Do you count the change before you redeem it? That is a huge time-suck for me, and I hate doing it.

Also, I feel really bad for the cashiers that are unlucky enough to have all that change dumped on them and are forced to count it all. Some banks have change counting machines, but surprisingly, many don't and the change is still counted by hand while you wait.

Are you serious? If you take it to the bank, they have change counting machines. Depending on how much you bring in, it takes about 1-5 minutes for the machine to count. In the US we have a company called CoinStar that has kiosks in every major grocery store chain which does the same thing. They take a small percentage, but we're talking about coins here, so it's probably less than a dollar per transaction.

CoinStar’s fee is 11.9%, according to their website[1] - I wouldn’t call that small.

[1] http://www.coinstar.com/HelpCenter

Not small by percentage, but the cost for the time saved is small. Might cost you $15 to save 2 hours or more.

Of course, just take it to the bank and they'll do it for you for free.

I've taken change to banks that didn't have change counting machines. The tellers counted the change by hand. I was shocked.

If you get bags for change (like shops use) and split everything by denomination and amount it makes it a little easier.

ha .. same here .. once a year on 'weltspartag' i gift this money to the kids and they split it up.

also i use it to get some change for the occasional buns