Bitcoin Forum

Hey all, I just got my circle.com invite the other day.  I was interested in their service (not necessarily as a wallet), but just as an added option to what I have been using Coinbase.com for (to purchase small amounts of BTC).

At first glance, the largest differences that I have noticed so far:

1) you can purchase BTC directly with a credit card (Visa and Mastercard only)
2)  When you purchase BTC, you set the amount of USD that you want to convert (instead of setting the amount of BTC that you want to buy)


How many of you are using Circle.com so far?   What are your experiences?   Have any of you purchased BTC with a credit card?   If so, did you get hit with cash advance fees?   What credit cards would you recommend using in correlation with your Circle.com account?

I am using Circle.com from begining of September. I am purchasing BTC with Mastercard, Circle charges jou also card fee 2,7% (which is logical). I also tried sell feature. Money (again -2,7% card fee) was sent to my credit card.

Circle is in my opinion the best service in bitcoin world. It is Simple & Reliable. It is like Gmail in e-mail world. We must understand that bitcoin will go into mainstream only when there will be services like Circle is. I am currenty using it for weekly buying (there is limit 500 USD/week).

Circle news/PR

http://venturebeat.com/2014/09/29/circle-embargo-for-930/

Triff ..

Circle is open to the public as of today, I believe.   I have been using it here and there.   I have been buying more BTC lately because of how low the prices are.   I think anyone who believes in BTC would be foolish not to buy any right now because of how cheap the coins really are.

I am not at all into mining, but I would assume that mining would be break even at best right now given the difficulty and the cost of electricity vs. the current prices of BTC

Its 2FA login stuff is *broken* - it keeps sending me the same verification code which after I enter it keeps telling me is "invalid". :(

First 2 instant transactions went through smoothly.
My last two bitcoin purchase transactions failed! No reasons given.  ???

Their support is not much use either (Eriks instructed me to do a "device" reset which just results in it sending my phone the *same number again* which it *again says is invalid*).

I hope the SMS costs them something as they've sent me over 100 so far (for some reason it seems to just keep on sending me SMS after SMS).

i tried to add my card buy i get


 ???

How much Circle is charging to non-US customers ? Is buying from Circle costs less than buying from Bitstamp/BTC-e at the same time ?

Their 2FA has some serious bugs (not good for a company trying to promote itself as being *as safe as a bank*).

I've never had any problem with 2FA with SMS with my internet banking but circle.com just keeps *rejecting* the code (even after they *reset* my account to the point that it thinks it is the first time I am doing this).

I might end up using Google Authenticator just to "get things working" but I am rather disappointed at their software quality (clearly we are the *guinea pigs* and they did not do enough testing).

Again it now keeps sending me SMS messages (despite the fact I am not requesting them) and again I hope that costs them something (as it's rather annoying to keep being sent the same useless SMS).

The idea of writing a good software platform is *to test it first* not *let the end-user's be the testers* (reminds me of all Microsoft version 1 products).

Have any of you sold and had the funds sent to credit card? Does it work well?

When I log in I just get a message that says a further review is needed and that they will contact me. After a few days where nothing happened I sent an email asking what the heck, still no answer.

Seriously bad start. Too bad, the concept was perfect.

He is lucky - I am *still receiving SMS messages even after I changed to using Authenticator this morning (one SMS about every hour now for 48 hours).

I can't get my Mastercard debit card to work (complains that the billing address is wrong despite the fact I've entered it *exactly* as my bank shows it) but that might be because my account is from Australia.

I'm in Canada and I've been able to get it going with my CapitalOne MC.  I got a pre-loaded visa from the post office just to try it out, but it didn't work with that.

I'll wait for my statement to see how much MasterCard charged me, but I don't think I'll be using it until they hook up bank accounts for non-US customers.

The 2FA has problems in that you cannot remove it after enabled, and you also don't get the secrete key to back up. I always back up all 2FA keys in case my phone gets damaged or lost. But with Circle's 2FA with google authenticator, you're fuked if something happens to your phone.

Huh? The QR code is "what you back up" (you can extract the *code* from that using something like "zbar") but of course if you didn't take a screen snapshot of it (like I did as I *tend to always expect the worse*) then I can see why you might have a problem.

BTW - finally they stopped sending me SMS messages (must have received nearly a thousand of them).

Dammit I think you're right. The backup was the initial QR code that I already scanned with my phone, but now can't retrieve it anymore. I have about a dozen google 2FA on my phone, and every single one initially wrote out the code in plain text so I can copy it somewhere safe.

However the other problem still stands: once 2FA is activated, you can't change the code or delete it. If I want to redo with a different key, that's not possible. To me, this is considered a flaw.

You can click on "lost device" (you'll then have the two questions to answer that you had set up) then you should be able to set it up you 2FA again.

I agree it is annoying that they don't at least have an option to "see the 2FA key code" in text form as well as in QR code form (my *device* doesn't have a QR code reader so I had to use zbar to get the text).

Looks like its for US customers only  ???

Some Australians at least are having success with linking Visa *debit* cards (but I could not link my Mastercard *debit* card).

I just bought some BTC from circle, and they've now integrated the 1% fee. It just shows final price rather than a separate fee line. Initially they did exchanges at bitstamp rate, but now they have the same pricing as coinbase. No real price advantage between circle vs coinbase anymore.

I have a ANZ Visa Debit and I was able to use circle about 15 minutes go.

Too risky to link my cards with this kind of stuff.

What are you worried about? You are covered on the credit card side by their consumer protection anyways.

I've been using Circle to buy BTC the past couple weeks and it has been going great. Being able to use my credit and debit card to instantly buy BTC is super convenient. The fees are not as ridiculous as I thought it would be, definitely cheaper than me wiring money to Bitstamp to buy through those means. My only gripe with it is the relatively low weekly starting limit of $500 USD.

well said

Circle is a great service

Did using your credit card make the purchase a cash advance or post as a purchase? I don't want to pay interest fees and have been having issues with my debit card lately (new one on the way).

Got a reply from them 4 days ago (not my main mail, stopped checking daily after the first few weeks). They asked about my IP (nothing specific, just "tell us about your ip address". The next day they sent another mail that simply said "suspended". Just mailed them back, said I use a VPN and to not be so impatient. Let's see how long it takes this time.

Vague statement about their system being unable to identify certain information and please send a passport or drivers license. Told them to fuck right off. Kraken has functional customer support and doesn't pull this bullshit. Good thing I didn't leave any money with them.

Circle is excellent. Gone are the days when the only way to buy Bitcoin with a credit card was to pay 5 times the price on eBay or some shady website.

My ONLY complaint so far is that the exchange rate they use is high, but then again that helps when selling Bitcoin, it's just that I tend to buy more than I sell which forces me to use Coinbase for that side of the transaction.

Circle works fine for me.

I have started using it for small amounts, just for an additional option outside of coinbase for quick btc purchases.   I have been unable to help myself lately since the prices have hung so low...