Cryptocurrency

[Jog On]

I don't think there is anything that has both ease of use and low fees. I used Coinbase for my recent purchase of £500 of bitcoin using a credit card as it was the quickest way to get it and bitcoin had just dropped to $3000. It was more like £470 worth by the time I'd moved it to my wallet, but the value had risen so that it was £500 worth after a few hours and now it's £560 worth.

So if you make sure you buy low, the fees should be less of a concern. I think the most efficient way will be to deposit the money on an exchange. Then hold it as FIAT until the time is right to buy.

The ID verification is a good thing, it means they're doing the appropriate AML/KYC checks that would be required for any other type of financial exchange.

The first I bought was on localbitcoins, just £100 to dip my toe in the water. Probably the cheapest way, but it did feel incredibly shady chatting to some anonymous stranger telling you where to transfer the money.

I used coinbase to buy and transferred some of it to uphold. last week I cashed out £500 of BTC direct to my bank account from uphold and it just showed up today as £493. Quite pleased with that.

[FrontEnder]

I used coinbase to buy and transferred some of it to uphold. last week I cashed out £500 of BTC direct to my bank account from uphold and it just showed up today as £493. Quite pleased with that.

Nice. I'll check that out for when I inevitably bottle it and cash out everything for half what I paid for it during the next crash.

[pjclarke]

I used coinbase to buy and transferred some of it to uphold. last week I cashed out £500 of BTC direct to my bank account from uphold and it just showed up today as £493. Quite pleased with that.

Nice. I'd never heard of Uphold. But are you based in the UK?

We are working hard to bring back GBP wires as soon as possible. Currently, the only way to transfer funds to your Coinbase account would be to use SEPA or to purchase using a 3D Secure enabled credit or debit card. Prior to sending funds, you will need to look into your bank's policies on exchanging for EUR as well as any other fees they may apply for this service.

Or is Uphold another 'layer' in the stack?

[Lance]

Bittylicious

Pros - if it worked as advertised, would be a slick way of buying BTC for GBP quickly. But the website seems flaky, it says my limit is X but when I try to buy says I can only have (X/4) until I jump through some more ID verification hoops.

No currency fees or commission, costs are built into the price.

Cons - Expensive, one punter reckons you pay a premium of £200 per BTC for the 'convenience' Website not going to win any prizes for ease of use.

That's less than 1%. Not very premium. It's who I have used as I can buy and sell with them. Had no issues. Just verify.

[Jog On]

Nice. I'll check that out for when I inevitably bottle it and cash out everything for half what I paid for it during the next crash.

I cashed out my initial investment only - now just playing with the house's money. Might regret it if it goes to $1M/BTC but then would also if I kept it all in and it went to $0...

Nice. I'd never heard of Uphold. But are you based in the UK?



Or is Uphold another 'layer' in the stack?

I think they are US based - you can't buy BTC only hold them as a wallet and transfer between different 'cards'. I was chuffed with being able to transfer BTC directly into GBP in my account though.

[FrontEnder]

I cashed out my initial investment only - now just playing with the house's money. Might regret it if it goes to $1M/BTC but then would also if I kept it all in and it went to $0...



I think they are US based - you can't buy BTC only hold them as a wallet and transfer between different 'cards'. I was chuffed with being able to transfer BTC directly into GBP in my account though.

So it's just in your uphold account on a GBP 'card'?

Can you move that over to your bank account?

[Jog On]

So it's just in your uphold account on a GBP 'card'?

Can you move that over to your bank account?

Yes I did it last week, cost £7 out of £500. Took 3 days and had to give IBAN codes etc.

[pjclarke]

That's less than 1%.

Care to double-check that? 1 BTC is a shade under £3000 as I write so £200 would be 6.6%.

However I'm coming to the conclusion that Bittylicious is the way to go ....

[FrontEnder]

Yes I did it last week, cost £7 out of £500. Took 3 days and had to give IBAN codes etc.

That's great value. Looks like it would basically be a bank transfer from the US, which generally costs a similar amount, so probably just the fee for that.

[Lance]

Care to double-check that? 1 BTC is a shade under £3000 as I write so £200 would be 6.6%.

However I'm coming to the conclusion that Bittylicious is the way to go ....

d'OH. You're right. Brain-fade. Need coffee.