9 ways to get rid of the little things

1. Pay for purchases in the store

Many do not consider coins to be real money, but the law does not agree with this. Metal rounds of the Bank of Russia are unconditional means of payment, and you must accept them in exchange for a product or service.

If at the checkout they tell you: “We don’t accept such coins,” ask for a book of reviews and suggestions, write an angry message, take a picture of it and contact Rospotrebnadzor.

2. Pay for purchases at the self-service checkout

If the cash registers are equipped with coin-operated devices, you can take a bag of change with you and pay, for example, for groceries for a week. Self-service will help you avoid the scorching gaze of the salesperson. But it's better to go to the store outside rush hour in order to calmly throw hundreds of coins into the machine out of line behind you.

3. Exchange like a neighbor

Small pharmacies and shops, where they often go with cash, rather than cards, often suffer from a lack of change. You will become a welcome guest here, especially if you sort the coins in advance, making it easier for the seller to count them.

Another place suitable for exchange is the Russian Post. Here, prices often feature not only rubles, but also pennies, and this is a chance to get rid of coins of the smallest denomination. True, in the post office you may not be welcome: firstly, the employees have no time to be distracted, since there are always a lot of customers, and secondly, this is the place. But you can try, suddenly it is you who are lucky.

4. Exchange at the bank

By law, bank employees are required to exchange clients' coins. But before you run to the department, jingling with a bag of change, find out the nuances.

Some banks introduce a commission for the exchange of the entire amount or a certain number of coins. Others will offer you to pay for the service of recounting the change, and it can be safely considered imposed: you are not asking the cashier to find out the amount, the institution itself needs it.

If the conditions suit you, take care of the convenience of the exchange in advance. Sort out the little things and make a free-form statement in which you indicate:

surname, name and patronymic;
the total amount of money brought in for the exchange;
an inventory of what was brought: how many coins of which denomination are in the package.

5. Deposit into account

If the bank, under various pretexts, avoids the exchange of coins, then the employees, perhaps without pleasure, will accept the money into the account.

6. Donate to charity

It is still not necessary to pour a ten-year supply of ten-kopeck coins into the donation box. So you shift the care of exchanging money onto other people's shoulders, and it would be more honest to first transform them into bills and only then give them away.

But charitable foundations periodically organize campaigns in which they accept coins. For example, the Life Line fund for helping seriously ill children twice a year holds an event “Someone's life is no longer a trifle” and invites those who wish to bring coins to the collection point. This is the case when money that you have long forgotten about can be of real help.

7. Take to work

Place a bag of coins in your desk drawer and take change out of it when you go to buy coffee or a chocolate bar from the vending machine. The money will run out faster than you think.

8. Give a wedding planner to a friend

Traditional weddings are still in vogue and coins are in high demand. Money is buried in a pot of flowers, put in glasses and under the heel of the groom, thrown at the newlyweds. So give your supplies to a familiar bride or wedding planner. Or sell if you have an entrepreneurial streak.

9. Hand over to a special apparatus

The Coincom coin acceptance service operates in Moscow. Devices, of which there are more than 100 installed in the capital, accept and count small change, after which the money can be transferred to a phone, a bank card (from 1 thousand rubles) or to charity.

The amount that can be deposited into the device is limited to 15 thousand rubles, and for the exchange you will have to pay 11, 9% of the commission.