Patent ID: 8033375

Claim:
A method for providing a prepaid card to a user, the method comprising: providing a coin-counting machine having a coin-input region, a coin discriminator, and a card dispenser, the card dispenser having a first card hopper holding a first plurality of prepaid cards of a first type, a second card hopper holding a second plurality of prepaid cards of a second type, and at least a third card hopper holding a third plurality of prepaid cards of a third type, the card dispenser further having a card outlet slot unaligned with the first, second, and third card hoppers; receiving a plurality of coins from a user in the coin-input region of the coin-counting machine; discriminating at least a portion of the received coins with the coin discriminator to determine a value of the received coins; moving a card carriage to a first position proximate the first card hopper; receiving at least one prepaid card from the first card hopper with the card carriage; reading information from a portion of the at least one prepaid card; providing at least a portion of the information read from the prepaid card to a remote computer; moving the card carriage to a second position offset from the first, second, and third card hoppers and aligned with the card outlet slot; and issuing the prepaid card to the user from the card outlet slot, the prepaid card having a card value related to the value of the received coins.