Bitcoin Forum

I'm new to cryptocurrency but already have a bit of advice to others who are new:

Avoid Coinbase like the plague.

I jumped through their hoops last week with scans of a driver's license and utility bill, then verified my bank account Monday morning.

I immediately placed an order for .5 BTC, which cost $288.57 with fees.

Then I was told they had exceeded their buy order for the day, so I wouldn't get anything until Friday - and that I would receive the exchange rate Friday.

So I wait all week.  They withdrew my money on Wednesday, so I had no reason to believe the transaction wouldn't go through.

Until Friday morning, when they canceled, saying it was a "high risk transaction" and that I should "try again in a few weeks."

A "high risk transaction" - after they have scans of my utility bill and driver's license, and TOOK THE MONEY from my bank account?

"Try again in a few weeks" - why, so they have another chance to gamble with my money?

They blame the "high risk" label on a "robot" they claim to have no control over.

I don't believe that, and hope you won't either.  

Avoid these con artists.  I'm already out $100+ on this small transaction because they failed to deliver what they promised.

I'm sorry you had to learn about Coinbase the hard way.

A lot of here have had the same thing happen and Coinbase support is no help.  :(

I used to recommend Coinbase to everyone; now I warn everyone about Coinbase.

i need to get me some BTC, but i keep hearing horror stories from all of the exchanges. not quite sure what to do myself.

Localbitcoins is still probably the most idiot proof way to get btc

But also requires more motivation and coordination

I'm trying campbx.com this time around, will let you know how it goes.

Right now I have some coin sitting in coinbase that I have mined and have gone through the verification process.

If coinbase is so bad what do you suggest for BTC to USD exchange?

Meeting someone is kinda out of the suggestion.

Michael

I'm in the U.S. and have had real good luck with CampBX.  Their user interface is slow and awkward, but they seem to be reliable.  I don't recommend leaving much coin or fiat at ANY exchange long term.

They don't gamble your money.
They are cheap assholes.  If you buy bitcoins when the price is low, then the price spikes up, they will not pay out the bitcoins, claiming it as a high risk transaction.  Coinbase is old news, they are the new MT.GOX.

the rates there are ridiculous.. it seems like mostly exchangers looking to make a quick buck. people are wishy washy and don't respond to your inquiries too.

at least that's been my experience so far.

i always use virwox ya i know the fees are a little high but it always works when i need btc for myself :P no scam there :P

Thanks for the warning. 

I transferred my coin out of coinbase. I will try campbx.

For me I would just like a way to sell the btc I mine. I use cryptsy for trading and that seems to work out pretty good so far.

Thanks,

Michael

This is one of the risks in BTC. This is downside if govt wont support and we have nowhere to go to complain any issues we have on BTC transactions. For now, posting and warning about the scam is the best way to counter those scammers. Thanks for the warning!

Coinbase is dope, you just need to get to tier II verification. I've heard a lot of those high risk transaction stories for people's first transactions, but my personal experience has been nothing but positive, and since I have been tier II verified I can get up to 10 BTC instantly.

I used coinbase once, only purchased .1 BTC for $40.73 USD though. 
Didn't feel comfortable verifying my bank account - they can either log in for you or deposit two small sums to verify. 

This was really testing the waters and it took me about a week to commit, took a couple hours for me to take the gamble and hit the submit button, too.

I was very unhappy with waiting a week before receiving my BTC, fortunately the price of BTC dropped back to ~$450 and it cleared.  I won't be doing business with them again unless BTC is moderately stable, and will only purchase small amounts at a time.

As with all non-regulated fiat sites and BTC being new - it really is the wild west out there.

I use bitstamp.net. I am based in Europe and SEPA transfer to them cost only 5 euro and it is there for 3 working days. The same day the money was there I have bought Bitcoins and then withdraw them to my personal wallet. All went smoothly.

i just made an order.. it says the funds won't be cleared until dec 2 due to the thanksgiving weekend... that's a whopping that's over a week that i'm going to have to wait (4 business days total).

meanwhile, if the prices for BTC drop, i'm sure they'd be happy to "honor" the price i paid.. but if it goes to mars? maybe they'll just cancel it by saying "sorry, we had issues with your bank."

i need to find a better way.

I think the biggest problem with most of the exchanges for BTC is the lack of professional support.

For BTC to be a legitimate fiat alternative there needs to be reputable and responsible intermediary organizations.

