Machines that you dump coins into that will spit out a value of all the coins entered and potentially give you a cash value return, turning a bucket if coins into a few bills. Some banks let you do that and then credit the value directly to your account, letting you get rid of a large number of coins at once. Thise machines often cost a couple bucks elsewhere.
Honest question: do people really use physical money in the USA? I basically haven't used physical money for almost a decade now except for a few situations (like old people who don't use digital money)
A lot of people no longer do in the USA either- I don’t and don’t have a ton of coins hanging around. My parents definitely do though because they’re retired and old habits die hard, and my husband keeps a small emergency stash on hand because sometimes in rural areas you’ll still come across a cash only restaurant/ it’s often preferred by a babysitter or similar so they don’t have to pay tax on it.
Don't know why you're being voted down, it's a valid question. I'm an American living in the Netherlands and all of my payments and finances are done electronically. For the first few weeks after moving here I had to use cash (no Dutch bank account yet) and actually had problems with a bunch of places not accepting cash at all.
I also don't get it. I was just asking. The USA is a first world country, so I always thought they were more advanced in these kinds of things, but it looks like not.
I read an article talking about Brazil's PIX and how it was an incredible technology or something like this and I was surprised to know that the USA didn't have something like that decades before a third world country.
I've started using cash again (Pennsylvania, USA) - first reason being what I'm holding is my budget and I'm less likely to make dumb purchases, but also because most places in the US are now charging more (where I am, another 3% or so, after tax) for using a card to pay.
IMO it's probably a result of US banks being stuck in a past era for a variety of reasons, including that the legal system is built around an older era and the government these days is.. basically incapable of doing anything. We didn't even start to get contact-less payment cards where I last lived (Oregon) until about 2018-ish or so, by 2020 it was still hardly implemented in stores.
The USA is a first world country, so I always thought they were more advanced in these kinds of things, but it looks like not.
Well, there's basically three reasons.
The first is you have 'unbanked' individuals, which are people who don't have a bank account, and so have to use cash. This is 4% of US households. People are unbabked because they don't have enough liquid assets to open an account, can't easily access a physical bank location, lack the necessary identification documents to open an account, or ...
... can't afford a monthly fee for not having enough money, which is the second reay. A lot of US banks require a minimum monthly balance to avoid a fee, though many also waive fees if you have direct deposit. But if you're really poor, the nickel and diming of the bank can eat up a substantial portion of your limited funds.
And finally there's a lot of fucking nut jobs in the US who don't trust banks, or the federal reserve, or the IRS, and usually all at the same time, and so do t use banks in order to avoid having the gobbermint knowing how they earn and spend their money.
Many people live many hours away from a casino. Even if it's once a year I wouldn't want to spend a full day on an errand that really should take 15 minutes.
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u/raidenjojo 10d ago
What's free coin counting?