The ultimate guide to hacking a CoinStar machine
I’ve been running out of money lately so I have been thinking about going to Albertson’s (local Grocery store) to redeem all my hard earned dimes and pennies.
Here’s a hack that let’s you get your paper cash back without paying for the 9%… (Well, this is informational purposes only, do not use unless you are broke like me and about to end up on the streets)
This is really quite simple. Follow the directions as usual, but when it asks how you would like your money, make sure to pick the iTunes gift card. After it counts all of your change, the machine will ask you how much of your money you want as a gift card and how much you want as cash. Go ahead and set it all to gift card. Now, before proceeding, you need to find a way to unplug the phone jack from the back of the machine. I’m lucky because the wall phone jack for my local CoinStar is at about shoulder height right next to the machine.
Now the poor machine is in quite a pickle. It already has all of your change, and it can’t give that back to you. It can’t give you an iTunes card either. It could give you cash, but it’s not going to lay that 9% fee on because you obviously didn’t agree to that when you put your change in the machine. What can it do? Give you cash for FREE. After a few minutes of trying, it will simply give up and just give you a slip which can be redeemed for cash at the store customer service counter.














