Coinstar Customers Can Now Add Cash To Their Amazon Balance

Coinstar announced Wednesday (May 16) that customers can now add cash to their Amazon balance by using Amazon Cash at select Coinstar kiosks around the country.

In a press release, Coinstar said customers who want to spend cash on Amazon via Coinstar have to associate their phone number to their Amazon account. To begin a transaction at a cash-accepting kiosk, the customer would select Cash Services, then select Amazon Cash, enter their phone number and insert bills – between $5 and $500 – into the cash acceptor on the kiosk.

After that, an Amazon gift card is automatically purchased and added to the customer’s Amazon balance. The customer can then immediately use that amount to purchase items on Amazon.com or affiliated properties. There is no fee to use the service at Coinstar kiosks.

“We’re excited to team up with Amazon and give shoppers an easy and convenient way to add cash to their Amazon balance,” said Jim Gaherity, CEO of Coinstar. “Coinstar is proud to enable Amazon Cash at Coinstar kiosks for cash-preferring customers, who can now enjoy the same benefits of shopping online as any other customer. Best of all, there are no fees to use the service.”

According to the company, Coinstar kiosks are located in high-traffic retail locations, such as grocery stores and mass merchants. The company expects to have about 5,000 kiosks enabled by the end of the year that will accept money from Amazon Cash customers.

The rollout is starting Wednesday at select grocery stores in the northeast.

In April, Coinstar announced it had partnered with startup doxo to enable its coin-counting kiosks to offer a bill pay service. Consumers can now use cash to pay bills – including utilities, phone, cable, insurance, car loans and more – at up to 7,000 kiosks by the end of 2018, choosing from doxo’s directory of more than 45,000 local and national billers.