With the number of online /Craigslist sales happening these days, many police departments and banks are offering community room usage for transacting safety in public. This thread is to list banking perks that are less common but may be useful
I did not include notary service because, while useful, many banks limit it to signing bank documents only. Even branch to branch the policies may differ.
It is very hard to find this information consolidated anywhere online, or a list of which institutions offer the best/lowest cost services…so let’s try to use this thread to do so.
One issue is that its mainly smaller community banks and CUs that offer the services for free.
Off the top of my head, coin counting, use of free community rooms, free courier pickup service, and rent collection for landlords are 4 services which Readers would find very useful, but feel free to add other useful services. Hopefully this thread can develop into a helpful resource
FREE COIN COUNTING
Bridgeview Bank - https://bridgeviewbank.com/ - Not only that but they have a nice 5% savings account that can only be funded by coins.
They looked at me like I was crazy when I brought a small container of change to be counted and cashed. I thought it was standard that every bank had a change counting machine (all three of the small town banks I had accounts at years back did) but the Chase teller said they haven’t had one in many years. Apparently people actually pay 12% to Coinstar to deal with change? Or do they spend a similar amount on paper coin tubes, but then doesn’t the bank still have to hand count it?
She seemed to feel bad enough for me that she broke out a plastic tray for rolling coins and we counted and rolled them by hand. I left with about $12 and extreme frustration.
You mentioned leaving out notary services on purpose but that’s about the only perk I’ve used at Chase. Depending on the branch they have a notary on staff that will provide free services for customers.
I used it a couple months back to have a sole proprietorship application for my county notarized.
TD Bank provides free notary services to the public, I believe. My wife and I needed something notarized recently, and while we do have accounts there, we’re certainly not “customers” in the traditional, ongoing relationship sense. They didn’t ask us for any sort of TD “identification” such as a debit card, or what have you. The document was related to rolling over a cash balance pension my wife had, and I had to sign as her spouse, saying I agreed with the lump sum rollover.
For the small amount of coins I have, I would just take them to Coinstar and be done with it. I doubt I’ll have more than $5 or $10 worth and saving 50 cents or $1 in fees every few years isn’t worth me calling a dozen banks or opening a new account.
The bigger problem for me is that I have to make a special trip because there’s no coinstars in any of the stores I normally shop (because they tend to place them in the bottom tier supermarkets and Wal Marts, neither of which I go to). Coinstars are in the poor people stores. I’ve never seen one in a Whole Foods or Target.
If you live in an urban area, you could always just use a metro or train ticket machine as a free coinstar, albeit at the annoyance of the people in line behind you
I’m still looking for a bank to offer a free safety deposit box.
I’ve heard that Chase Private Clients can get one, but only if they have availability, which for major metro area is constantly full. I don’t really wanna sock away 250k without any guarantee that I can get one.
Nobody rolls coins anymore? All the banks I’ve gone to are fine taking my coins as long as they’re rolled. Better than having them count it in front of you since all the banks I go to always count the money 2 or 3 times. Every time I deposit coins I ask for a few coin rolls and that allows me to ladder my deposits so I don’t have to go in just for paper rolls.
I just don’t deposit coins. But I also rarely use cash, and thus rarely get actual change back. I can’t honestly remember the last time I went to a bank to deposit anything. Maybe a few years ago when I sold a car, because the check was over $15k or something and NFCU needed it to be in person for it to not have a 10 day hold, or something like that. But if I could have deposited that via the mobile app, I would have.
Doesn’t Coinstar give Amazon giftcards with no fees? They did last time I used one, admittedly it was years ago. At least in my family, an Amazon giftcard is as good as cash.
It’s not quite as good as cash. It’s 95% to 98% as good as cash depending on what your base rewards credit card is. Amazon Prime card is 5% cash back or a 5% office card that is used to buy an Amazon GC from Staples/Office Max. A basic 2% cash back card is something most of us have.
It’s close to as good as cash, but not quite and it’s important to understand the distinction.
Next time you’re at the bank, ask for paper coin tubes. As far as I know, all banks give them out free. Dollar Tree also sells bags of them for, of course, $1. Then roll the coins yourself and take them to the bank. Most banks near me eliminated the change machines. They are somewhat expensive to maintain and there have been lawsuits because they don’t always count 100% accurately.
What if I were to go to a bank with my change in a ziploc bag, and fill out a deposit slip with a random dollar amount on it. Isn’t the task of verifying the amount on them?
In my area, Walmart and Kroger self-checkout kiosks accept loose coins. It may not be 100% optimal due to lost CC rewards but it sure is an easy way to get rid of change. I pay the balance with CC of course.
That sounds like such a (firstworldproblem) hassle. Who wants to sit there depositing coins just to get rid of them? I’d rather leave them in my pocket until I hit the car, then toss them in the cupholder. Then, once I do my quick monthly gum wrapper/coin removal and floormat shake out, I bring them in and toss them in a jar.
