Buying Bitcoins safe and cheap from USA

A

Alfapharm

Member
Joined
Mar 27, 2017
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654
Hello everybody,

I am often asked by US members how to buy safe and with reasonable fees Bitcoins, since many US banks block transfers to Bitcoin exchanges.

I am in Europe, so I cannot try what will be the procedure if in US. 

Did somebody try this one?

Blockchain.com

Please let us know:

1/ what verification do they require?

2/ what percentage do they take?

3/ what payment method do they accept?

4/ how fast do you receive your Bitcoins once you complete payment?

Very often US members complain that their Bitcoins are on hold for several days up to 2 weeks (I think this was about Coinbase). 

Let’s act as a community and figure out the best way for US members to buy Bitcoins at best price.

Thank you!

 
I haven’t tried this but maybe I will for my next subscription. I couldn’t agree more, it is a huge problem. When I tried Coinbase, they put my BTC on hold for 10 days. When I tried CashApp, their verification process was a massive pain in the rear. I went to a BTC atm, and they absolutely raped me with like an $80 fee to buy $120 worth of BTC(lesson learned; stay the FUCK away from BTC atms, I was not notified of the fee beforehand at all). I had good luck with CashMama, though they still require ID verification and there’s a minimum of $60. That $60 minimum sounds like no big deal, after all who buys less than $60 worth of magazines? Nobody. But I always seem to end up just a couple dollars short of however much BTC I needed. These guys all have hidden fees apparently, and it seems like however much extra I buy it’s always just a bit short, so I have to go back to the exchange, buy another $7 in BTC and transfer it. 

Anyway, since I finally got CashApp to work for me that’s my best option now(since unlike Coinmama, they only have an $8 minimum). But I still seem to end up paying well over 10% in fees, maybe as much as 20%. And I never know what the fees is ahead of time. The money just arrives in my private wallet minus like15%. 

 
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@Alfapharm I was a noob buying bitcoin. Try Paxful.com. They accept all kinds of payments with different percentages for each purchase. Once you complete the purchase from a trader it goes straight to your wallet on Paxful. 

Can be intimidating at first but once you get the hang it’s not that bad. Good luck with the selfies!!

 
BITCOIN HEADACHE RELIEF

By  vitruviusbeard, August 4 in Introductions

Posted August 4

If you are having trouble with bitcoin, please let me help you. It is a lot easier then Google would make you believe.

Step 1: Download Electrum wallet. It will give you a set of words to allow access to your wallet. Keep these somewhere safe. It is the only way to access your money if you forget your password, etc.

Step 2: Set up an account with Coinmama. (this takes a bit of time and pictures, but after 12-24 hours you will be able to buy bitcoin immediately) Banks do not like to support bitcoin so only certain vendors can get passed this.

Step 3: In the receive tab of your Electrum wallet you will see a wallet address. You give this to people so they can send you money. The same goes for Coinmama. When buying Bitcoin from that website it will ask you for your wallet address. This is the Electrum address that you copy and paste in. The money has to bounce around the world for a few hours securing your transaction. (Sometimes you will have to restart the Electrum so it will begin to track your order, you may have to do this a few times)

Step 4: OPTIONAL - You can have multiple Electrum wallet addresses if you want, but the only advantage to this is to know exactly who sent you money. That is the ONLY reason. If you do not need to know who sent you money then don't add other addresses, just keep one.

Step 5: To send money, the recipient will have to send you their wallet address. Go to the send tab in your Electrum wallet and paste that address in. Select the amount of bitcoin to send using google (USD to bitcoin, CAD to Bitcoin, etc) to get the exact amount to send. There is a slider bar underneath asking the fee amount you would like use. Its use is how fast the money gets sent around the world. Whether you set it to high or low, it is really not a large amount of money. So I always send high because it is just a nice thing to do for your recipient. I have never used low so I dont know how much longer it takes, but its only a couple of bucks so just use high.

Step 6: Thank Bitcoin for being amazing and giving us freedom with our money. 

Edited August 4 by @vitruviusbeard

 

 
wanted to add that I found libertyx btc atm to be super easy and only 8% buy fee, shows up as an atm withdrawal. Basically;

1. Download a mobile wallet, I use green, you will need to do the passphrase as described above.

2. Download the libertyx app and register.

3. Drive to libertyx btc atm, it will look just like a regular atm because it is, but...

4. Instead of inserting your card press the libertyx button

5. In the libertyx app select the atm you are at and click buy btc, a transaction number will be displayed 

6. Enter number on atm screen 

7. Bring up wallet address and copy into libertyx app

8. Select amount to buy, insert atm card and use like regular atm except instead of spitting out cash it will give you a receipt and put btc in your wallet minus 8 % fee

I found this much easier than trying to go through verification with an exchange.

In your wallet you can create additional wallets and move it around or split it if you want but each move has a cost proportional to the speed at which the transfer completes. 

Important to keep this in mind when making orders as you will need a little cushion so you can make it happen quickly. Vendors don't want to wait hours because you chose the cheapest verification method. For example if your order is $100 I would send $102 at fastest method vs $100.33 at the slowest method. 

Edited November 17 by Sgrbr420

 
@LunaLovegood

Thank you for the detailed info. 

So till now you didn’t find a way to buy Bitcoins paying clear fees (not getting surprised every time) under 10-15 %.

Wouldn’t you like to try how does it work from USA:

Blockchain.com

I cannot try it and give a feedback because I am in Europe.

Somebody from USA can do it?

 
@LunaLovegood what wallet are you using?  Whenever i use cashapp it only takes like a .5-1% fee.  Just curious if the wallet you are using is perhaps taking its own fees?!?!

