Here’s how to get the most bang for your buck when cashing in spare change

One man really felt nan force of his accumulated coins erstwhile he yet cashed successful his Star Wars piggy bank.

In a viral Threads post, Eli Piatt (@jsun4hees) shared a photograph of his Coinstar receipt from a market shop successful Portland, Oregon, showing he walked distant pinch $597.45 aft dumping a decade of collected coins (4,945 to beryllium exact) into nan instrumentality — however, he would’ve earned moreover much if he didn’t get deed pinch a sneaky interest that supposedly could’ve been avoided.

“It took 10 years, but I yet filled my Star Wars piggy bank. Just cashed it in,” Piatt captioned nan station alongside a photograph of an itemized coin receipt.

The original stash totaled $686.61 — but acknowledgment to a $89.16 Coinstar processing fee, a chunk of his wealth didn’t make it to his wallet. 

Cashing successful 4,945 coins from a Stormtrooper helmet ended pinch a pricey crippled twist for this Threads user. Threads/jsun4hees 6d

Coinstar’s self-service kiosks — usually lurking successful market stores — fto you dump your loose alteration for cash, gift cards aliases charity.

The machines count nan coins and spit retired a voucher, but nan rate comes pinch a fee, unless you take an eGift Card, donate to a kindness aliases nonstop nan coins to a partner slope relationship instead.

Piatt told The Post that he knew he could’ve “avoided nan interest by getting a gift card,” but location were “no bully options” astatine nan store.  

Well, time off it to nan nosy bodies of societal media to measurement successful and springiness their 2 cents (no pun intended) connected different ways he could’ve avoided nan greedy fee: “You tin spell to immoderate slope and not salary nan $90 — don’t moreover person to person an account,” 1 personification pointed out.

Piatt told The Post that nan slope “is successful nan style of a Stormtrooper helmet,” and that he bought it connected his 30th day successful Disneyland, “so it’s beautiful typical to me.” AFP via Getty Images

One different chimed in, writing, “Some banks, not all, person alteration counters … unfastened an relationship pinch nan money and they will do it for free.”

Another suggested a clever hack: move coins done nan self-checkout to salary for groceries, letting nan instrumentality count for you.

Ultimately, Piatt told The Post that he learned an “expensive instruction astir reference good people and taking your time.”

“Next clip I quiet my piggy bank, I will for judge rotation nan coins myself.”

“I do wish I had taken nan clip to rotation nan coins and return them to a slope because I did not cognize nan interest would beryllium that steep,” he explained. 

Turns out, not moreover Jedi-level patience tin hit Coinstar’s acheronian broadside — though a fewer tricks pinch slope alteration counters, self-checkout coins, aliases gift-card hacks mightiness conscionable do nan job.