I had a bank account we closed out at the end of a quarter. Supposedly, the interest was applied and the account closed. Next quarter we get a statement that says there is 2 cents in it. I called them and told them to keep the change. They couldn't do that, nor could they send us money from a closed account. It took almost a year to get that resolved.
I had something similar happen maybe 15 years ago. I had some stock (in my name) that I was transferring to brokerage account. Apparently just after the transfer was made I received a dividend payment. It was only a couple dollars, and I never got around to taking it out. This account was set to reinvest dividends. The stock did well over time, and now that account has around $1k in it!
I've been told that Canada has even phased out the penny in their monetary system.
Slightly off topic but around here a lot of store have a "leave a penny, take a penny" at their cash registers. It amazes me how many dimes and quarters I see in those. I'm cheap; all of my change goes into a jar, several times per year I will roll it and drop it into my savings account. Or else I might buy something that I want;
The U.S. keeps rumbling about discontinuing the penny too, but they always back down under protest.
I do the same thing you do with change...throw it in a jar (actually 2 jars...one for pennies, another for everything else) and when the jar gets full-ish cash it in. Surprising how all that change adds up!
At least around here, banks won't accept loose change, it's got to be rolled and marked with name & account #. More bother than it's worth IMHO.
Long gone are the days when they have change sorting machines.
I just use the Coinstar machines at the supermarket or Walmart. If you get your payment in cash they'll keep 8 or 9%, but you'll get full value if you get a gift card. I generally go with an Amazon card (well, technically not a card, just a receipt with an ID#).
Beware though...some of those machines choke on half dollars or Susan B Anthony dollar coins...guess there aren't enough in circulation to be bothered with so they're not programmed to recognize them, but they don't kick them back out either. :smiley_aafz:
One thing I got stuck with about 10 years ago was a couple rolls of N.H. toll booth tokens. I don't use the toll roads very often, but there was a sizeable discount if you used them, and they only sold them by the roll. The state rather abruptly decided they weren't going to accept them anymore...only gave 30 days or so from the announcement before they didn't work anymore, and they wouldn't give refunds. I used a few of them anyway and ignored the alarms and got away with it but somewhere I still have a bunch.
