I've just made some piles of change I had and got about £200 worth surprisingly, now whats the best way to pay this into my account do I have to do it the old fashioned way with those crappy little plastic bags or can I go in with it in bulk and they'll do it for me.

I've got coins separated into big piles?

Plastic bags is the best way I think.
Sainsburys (i think) has a machine that counts it for u and gives u notes but it takes a commission.

Yeah I know some supermarkets have machines but I don't to lose any of my pennies after saving them up 😀

Most banks won't take it loose, but should supply the bags (some banks will take it in envelopes etc, as long as it's split the same way as the coin bags would be, which means-

£2 £20
£1 £29
50p £10
20p £10
10p £5
5p £5
2p £1
1p £1

And don't mix it up within bags, ie bags of 1ps or 2ps but not both.

If you want easy, go to a coin machine, if you want maximum payout do it yourself.

Some HSBC branches have coin counting machines that pay directly into you account with no commission. Need an account with them though.

Just nip to supermarket and do your weekly shop at the self service till and pay all the coins in the slot.

if you have loads of ones and twos you could be there a while

Those coinstar machines are a rip off (7%+ IIRC). your best bet is to take it to a bar or restaurant or shop. they always want change, especially silver (copper not so much!). take the pennies to your bank (£5 max p/d usually)

5quid max!!! what the hell it'd take me half a year 😀

if its all copper then maybe the Coinstar machines are a better option but for silver you should be able to shift it quite easily without it costing you to change into bigger denominations

Ive got roughly

£80 in 1pounds
£35 in 50p
£45 in 20p
£30 in 10p
£20 in 5p

£10er in 1 and 2's

I want to do it in a oner really 🙁

Most banks have a 5 bags per day policy, to stop the people behind you in the queue killing you and dragging your mangled and disfigured body through the streets.

Next time you are given bad service when trying to buy something pricey locally, you know what to do: Pop home, pick up your change and pop back, ensuring you deal with exactly the same person who was previously unpleasant to you. It'll make their day.

My local barclays will change up to about £300 in change no problem, And i don't even have an account with them.

If out with HSBC they often have machines where you can pay in for free. If not, most banks have limits on the number of bags so you it might take a while to pay it all in (although you could get rid of the copppers that way, and then slowly spend the rest 😛
+1 for taking to a shop, I know we quite often run out of change (once you're out of pounds everything goes down very quickly as you have to give small coins out instead!)

take small child* with you and tell bank that its out of his/her piggy bank.

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*young enough not to speak up saying "no its not!"

my local Bank of Scotland had a machine ten years ago…I thought they all had them now.

£80 in 1pounds
£35 in 50p

You should be a bit more fussy about what you throw in your change pot, mine is only Pennnies, 2's and fives, everything else gets spent.

It's a ballache when you have a massive pot of change and it's only worth a tenner though, however the coinstar commission doesn't hurt so much then…

I just took a couple of months using mine on my morning coffee, the girl eventually got use to me paying that way.

How did all this change build up anyway – over what period of time?

My Cocky mate thought it would be a good idea when traveling down the Payage in france to count all the slag we had accumulated and give it to the man at the payment booth .

Oh how we laughed when he kept us there for 10 mins while he counted it very slowly
and the folks in the cars behind got all angry and hooting at us .

take it to an amusement arcade and either try and gamble it up to a decent amount or just loiter for a bit looking busy on the fruit machines before cashing it in..

this suggestion seems almost viz-like in it's simplicity!

surely pound coins and 50/20ps will be easy just to spend. Not really change per se just smaller denominations.
Change is "shrapnel" i.e. 1/2/5/10p
just spend the bigger stuff as usual and change the smaller. its like saying "I only carry £20 notes therefore i will put my £5 and £10 into a "change" pot"

I thought you could just put them in bags, get them weighed and that's that 😐

Surely they don't have to count it all out.

Got 2 jumbo jars of 1p & 2p coins that I've had for 10 years since I quit the country. Was gonna write rude words on them with cilit bang and post them all into some kind of amusement arcade next time I'm back over. Then take all the shiny new winnings to get them cashed up into something sensible.

Also got shed loads of 1 & 2 euro cent coins – I reckon it'll take me about 1 more year to spend them all in the coffee shop at work (about half way thru the pot at the moment).

It built up over about 5 months, I hate having coins in my wallet / pocket so I just bunged it all in a pot.

I think its better putting quids and 50's in as its a good way to save without knowing, I mean if it was full of 1 and 2's and you had a 10er its not as exciting as counting out £200 that you forgot you had is it!

5/10p are great in the glovebox for parking, and annoying those behind you wanting to get a ticket.

do your weekly shop at a supermarket with one of the new DIY tills with the coin tray rather than the slot!!

then exchange money from weekly shop for shiney bike bits!!

Loving the amusement arcade option…