In the same vein there needs to be more community validation of said intermediaries to protect the public from fraud.

Thanks. I see their ads popping up everywhere.

Well, after I jumped through all their hoops, I have had no issues with my transactions.  I didn't care for the waiting process, and I missed out on the post crash prices in October.  And I wish the support was more timely.  (Although, all my emails were answered, sometimes with such a delay that I had forgotten I asked the original question.)

They are a startup and they are being careful and learning a lot in the process.  I will be patient, since I am confident the serious VC money they have will insist on solid operations.

I have used Coinbase to buy thousands of dollars worth of bitcoins and I have had absolutely no problems at all.

The reports of transactions canceled due to "high risk" are a concern, but I bet they are rare.

The people complaining about having to wait for their bitcoins must be illiterate. The site clearly explains that there is a 5 day hold on purchases for the first 30 days, and that is due to the absurd amount of time it takes the U.S. banking system to do a simple ACH transaction.

Honestly, my biggest problem with Coinbase is they sell bitcoins at inflated prices.

I really wish there was a true exchange in the USA.

+1 on all points.

Also, if you nag them enough, they will honor your original purchase price on cancelled transactions from what I understand. I've seen a number of examples of this occurring on the forums. It just takes time, support is understaffed.

I too was ripped off by coinbase. Bought 10BTC last Friday at $424 each (instant buy). Was sitting on them til while the price was soaring. Come Wednesday, they cancel my transaction. I would have sold while it was hovering at $850. $4,000 profit gone. Just like that. I contacted support multiple times with no response. Also tried from a different email address and they didn't respond. Now any time I try to purchase they cancel the order. Stating it is a high risk transaction. I have made eight purchases from them since January. Now the last 2 canceled and its like I'm on some blacklist.  ???

my main concern is that if BTC price rises while you are waiting for the ACH transfer to go through, they might not honor the price since that would cost them quite a bit. on the other hand, if prices go down they would definitely be willing to allow for the transfer. it would be an unfair game.

i don't know if this is happening or not, but it's plausible in my opinion.

I've had a good experience with Coinbase. They've had some growing pains (like every other bitcoin exchange and service), one of which is sometimes running out of bitcoins during peak buying periods. I've had to email them a couple times, but they've fixed each problem I've had. Overall I trust them more than most bitcoin services.

why  ???

So they took away coins that they had put into your wallet? Very weird. Try contacting Olaf on the forums, he is sometimes more responsive to those requests.

Elaborate please?

Michael

When the BTC price is quickly increasing it is high risk for coinbase. It is not exchange and they have to buy the coins from other exchanges themselves - and transfering money there takes time. They call this high risk transaction

I am going to make a small purchase of 0.01 BTC and take screen shots, then I will put up the screen shots of the cancelled transaction if Coinbase refuses to go through with the order.

Please show screen shots if they don't refuse, too.

I haven't purchased any BTC yet at CoinBase. I use it predominantly as my wallet and don't leave any great amount sitting in there for long (not that I have a great amount to leave in the first place). Basically everything BTC that I earn goes into CoinBase then deposited to CEX to buy ghs. I made one transfer from my bank to CoinBase - about $80 - and it took approx. 5 days, including the weekend.

so when your send your ACH payment to them, they don't actually have the funds yet? how do you know this? this is an issue for the client then.. why would i want to pay for something that someone doesn't even have? that's like asking me to prepay for a service that i haven't even yet received.

I haven't used them and don't plan to. I am worried about the constant flow of horror stories about them. Regardless, I always advise people to move their coins somewhere else immediately. 3rd party wallets are always a terrible idea, and I hate for newbies to think that Coinbase is a real wallet.

Yeah, I have always stayed away from things like coinbase

would expect more from them, given that they are VC funded by the same firm (USV) that funded twitter and tumblr.

I'm interested to hear good experiences had with companies like Coinbase. I am looking to gamble some pounds and wondering who to use to make my first BTC purchase. Does anyone have any recommendations?

Thanks!

I was just thinking on doing business there. :\

An ACH transaction takes 3-5 days. They don't give you the bitcoins immediately because the ACH transaction can be cancelled during that time. Furthermore, an ACH transaction can be reversed. They must be cautious. Otherwise, scammers will use the banking system to steal money from them and put them out of business.

