Coinstar Getting More Love from PayPal

When we think of counting coins PayPal isn’t the first thing that comes to mind. Yet PayPal and Coinstar continue to strengthen their relationship, announcing on Wednesday the expansion of PayPal supported Coinstar machines.

If you are unfamiliar with Coinstar the platform has traditionally worked by counting a customers coins and then printing a receipt which can be exchanged for cash at a stores register. Now the company is testing machines in Texas, Northern California, and Ohio which turns that money into PayPal cash.

Not only can customers add money to their PayPal account, they can also withdrawal cash already held in their PayPal account.

The new Coinstar machines also allow PayPal users to send the money they deposit via spare change to other PayPal users.

PayPal over the last year has been desperately attempting to expand its system outside of the internet. PayPal Here allows business operators to accept payments from mobile devices and the company’s payment platform is even offered at Home Depot, Jamba Juice and other major US retailers.

In early testing in the Dallas metro area PayPal and Coinstar claim that 40 percent of users who try the PayPal feature use it more than one time. In fact the average person visits the Coinstar machine twice a month.

As PayPal continues to fight against an onslaught of new competition from the likes of Square, Google Wallet, and others, its best chance at future success will be to make the platform ubiquitous with online and offline payment processing.

Along with the Coinstar partnership PayPal recently announced plans to build new PayPal supported credit card machines with the help of major manufacturers including NCR. PayPal has also recently signed a partnership with the Gilbarco Veeder-Root’s point-of-sale system which services convenience stores and gas stations.

The real question at the heart of PayPal’s new integration practices will be whether or not customers will trust the payment platform with their finances. Over the years PayPal has become notorious for suspending accounts with little to no notice, causing customers to complain en masse. In recent memory PayPal has attempted to better its systems to ensure smoother transactions for customers.

Would you be willing to use PayPal for more transactions if the option was made available to you? What do you think of the Coinstar partnership with PayPal?

[Image via coinstarinc]