Quote from: DannyHamilton on November 25, 2013, 07:00:17 PM

Quote from: spoonbender on November 25, 2013, 06:35:51 PM

What other options are there? How do you set them up? I've spent HOURS on this and am just as lost as when I started.

The best options in order of preference are:

Physical cash
U.S. Postal money order
Western Union or MoneyGram

Most of these methods are not available with the major exchanges such as MtGox, BitStamp, BTC-E, and campBX.

As such, I suggest you take a look at:

localbitcoins.com

Thanks Danny. :-)

I was working on a response when you replied:

Quote

I'm not asking anyone to do any work for me. I have not found a single FAQ anywhere which outlines a typical start-to-finish setup. I don't understand the process and I'm looking for an explanation so I can figure out how to proceed.

What I /think/ I understand is this:
1) I need to register with an exchange.
2) I need to set up a method to get my USD to the exchange to be converted into BTC (aka XBT???). This might be through
a) a wire transfer/international wire transfer
b) a prepaid credit card
c) personal check (rare)
d) SEPA (not available in US)
e) other services such as Interkassa, LiqPay, Ripple, PerfectMoney, WebMoney, etc., most of which don't seem to be available in the US

Danny, you have also listed cash (personal check?) - so I would assume this would be done thru the mail?

I did check out localbitcoins.com, but there's nothing within 500 miles of where I live.

I notice that the great majority of exchanges are outside the US, and that makes it more complicated for me. I'm thinking my best bet might be to go with a US exchange such as CampBX (accepts personal checks & postal money orders) or Kraken (could set up wires, depending on fees).

I didn't realize that it was going to be so hard to just get going with this. :-( And I didn't understand there would be multiple middlemen (the exchange and the payment service) between me and my bitcoin. Why does it have to be so complicated?