Coinstar Begins Rollout of PayPal Functionality

Coinstar, a provider of self-service coin-counting kiosks, has added a new feature to select kiosks that enables consumers to securely add coins and paper currency into or withdraw funds from their PayPal account, as well as send money to another PayPal account. The rollout began this month in Texas, Northern California and Ohio and will continue at select kiosks throughout the year.

"PayPal on Coinstar exemplifies how we continue to empower consumers to change what they have into what they want," said Mike Skinner, president of Coinstar's Coin business. "From the convenience of a grocery store, consumers can turn their coins and paper currency into digital spending power anywhere PayPal is accepted."

Coinstar and PayPal conducted a test of the new service in the Dallas metropolitan area last year and quickly saw adoption and interest from users. Initial test results revealed that 40 percent of users who accessed PayPal through a Coinstar kiosk went back to use the feature again an average of two times per month.

As the worlds of online and traditional brick and mortar commerce continue to converge, consumers are increasingly embracing PayPal as a convenient and secure payment solution. "We're delighted to work with Coinstar to enable our users to transact anytime, anywhere and in any way," said Dan Schatt, head of financial innovations at PayPal. "PayPal on Coinstar kiosks provide customers with a convenient way to add coins and paper currency to their PayPal account and spend their money anywhere PayPal is accepted."

Coins and paper currency added via select Coinstar kiosks are quickly available in PayPal accounts and can be spent online or in retailer stores where PayPal is accepted. Customers can add up to $500 using coins and paper money to a PayPal account each calendar month. Coinstar's standard coin-counting fee of 9.8 percent applies when coins are added to a PayPal account. When using paper money, a $3 fee applies for transactions up to $300 and a $6 fee applies for transactions over $300. The fees for loading cash are among the lowest in the highly competitive prepaid market. Withdrawals are limited to $500 in a calendar month and $200 per day; each withdrawal incurs a $3 fee.

Coinstar has approximately 20,300 coin-counting locations in the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, Ireland and the United Kingdom. Coinstar kiosks process about 50 billion coins a year, amounting to approximately $3 billion.