Bitcoin Forum

Anyone else having trouble buying through Coinbase?

There ID verification screens are saying my attempt has failed. WTF?

These guys couldn't make it harder to collect a fee on transactions, good lord!

Any help is appreciated, especially from someone at Coinbase. Any wisecracks about Coinbase are also appreciated.

I've talked to people who I know are not idiots who have had problems.

I never have had problems using coinbase.

I do not know what makes my experience so smooth.

Only issue is sometimes the 2FA doesn't work the first time, but usually it does. Other than that I do not have any problems there.

I don't like the fact that they send me an e-mail with the amount I purchased in the subject, you do not always need to unlock a phone to see the subject of an e-mail when it arrives. Other than that, I have no complaints with them at all.

Try their twitter, I have seen them respond to people needing help there.

It could be that they're an over-regulated piece of crap company in an over-regulated country but try their help page here: https://support.coinbase.com/customer/portal/emails/new

This message is on the above page so I don't know how fast their help will be.


It is incredibly funny that those type of support messages began showing up on the MtGox website a few months before they went out of business.

In Xapo is more easy

They are probably regulated. I sent 2eur to an online casino and 2 days later I received an email from them writting that I have violated their terms. They said that if I violate their terms again, they may cancel my account  ?WTF ???
This is not the bitcoin spirit. I immediately withdraw all my funds to another wallet.

You need to have I.d to buy or even sell there.
Being outside of the United States makes it nearly impossible for you to do this easily.
There are processing procedures they need to follow which takes months even for their U.S customers which takes from days to weeks to get approved.
Not such a user friendly site if you want to buy or sell your bitcoins using them.

Since you sound like you are in USA then you should understand how the system there works which might be hard to break and I wont blame Coinbase for going that hard to patronise its just because they also want to stay within the confines of the law so as to avoid trouble running with agencies of government. I dont know how it will work out there, but you can try other options like local bitcoin or even the exchange section where someone might be ready to transact with you outside coinbase but you need to be careful though.

Coinbase is not the most easy place regarding buying bitcoin, specially if you are not citizen of the usa. This say, don't worry there are plenty of places where you can buy bitcoin, with or without id verification. Kraken for exemple, to be verified tier 2 is quite easy, and far enough for buying and or selling bitcoins. Myself i am happy with their services. Another one easy is Paymium, up to $2500 no id verification needed. Personally, i have a wallet at coinbase, but it will be the last place where i would looking at for buying BTC. Move around you will certainly find a place to buy without problem, the competition is quite filled :)

Avoid Coinbase at all costs and dont dare upload your identification documents on their site. In case you didnt know the IRS are after them and want all records of their users, including their transactions.

Its better to use Localbitcoins instead or go to the market place of this forum and look for trades. Dont forget to use escrow.

You did not read TOS of Coinbase. They are not allowed any transaction between any casino. Coinbase is not wallet for gamblers.
Here is repeatedly talked about this.

stupidity is it's own reward.

Yes, but this is still extremely unusual.  Nearly all wallets allow you to do what you want with your Bitcoin, even the online wallets like Blockchain.  Coinbase is far too heavily regulated and they don't uphold Bitcoin's free spirit.

Lately there have been a lot of complaints against Coinbase and not only in the buy and sell zone but also in closing down accounts. These are signs that the business is not going well and I expect them to shut down business for good soon. There are a lot of other options to buy coins in the USA, Gemini being one of the most user friendly exchange where you can buy coins for the USA market.

coinbase works fine never had no issues plus instant transactions, if you want to buy through coinbase it says they can terminate your account for gambling purposes which they have done to several people, dont hate on them for you breaking there rules, if you were smart just send your coins to your personal wallet than send to casino i think ud be safe there but dont take my word for it.

im trying to upload my id and the system is terrible. 

what are the alternatives if you want to buy or sell?

Are they forcing anyone to use their site right? If we can't follow their terms then better avoid them and find other ways to buy bitcoins. In my country, I can buy coins from this site https://www.coinhako.com. But they also got some verification process before you can buy and sell on their platform.

