Have You Used TDBank’s Penny Arcade Machines? The Bank Might Owe You Money

Until recently, TDBank branches had the best-named change-counting machines in the industry, the Penny Arcade. Now the bank is closer to settling a class action that customers filed over their allegedly miscounted change.

If you used the bank’s machines to deposit coins to your bank account or to get cash between April 11, 2010 and July 12, 2017, you’re eligible for a cash payment of $.26 per $100 in coins redeemed in the machines. That’s the proposed settlement in a class action that accuses the bank of shortchanging users of the change machine.

Non-customers are eligible to take part in the class action, but they have to file a claim with the settlement administrator, since the bank won’t know where to track them down or where to deposit the money. However, people who weren’t customers at the time they dumped their change jars are limited to claims of $500, or $1.30.

If you have questions about the settlement, you can call the administrator, GCG, at 855-312-1974 or questions@pennyarcadesettlement.com.

The fee-free Penny Arcade machines went away after a 2016 NBC News report showed that machines were counting customers’ change incorrectly, sometimes drastically so. Staffers at morning showToday dumped what they knew was exactly $300 in change in machines at different branches, and found that the machines under-counted the $300 jars by $.05 to $43.10.

The bank suspended the coin-counting program, then pulled the machines after performing its own accuracy tests.

“[R]ecent accounts regarding the performance of our Penny machines have led us to reassess this offering,” the company’s head of consumer banking explained last year. “We have determined that it is difficult to ensure a consistently great experience for our customers.”