When Jason Edsall went into a Charter One branch in the Coventry Township Acme on Dec. 29 to deposit money, including about $150 in coins, he was dumbfounded when he was told the rolled coins wouldn't be accepted.
A teller told Edsall that the bank didn't have room in its vault for the rolled coins and he should take them to another branch.
``I said, `Wait. This is a bank, isn't it?' '' Edsall recalled.
The teller said the branch is a nontraditional branch in the grocery store and couldn't accept the coins. Edsall said the rolled coins were mostly quarters and fit in a small bag.
Edsall said he needed the money in his account to pay bills, but because he had a lot of errands to run, he decided not to make a big deal about it.
But he bumped into his mother, Darlene Toth, in the parking lot. Toth, also a Charter One customer, couldn't believe the bank wouldn't accept the rolled coins, so she went into the branch with him. When a manager told her the same thing, Toth was so incensed she threatened to close her accounts. Toth said the manager didn't change her mind and handed her a withdrawal slip.
``It's not like he brought in a garbage bag full of pennies,'' Toth said of her son. ``I don't understand it.''
Toth is so upset about how she and her son were treated that she's switching banks.
Charter One spokeswoman Carrie Carpenter said she could not discuss a specific incident, but said the bank erred in refusing the rolled coins. ``There was a mistake made at the branch. We accept rolled coins at all times. The (grocery store branches) do have small vaults and limited space, but there's still not any reason why they should not have accepted the rolled coins,'' Carpenter said.
Edsall's experience begs the question of what to do with loose change.
It used to be that you could take your jar full of loose coins or a kid's piggy bank in and watch the tellers pour the coins into a machine that counted the money for free.
But nowadays, most banks give you the sleeves to roll the coins yourself. Or you can go to a grocery store that has a Coinstar machine, which charges a processing fee of 8.9 percent if you want the cash back. (Coinstar machines also have a free option if you want to turn your loose change into a gift card from some retailers, including Starbucks,
Amazon.com, Borders and iTunes).
Check with your bank or financial institution about its policies regarding loose and rolled coins.
At National City branches in Akron, customers can deposit rolled coins, but loose coins are not accepted, said spokeswoman Kelly Wagner Amen.
National City and Charter One do not have limits on how many rolled coins you can deposit, their spokeswomen said.
But some banks do still take loose coins.
Valley Savings Bank in Cuyahoga Falls and Stow will take customers' loose change and roll it in its machine, said Ann H. Durr, president and chief operating officer.
Durr said she doesn't know if her bank is unique in continuing to offer free services for loose change, but she said she knows of some banks that have begun charging fees to accept loose change.
``It's so weird, but people really appreciate it,'' Durr said. ``I don't think anyone necessarily chose Valley Savings because we have a coin machine, but it fits in with our philosophy'' of taking care of customers.
Durr said tellers will ask customers who deposit coins they have put in a sleeve to label it with their name and address, just in case there's too much or too little money in the sleeve.
As for Edsall, he still hasn't deposited his rolled coins. He received another check in the mail a few days early, so he deposited that money to pay his bills.
But after the branch workers refused his rolled coins, he walked over to a counter at the grocery store and asked a clerk if he could buy lottery tickets with rolled coins. She told him she couldn't take all of them, but he bought $30 worth of lottery tickets with rolled coins.
He won $23.
Posted 01/09/2007 05:37 am