 
@LunaLovegood definitely check fees before going to a btc atm. I saw 8% as lowest at libertyx, but also saw some were 20% plus more for store owner. 

 
@Sgrbr420

2 questions:

1/ What is the percentage which Coinmama charges to sell you Bitcoins? 

2/ Which payment methods does Coinmama accept? For example credit card? 

 
@Alfapharm I believe Coinmama takes a base 6% and an additional 5% if you use credit card.  You can use ACH bank transfer or credit card

 
@Jazsper123

I don’t need to buy Bitcoins.

My US customers need to.

That’s why I am trying to assist them by asking here other US members which is the cheapest way they buy their Bitcoins? 

Bitcoin ATM at best takes no less than 8 % and can vary to 20 % or even more. 

So this does not sound as a good option.

Other suggestions? 

Please mention the percent they take for selling you Bitcoins.

 
DoomKitty said:
@LunaLovegood what wallet are you using?  Whenever i use cashapp it only takes like a .5-1% fee.  Just curious if the wallet you are using is perhaps taking its own fees?!?!
Click to expand...
@DoomKitty

Wallet is not supposed to charge you anything.

blockchain.com wallet does not charge you anything for having a wallet there.

The question is did somebody from USA buy Bitcoins from Blockchain.com and what percentage they charge?

 
DoomKitty said:
@Alfapharm I believe Coinmama takes a base 6% and an additional 5% if you use credit card.  You can use ACH bank transfer or credit card
Click to expand...
So 6 + 5 = 11 % if you buy Bitcoins from Coinmama by usung credit card, is it?

Is there a cheaper option? 

Bank transfer? US to US bank transfer? 

 
@DoomKitty MyCelium. I need to look into it. It’s been very annoying. My last transaction I had to go back to buy more BTC *twice* because the fees kept making it come up short. Like I needed another $10 so I’d buy like $12, and it would show up in my wallet as $9

 
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LunaLovegood said:
@DoomKitty MyCelium. I need to look into it. It’s been very annoying. My last transaction I had to go back to buy more BTC *twice* because the fees kept making it come up short. Like I needed another $9 so I’d buy like $12, and it would show up in my wallet as $8
Click to expand...
From which web site are you buying Bitcoins and what percebtage do they take?

 
@Alfapharm Coinmama has some of the highest fees of any exchange. Gemini and Cashapp are both much cheaper.  Aside from P2P sites like Paxful and Localbitcoin, cashapp is the only broker i know of that doesn't hold funds at all.  They do average price and take a tiny fee between .5 and 1%.

 
Take the actual numbers I quoted with a grain of salt. This was several weeks ago, so I don’t remember the exact amounts. I just remember buying off CashApp, and it says there’s just a small, reasonable fee. But the money always shows up minus a pretty significant amount, way more than the fee it lists on CashApp. I seem to recall the same issue when buying from Coinmama, so it makes sense that it would be MyCelium. I never looked into it(waaay too much crap going on in my life rn), and had pretty much just accepted that it’s going to cost me $40 or more to buy $200 in BTC. 

 
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The next purchase I make I will buy at least some of the BTC through CashApp using my MyCelium wallet, just so I can verify that this problem is happening, and exactly how much these mysterious fees are. Then I’ll post about it here. 

 
@Alfapharm to make math easy let's say I spent $100 at the  atm, got $92 in btc, spent $75.50 to send vendor $75, sent remainder in as donation equivalent $16... so lost around $9, total of $91 available to spend 

Regards to selling I don't know,  I just convert to use it.

 
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  7. drjimmy1964 @ drjimmy1964: @bigblueallda I was under the impression that you'd need all of the points to get a real ID . I'd check it's validity if you're gonna fly domestic any time soon, just to make sure. Not to tell you what to do, sorry -
  8. B @ bigblueallda: @drjimmy1964 In my state to get a Real ID, I need SS card, Birth Certificate and two proofs of residency. Which I am positive I had to provide to get a new ID when it had been expired.
  9. drjimmy1964 @ drjimmy1964: @Turbo259 advertising - putting in writing for example an negative action to show they are guilty prior to taking action.
  10. B @ bigblueallda: I haven't flown in an airplane in 20 years lol. Can't recall the last government building I have been in either. According to the symbol it tells me I should have on my ID to make it a Real ID I do have one in my state
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  12. drjimmy1964 @ drjimmy1964: @Turbo259 advertising - putting in writing for example an negative action to show they are guilty prior to taking action.
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  14. drjimmy1964 @ drjimmy1964: @bigblueallda are you sure you have a Real ID ? I mean , they really want 6 points of proof and 1 for your addy and 1 for your SSN. Did you maybe get it done and forgot and flew out of the country or something ?
  15. S @ soupson: did anyone ask about real id or is sweet ol jimmy just rambling
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  18. B @ bigblueallda: Well it was a state id renewal. Before that there was a mixup and I had lost my birth certficate and social security number. After a couple of weeks and finally getting several documents in order I was able to get a state ID. It had been expired previously for a little too long and they wanted all kinds of proof. It was a mess. But nah I looked up what to look for an my state's ID to see if it is a Real Id or not and my card as the symbol it is supposed to have. I'll take a closer look though
  19. drjimmy1964 @ drjimmy1964: @bigblueallda are you sure you have a Real ID ? I mean , they really want 6 points of proof and 1 for your addy and 1 for your SSN. Did you maybe get it done and forgot and flew out of the country or something ?
  20. drjimmy1964 @ drjimmy1964: Actually it says "Not For Real ID Purposes". That is my 2022 renewal of my 2018 picture ID. I am not due till 2026 and I am sure they will make me go in since my pic would be 8 years old - they used to make you go in in my state for aging when I was younger, then went paper - then back to picture ( I think 9/11 to blame for that ) but relaxed it.
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