Times are tough and every penny counts. This was one of many thoughts I had sitting on the couch as I spammed 30 Rock on Stan this past weekend. I felt like I needed to do something a little more productive with my time, and how could I turn that time into money? My answer was sitting in a silver jewelry box on the kitchen bench filled with currency shrapnel - find all the coins I have laying around my apartment and turn them into easy-to-use money.
30 minutes later I hoarded a little gold and silver pile that a dragon would be proud of and started counting. I couldn’t believe the “free” money I had laying around my home. The “useless currency” amounted to over $100 and my first thought was “that’s a weeks’ worth of groceries!”. But it was the weekend and no banks were open…so how could I swap my spare change for easy-to-use currency?
Bing! Light bulb moment, VISA gift cards! Did you know that the self-serve counter at Coles has no coin limit?! Well, you do now. These are the steps to take when turning your coins into a VISA gift card.
Step 1 – Count your money
Determine exactly how much money you have. You want to be sure the machine doesn’t take your hard-earned money and this will determine the card amount you will need to purchase.
Step 2 – Pick your VISA card
Here is the catch, when you purchase a VISA gift card, there is an extra fee attached with the card. If you want to purchase a $100 gift card, there is an extra $7.95 fee attached to it. So the total amount for the card is now $107.95. Make sure you pick the highest possible amount you can afford to avoid extra fees.
Step 3 – Fill your card with your coin cash
Go to the self-serve section at Coles and start loading up your card with coins, just click cash as the payment option.
And you’re done! The great thing about these cards is you can use them to pay for online purchases. If you have any other money hacks, please share them below in the comments section. Happy shopping =].