loose coins are generally preferred.”
However, it’s also important to change your perspective on hoarded pennies as worthless. Their value remains and in aggregate they can be used to make normal purchases just as you would with any cash. The point is that there are establishments that will value exchanging your coins for bills or simply accepting them as a form of payment. We recommend rolling your pennies so that you complete denominations that are easier to count such as $1 dollar and up.
Some companies have coin exchange services such as:
- Wawa
- CVS
- Hannaford
- Kroger
- Ralphs
- Walmart
- Meijer
- Safeway
- Winn-Dixie.
Even before you exchange or occupy them, we can recommend that you do a thorough search in your sea of pennies. Evaluate what kind of coins you have, because they could be worth a few thousand dollars, in some cases up to $200,000 dollars.