EDMONTON - As banks try to outdo each other in an escalating battle for new business, BMO Bank of Montreal is offering a new high-tech way for people to turn bulging piggy banks, penny jars and change purses into cash.
The bank is rolling out free coin-counting machines in all its new branches, and in select remodelled locations.
While St. Albert’s Mission Hills branch received one of the machines in the summer, Edmonton now has a do-it-yourself coin counter at the Oliver Square branch, which held its grand opening on Saturday.
“Customers love the fact that they don’t have to roll their loose change anymore,” said branch manager Patrick Dorey.
“It’s one of those things, you don’t realize how much loose change you have in your home until you come into a branch and drop it off and I don’t know about you, but I hate wrapping coins.”
Users empty their coins into a receptacle on top of the machine — which is about the size of a compact washing machine. It counts coins at a rate of up to 4,100 per minute and shows a running tally on a viewing screen. It prints a receipt for the total which can be exchanged for cash or deposited into the user’s BMO account.
The machine is free of charge to use and available for non-BMO customers as well.
“Customers love it, because it’s new and different,” Dorey said. “I had a customer here yesterday who had $2,400 in loose change that they had been collecting for years and they had no idea what to do with it. They actually came to the branch, dropped it all in and they deposited it into a savings account for their daughter’s university fund.”
BMO announced in April it was putting free coin counting machines in all of its new branches and in select remodelled locations. The bank said transaction fees for similar services can run above nine per cent of the total.
So far, there are 48 coin counters across the country with more coming in 2012, said BMO spokeswoman Laurie Grant.
Grant said the counters have been so popular that people phone the bank to find branches that offer one.
The gadgets are the latest wrinkle in a growing competition for storefront customers that has seen banks staying open longer in the day and on weekends. Banks, such as BMO’s Oliver Square branch, are also changing the layout of their locations to make bankers more accessible and visible to the public, and customers dealing with tellers no longer have to stand.
The bank is rolling out free coin-counting machines in all its new branches, and in select remodelled locations.
While St. Albert’s Mission Hills branch received one of the machines in the summer, Edmonton now has a do-it-yourself coin counter at the Oliver Square branch, which held its grand opening on Saturday.
“Customers love the fact that they don’t have to roll their loose change anymore,” said branch manager Patrick Dorey.
“It’s one of those things, you don’t realize how much loose change you have in your home until you come into a branch and drop it off and I don’t know about you, but I hate wrapping coins.”
Users empty their coins into a receptacle on top of the machine — which is about the size of a compact washing machine. It counts coins at a rate of up to 4,100 per minute and shows a running tally on a viewing screen. It prints a receipt for the total which can be exchanged for cash or deposited into the user’s BMO account.
The machine is free of charge to use and available for non-BMO customers as well.
“Customers love it, because it’s new and different,” Dorey said. “I had a customer here yesterday who had $2,400 in loose change that they had been collecting for years and they had no idea what to do with it. They actually came to the branch, dropped it all in and they deposited it into a savings account for their daughter’s university fund.”
BMO announced in April it was putting free coin counting machines in all of its new branches and in select remodelled locations. The bank said transaction fees for similar services can run above nine per cent of the total.
So far, there are 48 coin counters across the country with more coming in 2012, said BMO spokeswoman Laurie Grant.
Grant said the counters have been so popular that people phone the bank to find branches that offer one.
The gadgets are the latest wrinkle in a growing competition for storefront customers that has seen banks staying open longer in the day and on weekends. Banks, such as BMO’s Oliver Square branch, are also changing the layout of their locations to make bankers more accessible and visible to the public, and customers dealing with tellers no longer have to stand.
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