Buying Bitcoins safe and cheap from USA

[Sgrbr420]

@Alfapharm 3 more points..

I pay $75.50 to transfer $75 from my wallet to its destination quickly as opposed to paying $75 or $75 and a few .01 to transfer slowly to make things easier on the vendor

I don't use coinmama to your original question @vitruviusbeard posted that under greeting and though it worth copying with accreditation 

Gemini is under NYSE supervision, I know others use it but I found the requirements to be onerous. If you have more than 1 acct at the linked bank or use a less known bank or credit union you may wait forever to get verified.

 

[Kelakarekrew]

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. 

Few wallets charge users anything. I'd suspect that Coinmama and Cashapp are taking a much larger fee than you realize. There is also the tx fee to send to Mycellium but that is the network fees and should be low; unless the network is heavily congested which is uncommon.

 

[DoomKitty]

@Alfapharm As to your question about using blockchain.com as an exchange and what they ask for:  when i go to make an account it says that their exchange is not available in the U.S.

 

[DoomKitty]

That wont work with Blockchain as they ask for a live photo of you, your official identity document and one of you holding the document before you can buy.  And it must match the address and name you gave in signing up.

 

[Alfapharm]

Wow! 

They US banks are really doing anything and everything to make it as hard as possible for the Americans buting Bitcoins. 

How is www.localbitcoins.com working there? 

Are there good reputable vendors in US who sell Bitcoins with not so high percentage? 

 

[LatsDoodis]

That wont work with Blockchain as they ask for a live photo of you, your official identity document and one of you holding the document before you can buy.  And it must match the address and name you gave in signing up.

I recently created a blockchain wallet from the US and was not asked for ID at all. Ii think amounts greater than a particular number may require this, but general sending and receiving within their platform is relatively hassle-free. So converting from one currency to another or to US dollars wouldn’t work, but if the goal is to have a wallet separate from Coinbase or another exchange it’s been my experience that privacy with blockchain is still tenable. I am admittedly unsophisticated with this stuff though, so you could be right!

 

[Alfapharm]

I recently created a blockchain wallet from the US and was not asked for ID at all. Ii think amounts greater than a particular number may require this, but general sending and receiving within their platform is relatively hassle-free. So converting from one currency to another or to US dollars wouldn’t work, but if the goal is to have a wallet separate from Coinbase or another exchange it’s been my experience that privacy with blockchain is still tenable. I am admittedly unsophisticated with this stuff though, so you could be right!

Thanks.

1/ But did you buy Bitcoins from Blockchain, that is the question?

2/ if yes what verifications did they request?

3/ what percentage did they charge you?

4/ from which web site/ exchange do you buy Bitcoins and what percentage do they charge you?

 

[Alfapharm]

@LatsDoodis:

When you opened your wallet at Blockchain.com did you do it with USA registration?

Because @DoomKitty wrote above that Blockchain does not work as an exchange for US and when he went to make an account it says that their exchange is not available in the U.S.

Having a Bitcoin wallet at Blockchain (without any verification) is one thing, but buying Bitcoins from them seems to be completely different. 

 

[DoomKitty]

Blockchain wallet is different from their Blockchain exchange which they call PIT.  You can have a wallet from anywhere...

 

[Alfapharm]

Thank you @DoomKitty

Which exchange do you use to buy Bitcoins and what percentage do they charge you?

 

[LatsDoodis]

@LatsDoodis:

When you opened your wallet at Blockchain.com did you do it with USA registration?

Because @DoomKitty wrote above that Blockchain does not work as an exchange for US and when he went to make an account it says that their exchange is not available in the U.S.

Having a Bitcoin wallet at Blockchain (without any verification) is one thing, but buying Bitcoins from them seems to be completely different. 

I have used Coinbase for purchasing of various currencies, and find their fees are low and given at the time of transaction. I have a bank and bank debit card linked with them, one of which required ID and consequently gives more expedient transaction confirmations. Once currency is purchased, I send free of charge to my blockchain wallet. My blockchain wallet was created without ID of any kind, and I am a US resident. For exchange or “cashing out” currency to dollars, they do require ID. Once transfer is completed and my blockchain wallet has currency, I send to a vendor. Blockchain takes a few cents extra to expedited the block confirmations required and typically takes less than an hour to send to a vendor.  Blockchain fees are otherwise so negligible that I don’t even know if I pay them for my purposes, which are presumably the same as your US customers. I don’t encounter long wait times or exorbitant fees using a separate exchange to buy coins then transferring to blockchain for use of their wallet only. 
 

EDIT: my main frustration related to fees is paying my bank’s charges for using a crypto exchange, which they categorize as a International wire transfer from some off reason given I live in the same city as Coinbase is headquartered, I believe.  

 

[Alfapharm]

@LatsDoodis

Thank you.

I hope this can be useful info for my US clients in their search for low cost Bitcoin exchanges or vendors.

 

[DoomKitty]

@Alfapharm The last coin i bought was via the Cashapp app available on phones.  They charge i believe a .5 to1% fee.  They are a KYC exchange like the rest of them so you have to show proof of identity like a selfie and your ID etc.

 

[Alfapharm]

@DoomKitty

0.5 to 1 % fee seems unreally low to be true

Bitcoin ATMs charge minimum 8 %

Next time you want to buy Bitcoins you can check the price of Bitcoin shown by Kraken:

https://trade.kraken.com/markets?exchanges=kraken&types=spot%2Bfutures

 

[DoomKitty]

@Alfapharm the last time i bought from them i paid a 2 dollar fee off of a 200 dollar purchase. ATMs are some of the highest fees you can pay.  

 

[Alfapharm]

@DoomKitty

This is just 1% fee for buying Bitcoins, that is excellent!

Thanks for the valuable info.

The only problem is that CashApp was declining cards from some banks.

Which bank’s card do you use that is accepted by CashApp? 

 

[INFINITeXpRESS]

@DoomKitty I never really liked it in the past but I may check it out again. Some of these fees get to be ridiculous 

 

[DoomKitty]

@Alfapharm Id rather not say my bank/credit card, but according to the app some of the banks that work with them are:

Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Citi, US Bank, Capitol One, PNC, USAA, TD Bank, Suntrust, Regions, Navy Federal, BB&T, Chime, Charles Schwab, Fidelity, Citizens Bank and Huntington.  I'm sure there are more, those are just the ones listed without using the search function.  They also accept Visa, Mastercared, American Express and Discover for credit cards.

 

[Alfapharm]

@DoomKitty

Thank you very much for the great and complete information!

I am glad to have a solution for my US clients.

No surprise you have a high rating at this forum, the information you are sharing with others is great, complete and excellently researched. 

 

[INFINITeXpRESS]

@DoomKitty @Alfapharm I always thought he had a high rep because of the cat in his avatar