The Reluctant Return to Cash
For columnist Adrian Chiles, a simple journey to his local station car park triggered an unexpected and costly return to the world of physical money. The ticket machines, which had previously accepted card payments, suddenly declared that cash was king. This presented an immediate problem: finding the necessary pound coins.
His initial solution was clever. He withdrew a ten-pound note, bought a coffee, and carefully saved the five-pound note change for the parking fee. This worked for a single day. The very next morning, the machine had extended its rejection to paper money, accepting only coins. After a desperate plea over the intercom granted him mercy, Chiles realised the pound coin had been crowned king of kings.
The Desperate Hunt for Pound Coins
Faced with this new coin-only regime, Chiles embarked on a mission. He began making purchases, sometimes for items he didn't truly need, with the specific goal of acquiring pound coins in his change. His frustration grew, compounded by the belief that as a council-run facility, a swift resolution was unlikely.
His efforts led him to a community event, which was interesting but secondary to the real prize: the handful of pound coins he received after paying with a twenty-pound note. When this supply proved insufficient, he turned to the large jar of miscellaneous change by his door. The haul was disappointing, containing coins from many countries and the odd battery, but crucially, no pound coins.
The Coinstar Shock: A Costly Convenience
This is when Chiles remembered the coin machine in the corner of his local Sainsbury's. He filled his pockets with the assorted 'shrapnel' and headed to the machine, operated by a company called Coinstar. He assumed it was a simple swap: coins in, notes or pound coins out.
He was in for a shock. The machine revealed it charges a 39p transaction fee plus an 11.75% processing fee if you want cash back. If you opt to donate the money to charity, the fee is still 8.9%. Chiles was baffled. His central question became: if you are frugal enough to save your small change, why on earth would you pay someone to count it for you?
His research revealed that Coinstar processed more than a billion coins in Western Europe in 2019 alone. Despite his curiosity, attempts to question users of the machines were thwarted by suspicious security staff. In the end, Adrian Chiles refused to participate. He has instead resorted to sorting his change into one-pound piles by the door, spending it slowly and deliberately, having learned an expensive lesson about the true cost of convenience.
