I guess the question should really be:

Where can I buy bitcoin for a price closest to the global market price with as little fees as possible, counting funding/deposit fees and any other fee as well as the actual exchange fee?

Preferably with a Credit Card, PayPal, Skrill or any other service that people not necessarily involved in the crypto world (yet) can use easily and with low costs.


I was looking for a place where I, or anybody I know, could simply buy Bitcoins with their credit card without having to wait for ages and without paying overprice and high fees. I searched before posting and I did found an old thread here in the forum, but I must say there where not too many suggestions and it looked dead so I decided to create a new topic.

What I have noticed so far is that as long as the site / service / wallet / exchange you can use has all fees clearly displayed it is possible to compare. But some and actually most sites do not display all the fees. They might not display the fees until right before a transaction is going to be confirmed by you, and in some cases not at all. This makes it harder to compare different services.


It is usually very confusing.

There are a lot of crypto exchanges and more popping up every month. Some accept deposits or funding in fiat currencies like usd or eur, but most require you to fund with crypto currencies.

Exchanges like Poloniex, Kraken etc have 0.15-0.16% vs 0.25-0.26% on each trade depending on if you are the maker or the taker and that is cheap, but you need to fund your account first and there is usually some kind of fee involved for that too of course depending on your method.

I found one article where you can see some fees  https://99bitcoins.com/how-to-buy-bitcoin-with-a-credit-card/
The services reviewed in that article all have fees from ~ 4 to 10% or higher/unclear. And it is unclear if it is really up to date.

The goal with creating this thread is to facilitate the purchase of bitcoin, and other crypto currencies, for beginners and people not yet used to how exchanges work but would like to buy some crypto currency for one reason or the other.

I would love to hear your experiences, opinions and suggestions! From both experienced users and beginners.


Reviews

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Bitstamp

Credit Card: Yes
PayPal: No
Bank deposit: Yes
Requires verification: Yes
Fees: https://www.bitstamp.net/fee_schedule/

Bitstamp allows you to buy several cryptos directly with credit or debit card. First you need to register and get verified, then you can buy up to a certain amount.
The cost/fee is approximately 5%. Plus, if any, fee your card issuer charges.

For example right now value of 1 BTC on Bitstamp exchange is 9585 (euro) but you would have to pay 10100 (euro) to buy 1 BTC with your credit card.

https://www.bitstamp.net/account/deposit/credit-card/

PURCHASE LIMITS (verified account)
Daily: EUR 5000
Monthly: EUR 20000

Your card needs to be 3D Secure compliant.


I recommend this option simply because Bitstamp is a trusted exchange and have been around for a long time. The fee is too high for this option to be perfect though. The verification process might also be slow during times with a lot of new signups but they are usually quite fast.

It is much cheaper to transfer fiat to Bitstamp from your bank and then buy the crypto directly on their exchange. This requires some minimal technical experience though. Deposits are relatively fast and should be credited in little over 24 hours under normal circumstances.

I have read articles and forum posts regarding users complaining that Bitstamp are demanding all kinds of verification for withdrawals, and that can put you off, but the BTC transaction fee for outgoing transfers is relatively low so you can easily transfer away your BTC and withdraw from a more friendly option. I dont think they demand extra verification from all and any users, but probably in some selected cases, and the requirements they seems to have are ridiculous. Still this is most likely coming from trying to comply with laws and regulations in order to stay out of trouble. And this I guess that in the longrun is appreciated by me as a user.

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Coinbase

Credit Card: Yes
PayPal: No (as withdrawal method only)
Bank deposit: Yes
Requires verification: Yes
Fees: https://support.coinbase.com/customer/portal/articles/2109597-buy-sell-bank-transfer-fees

Coinbase allows you to fund your account with a credit or debit card. Their web page inform me that they have a 3,99% transaction fee on funding your account with your Credit/Debit card. Plus, if any, fee your card issuer charges.
The fee for withdrawing to PayPal is also 3.99% according to their fee disclosure.
The purchase limit is dynamic and depends but a typical starting limit would be 750 € / $1000 per week for a newly verified account.
It irritates me that I have to "connect" a card as payment method before I can see the actual prices that I have to pay with it. Coinbase are professionals but very sneaky. Not transparent enough.
Bitcoin price can also be more expensive on Coinbase then on for example their own exchange Gdax, and that can make your purchase more expensive then necessary.

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Kraken

Credit Card: No
PayPal: No
Bank deposit: Yes
Requires verification: Yes
Fees: https://support.kraken.com/hc/en-us/articles/201396777-What-are-the-deposit-fees-

Kraken have excellent to reasonable fees (SEPA deposit is free) and since their recent update the site can be used even if its still slow. They accept bank transfers (SEPA, Wire transfer or SWIFT) as fiat funding options but they do not have funding with credit card available or any other option apart from depositing crypto directly. I have heard withdrawals are processed fast plus the fee is low for SEPA withdrawals.
Kraken are professionals and have good intentions but be warned that when they had some issues with their site their support was slow and site buggy. They did upgrade their trading engine recently and some improvements have been made.

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Spectrocoin

Credit Card: Yes
PayPal: No
Skrill: Yes
Bank deposit: Yes
Requires verification: Yes
Fees: https://spectrocoin.com/en/fees-and-limits.html

Spectrocoin is by far one of the merchants that offer the most options of the alternatives I have encountered. They have a massive amount of deposit options depending on your location. Credit Card, Skrill and other options are available. They do require verification at some point. Unfortunately the fees are high on all options except bank deposits (SEPA). The fee schedule above does not display all the fees but I have been able to figure them out by using their site.

Credit Card 5,83% Plus, if any, fee your card issuer charges.
SEPA 0%
Neteller 5,27%
Perfect Money 7,53%
Payeer 25%
Skrill 5,27%


If you scroll down a little here you see all the available funding options https://spectrocoin.com/en/bitcoin-exchange.html

The sad thing is that I have had some rather negative experiences with their support team and their overall attitude towards clients. This is reflected in the negative reviews in this forum. That said, it is a solid service in the sense that it is not a scam, it works and as long as you don't have to contact support and you don't use it as your main wallet you will usually not have any problems.
The whole thing with not displaying fees is typical Spectrocoin. Its a shady company but they are slowly getting better.

I warn you that buying bitcoin on Spectrocoin is more expensive then the market price. Their own price is calculated by their "secret formula" and that is approximately 3.5 - 6% depending on when you buy. So in combination with the deposit fee it might be an expensive solution for you. You can just as well buy on Bistamp where the price is lower and fee fixed. But if you need to fund with Skrill or Payeer or any other of the options available this is an alternative for you that works.