New bank fee on returning coins

So, what you're saying is that everyone really does like half-dollars -- we just need to get the cents and nickels out of the way.

My point was about what people actually want today, which apparently includes nickels and cents, but not halves and dollar coins.

If you think that all the cashiers are Doing It Wrong, that's fine, but it doesn't look like many people agree with you. Heck, I'd love to see $5, $10 and $20 coins come back -- I just don't expect it.

 

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Yes, but looking into it briefly
the Local Fed Reserve/Branches obtains currency from the main Federal Reserve
The Local Fed Reserves distribute to Banks or Brinks/Loomis
Small banks/CUs can get their money from Large banks or Brinks/Loomis


I should take a tour of the local one sometime ==> https://www.chicagofed.org/education/money-museum/branch-visitor-center/index

 

Pennies will disappear when items no longer have a odd cent price, such as $1.99 or $1.49. And sales taxes etc calculate even amounts too.

Let's not forget currency conversion. That happens a lot around here with the intermingle of US & Canadian currency.

 

Yes, I know the difference, however the Cash Management firms contract is with the Fed to provide the service the Fed used to do directly, so I used it as shorthand.

 

Meanwhile, since we no longer have half-cents, our state sales tax of 4.75% clearly doesn't exist. Neither do all the gas stations advertising prices of $2.099 per gallon.

We're already rounding prices. We're rounding them to a unit that's been trivial for decades. Worrying about rounding up or down by two cents today is like worrying about rounding by a tenth of a cent in 1917.

From a purchasing-power point of view, it's wasteful to have anything smaller than a quarter. But, as we've demonstrated for at least the last 30 years, Americans don't want to give up their trivial cents.

 

Actually, you are quietly starting to see businesses do this, but by rounding in the customers favor 100% of the time, they aren't getting any pushback.

I paid for lunch, $11.26 with a $20 and received $8.75 in change (the receipt says the correct 8.74).

And I've see cases where the $11.24 cost would have gotten me $8.80 in change, rather than break a roll of cents to give me the right $8.76...


And this is happening more and more. Start watching your change, I'll be interested in seeing if other areas are doing this too.

 

I mostly pay in cash and see this sometimes. But more often than not around here it's exact change.

It's actually cheaper to pay by cash instead of debit/credit. I wonder, if at some point people will notice this and opt for cash payments instead. Cash also makes it cheaper for the vendor as they don't have to pay the debit/CC transaction fees.

 

I have felt, that since the restaurant has to pay 2%, 3%, 5% for credit card purchases (grocery stores too), they should give you a 1% discount for using cash.
By using cash they are making more money off of you. Where if you use a CC, it is costing you the same as cash if you pay your monthly balance. And they are making less.

 

For a long time, credit-card companies had language forbidding this in their contracts. I think this was finally overturned in the courts, but by now the "one price for all" behavior is entrenched at most merchants.

I resented this because I was happy to pay cash, but was forced to subsidize the credit-card companies by paying the same higher prices as credit-card users. Then I "joined them" by getting a card with cash-back rewards.

For certain purchases I'd be happy to pay a credit-card surcharge (for purchase protection or extended warranty coverage).

 

Banks don't order coins from the FED they are ordered from the coin terminal operators, such as Loomis, Fargo, etc. The CTOps send info to the FED as far as volume and need and the FED places the order to have the mints crank coins out.

https://www.federalreserve.gov/paymentsystems/coin_about.htm

As I understand it a bank is charged a flat fee for delivery by the CTOps, not per box. I ask the manager or vault custodian to add a box or two of halves to their already scheduled order and when they come in I have 2 days to pick them up or they send them back. I don't bring them back as a bucket or box of coins I reroll them in the same wrappers they came to me in. Given this scenario how can what I'm doing be costing the bank anything more than the time my two visits took? With the heavy usage of online banking much of their brick and mortar operations overhead has transferred to server space that doesn't need vacation time, sick leave, health insurance, etc. So I feel given the technology shift the banks have been making out for a while; they may just have to deal with not raking in the flow they have been for another 5-8, maybe 10, years.

 

The credit card surcharges really became an issue out in California during the 1980s when petrol companies like Atlantic Richfield started giving cash discounts. When I was out there a few years ago I saw that at least where I was cash discounts were quite common - so was pre-paying for petrol.

 

I've used this mentality to get many abdiscount at pawn shops when buying Bullion or coin. I always argue that if I swipe my card they lose 3% off the top. If that 3% discount doesn't pan out I offer to meet in the middle and get at least that. Savings is savings.

 

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People like what they are used to using. Cashers do what they are told to do.

The resistance to halves and dollars is caused by the business community which refuses to round prices to the nearest dime, and give out halves and dollars, and shove the paper dollars in the safe - instead of the halves and dollars.

There is a difference between what people say they want and what people actually do. If people wanted pennies and nickels, why do businesses have pennies and nickels in 'free' containers??? The answer is that they don't want pennies and nickels... businesses are forcing them on the customers.

Old people who remember when a penny bought a piece of candy complain more than the Millennials who throw pennies and nickels at each other for fun and refuse to pick them up off the ground because it's not worth their effort.

There are business who round up and don't use pennies. You just don't hear about them because they aren't newsworthy.

Also... people (in general) stopped collecting current US circulation coins way back in the 1980s. The same time that I stopped.

The people in charge of the US Mint insist upon keeping pennies and nickels against the popular consensus because the mint does not have to answer to the general public directly. The general public would like a smaller half dollar. The mint could care less. The general public hates the current coin designs with presidents on them. The mint could care less.

Cause and effect. The general public has little power to change what the mint produces and how businesses price products and services. You are looking at the situation backwards.

 

The general public doesn't care in the slightest about half dollars or the designs on coins. They want their quarters, their paper money, and a place to dump everything else. (Okay, some of them keep track of dimes too.)