It works well for me. The fees for SEPA transactions (EUROZONE) are very competitive. Is you go for small transactions then IRS shouldnt be na issue  in Europe.
Anyway, for anonimity its better to pay higher fees and do it P2P.

Since the bitcoin prices are rising,coinbase is insecure of their operations being taken for granted by the wealthy bitcoiners and that my friends will imbalance the coins to coins ratio between an exchange and solo bitcoiners.To steal your bitcoins,which you have rights to,they cannot come with better  strategies than the usual 'verifications'.After-all,FBI needs to see some proofs right if they plan to knock on your door for not paying taxes and money laundering.

TL;DR : Stay away from coinbase.

I don't understand those which say that they don't like Coinbase services ...
I use Coinbase for more than 3 years, I'm full verified, I have my bank account associated, 2 credit cards added.
And I'm not in US, I'm in Europe.

I use Coinbase API on 3 websites, I used on 3 faucets before, without any problem, I can buy bitcoin/ethereum with my credit card, I can sell the bitcoin/ethereum and withdraw the money in my bank account (with just 0.15 EUR fee), so for me Coinbase is perfect!

you are lucky though it's very hard to buy,some guys from China can't buy any btc in the exchange yet.

For buy/sell Bitcoins, Coinbase is s*ck cuz not all countries supported buy from them and it asked you for ID and anything for verification purpose. Like Joel's said stay away from Coinbase for any transaction like buy/sell (but for store small amount that's alright  ;) )

I respect your point of view, but I have a question:  what is the problem if they ask your ID for verification?
I have provided a copy of my driving license and I never had a problem with them.
Well if you are in that category where you want to stay anonymous ... it could be a problem.
The Bitcoin is not so anonymous as you think/hope :)  
Soon all major websites (exchangers, gambling, trading) will require a verification ... It is just a matter of time ...

Ever heard about misused that ID for illegal matter ? . Not now but it's just a matter of time.

That's Okay for now but we don't know what would happen next.

Indeed, but fortunately I have local exchanges to buy/sell Bitcoin without any verification (just phone number).

I didn't say Bitcoin is fully anonymous, It's not fully anonymous like vanity address with your name and asking verification ID.

We can't avoid them. However there are still lot of sites not asking Verification ID and stay anonymous

I don't recommand coinbase for a place to buy your bitcoins, because of their silly verification, asking access to your web came, ect. who know in future if they will ask to the users the size of their underwear and will need webcam access too check if you tell the truth. Nah, seriously, with all negatives things arround coinbase, i won't use it or recommand it to buy btc. There are plenty of competitors arround the web far better than coinbase

what do you recommend for USA for selling coins?

There's lots of ways. My favorites are:

Sell on BTCe, withdraw to a Perfect Money account, use the Perfect Money account to buy gold at any number of vendors and drop ship the gold to your address.

BTCe - Perfect Money prepaid Visa - pay bills directly.

BTCe - Perfect Money prepaid Visa - buy goods online.

BTCe - OkPay MasterCard - go to any ATM worldwide and withdraw cash.

BTCe - MoneyPolo account - cash deposit from your MoneyPolo account directly into your bank account. (Use this for small deposits only, unless of course taxes are something you really love)

Large sell on BTCe - AdvCash account - TransferWise burst send to 20 US bank accounts of less than $4k each transfer - multi day cash withdraw from 20 US bank accounts (again, unless taxes are your long lost love)

Because coinbase sucks with it's over regulated rules.
And there are rumors that coinbase are stealing money from their users
When your try to trade your BTC if the price soar up and transfer your money into an exchanger they wont let you because of some reasons they will lose profit i guess.

Coinbase support is HORRIBLE.  I sent them 3 tickets -- they have not responded to me and the
first ticket was sent Sunday (today is Friday).

What business doesn't respond to their customers all week?

Very scary to trust your coins to people that you can't even get in touch with.