Bitcoin Forum

Hi, I'm interested in learning how to use bitcoin to transfer money from Australia to the US.  It's a fairly substantial sum, but completely legal.  My bank is offering me a very unfair AUDUSD exchange rate, and I thought I would look into using Bitcoin instead.  I've already set up a MtGox account, and gotten it validated.  Is that enough to keep it from getting frozen if a large sum (say $15,000) passes through it?

Could I please get my account whitelisted so I can ask this question in a more appropriate forum?

Are you trying to get the USD cash to a particular person, into a bank account in the U.S., to a U.S. Merchant, or something else?

Have you looked into https://localbitcoins.com?  If you have a local seller, that might be a cheaper and more convenient option than messing around with MtGox.

Into a bank account in the US.  I'm in the US and the account is in Australia, so an in-person arrangement is going to be difficult to set up.

Mt. Gox might not be the best exchange as they currently have huge delays in USD withdrawals (and Bitcoins are more expensive on Gox due to this reason.But if you trust Gox and can wait for a longer, it's a possibility)
Bitstamp and Coinbase are often used in the US, so you could sell there. Don't know what's the best way to buy Bitcoins in Australia though.

Have you looked into Dwolla?

So, if I understand correctly:

• You are currently in the U.S.
• You have an account in Australia with Australian dollars in it.
• You have an account in the U.S.
• You want to exchange the Australian dollars from the Australian bank into bitcoins.
• You then want to exchange the bitcoins into U.S. dollars in the U.S. bank.
• You aren't able to meet in Australia with anyone to convert into bitcoins and don't have any friends or family in Australia that you could have help you with that end of the transaction.
• You could meet with someone in the U.S. to convert the bitcoins into U.S. dollars if it made the transaction faster, easier or cheaper.

If you were already verified at MtGox, then you might be able to transfer the AUD in to purchase the bitcoins, but if you aren't verified yet, that process could take weeks.  I'm not familiar with which exchanges are most accessible from Australia.  Have you looked into BitStamp or BTC-E?  There may be others, hopefully someone with more knowledge about acquiring bitcoins with AUD will come along.

What are you looking at me for? I buy my bitcoins with cash. You know why? Because ever since the introduction of the new ePayments Code (well, it's not really new, but banks have only recently switched to it), all electronic transactions in Australia may be reversed for up to 7 months. Almost every Australian bitcoin exchange has been forced to close or stop accepting direct deposits for this reason. BitPiggy is, to my knowledge, the only one left that still accepts direct deposits, but only for established users.

As far as I know, the only real options for buying bitcoins with AUD are cash and international wire transfers. Sorry. Blame ASIC for this mess.

@DannyHamilton: I have family who could help me in principle, but setting up a purchase and verifying that the transfer has gone through sounds like a lot of stressful work for them.

@Foxpup: Thanks for the info.  Sounds like this is a dead end.

I have an idea that may not work due to size of your transfer.  If your account is in BTC, you can buy Paypal transfers (Bitmit) for going exchange rate and then link your paypal account to US bank account.  All perfectly legal and minimum expense.

If the problem is that you just want to convert AUD to USD and your bank's exchange rate sucks (and they always do), just get an online broker like Interactive Brokers and exchange your cash using the real market rate and a generally insignificant transaction fee.

You can't withdraw AUD in cash and ask to make a face to face transactions?
What are the fees for an international wire?