BELLEVUE, Wash. — Coinstar, the multinational company probably best known to many credit unions as the manufacturer of stand-alone coin counting machines, is rolling out some innovations designed to make the machines even more attractive to credit unions.

"We have been listening extensively to our current credit union partners and have worked very hard to incorporate their suggestions and feedback into our new machines and innovations," said Alex Camara, senior vice president with the firm that has branches in the U.S. and the United Kingdom. Approximately 50 credit unions in the U.S. currently have Coinstar coin counting machines in their main or branch lobbies, Camara said, and the firm hopes the most recent evolution in its product and service will lengthen the list. The two innovations are the ability of a credit union to have members who use the Coinstar machines in its lobbies deposit money directly into their CU accounts and the development of machines especially designed to fit the needs of CU lobby spaces. Now if a credit union member uses one of the Coinstar machines, they have to take the receipt the machine spits out at the end of the transaction to a teller. The teller then deposits it or gives all or part of it back as cash. But by partnering with the STAR ATM and EFT network, credit union members will be able to use their ATM cards and personal identification numbers to deposit the coins the machine counts directly into their own accounts, bypassing the teller entirely. Camara sees this innovation cutting the time needed for the transactions in CUs that already use the machines and offering another incentive for CUs that don't use them. "We have heard from many credit unions that their members and their staff tremendously appreciate the Coinstar in the lobby," Camara explained. "The members like it because they can deposit their change without having to roll it themselves or have other members in line giving them the evil eye about the coins they are depositing. The back office staff loves not having to deal with coin deposits any more."

The second innovation Coinstar has made is to the machines themselves. The new models have a significantly smaller footprint, Camara said, and the company has made big strides in quieting their noise.