Me to. I was trying to buy some bitcoins with credit card or bank transfer.
Most sites ask for personal details, such as income and savings, all information I am not willing to give out, especially as all I want to do is buy, its not like I am asking for credit or anything like that.
The difficulty of buying bitcoins must be a major factor in the price of bit coins.
There must be many people in the same position i.e. want to buy coins but cant find an easy way to do it, so they just give up.
This is 100% true. Buying BTC is headache. Exchanges ask you to verify. Lot of them take high % for deposit. Btc-e asks at least to deposit $2000. If you are from country outside US or EU, it is even more complicated. IF BTC should replace international wire transfers, than there must be easy way how to buy BTC fast without commissions. I am using local BTC ATM, but I am lucky to have such option, to live in a city with BTC ATM. It still takes 3% fee. Without BTC ATM in every city with fees lower than 1%, BTC is without future.
The more accepted bitcoin gets as a currency worldwide the more laws there will be regarding anonymous buying/selling. It may seem like headache but in the end it will bring good results.