Coinstar Begins Rollout of PayPal Functionality

BELLEVUE, Wash. -- Coinstar, a provider of self-service, coin-counting kiosks, now offers a new feature at select kiosks that enables consumers to securely add coins and paper currency into or withdraw funds from their PayPal account.

The rollout began this month in Texas, northern California and Ohio, and will continue at select kiosks throughout the year. This new functionality also allows users to send money to another PayPal account.

"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.

"We're delighted to work with Coinstar to enable our users to transact anytime, anywhere and in any way," added Dan Schatt, head of financial innovations at PayPal.

Coins and paper currency added via the 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, according to the companies.

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 and worldwide.