It is hard to make money trading bitcoin, especially with the market swinging as much as it has, so it is actually not surprising that they are doing what they are doing.

I really wish someone would just set up a real exchange that is based in the USA and accept assets for funding your account, like gold or silver, in order to get around banking regulations. A real exchange can make money off volume (by charging a % of trades) and not have to worry about whether the value of bitcoin goes up or down.  

There are better exchanges for UK. Im from Europe and use bitstamp instead

Bitstamp is incorporated in the UK, and most people (including me) have mostly good things to say about them. Good interface, and better banking than Mt Gox or BTC-E. The trading engine and API leave much to be desired, but good for the casual user.

Thanks will check out bitstamp!

I'm contacting https://oag.ca.gov/consumers about Coinbase.  Anyone else who has been scammed by them should do the same.  Note on the Coinbase "About" page they describe themselves as a company based in San Francisco, but their mailing address is located in Beaverton, Oregon.  

Maybe their "robot" can help them out with the complaint.

What kind of company tells people their transaction is canceled because it's "high risk" - then in the same email encourages them to try again in a few weeks - with no additional verification?  It's a scam - they want you to try again so they can get another interest-free loan and play the market, then keep your BTC if the prices goes up.

This is just too annoying but for bitcoiners in US it's a necessary to use if you don't want to deal in person,Bitstamp stiill work I guess but not as easy as coinbase,it's an unethical business practice but nothing can be done.

I am using Coinbase and am very happy with their service, also very fast transactions back and forth.

So far I haven't had any issues, and I've been happily using coinbase. Sure, it's not a paper wallet or cold storage, but I definitely have confidence its one of the more trustworthy online wallets.

I haven't had any problems with using them as a "newbie wallet" just for the ease of access.  I don't keep any significant amounts of coin in there from day to day, I'd much rather have it in my local wallet all nice and secure. I can't comment on buying BTC direct from them though, I deal with local channels or trade up alt-coins to BTC at the exchanges if i have to.

Most of the fiat exchange options seem to have tons of security "hoops" to jump through, but maybe that's my point of view(from the US). I will have to check out bitstamp for the next time i need to move fiat to coin.

Thanks!

I'm sorry you had to learn about Coinbase the hard way.

A lot of here have had the same thing happen and Coinbase support is no hel

Newbie here. I bought 5 BTC last week at $520 from Coinbase, and I was pretty nervous I'd get one of those "high risk transaction" cancellations like I've been reading. My BTC came in as expected with no problems. So far, so good for me.

I've heard stories about "high risk transactions" being cancelled when the price went down as well, it's just less common because the price doesn't go down very often.

i have to wait until early december to receive mine.. i made the order on saturday and due to the thanksgiving holidays, that means.. a lot of days waiting.

Yeah well I have 40 btc bouncing around bc they can't fucking send a transaction, been waiting for 6 days now and it won't go through...

Welp for me 2 weeks ago they gave me the bitcoins that i was due
to me but i only put $54 usd into it lol i will try a $100 in a few days i hope
everything goes ok 8)

after clearing for your first purchase, do the transactions go a lot faster or do they still need to wait for the ACH payments (4 business days) to be final? i'm still waiting on mine, so i will probably find out.. in another week or so.


you might want to remove that picture.. unless you are okay with your first and last name to be available to the public.

While it normally wouldn't bother me, I deleted the pictures, and my post.

If you google the name you actually won't find me so I'm not to worried about it.

Michael

2 words CoinBase sucks.

If coinbase sucks (I have a pending transaction with them) what is everyone using to get USD to BTC? It seems like everyone hates every exchange so what is the go to place?  BTC-E seems risky and impossible.  Mt. Gox seems to have issues.  What are the real alternatives?

at this point, there is no perfect solution. maybe when more ATMs hit the markets, that'll be the best method. mt. gox has been a nono for a long time, btc-e looks like it blows, and localbitcoins is really spotty.

Me too....

I am just looking for the investment... But the warnings on this site scare the shit out of me... Plus I am OLD ! How do I write Bitcoin into my will... :oP

I buy a coin and want to use it I dont want to do so without an easily reached method. It is way to much trouble to not have an online wallet. Say coinbase or such... I don't see what is the point of this. Maybe a chance to get in on a good investment. But if your not the owner of Virgin Airlines or the winklefoss twins what's the point. A stupid (if Large) invesment unless you are supper tech savy. These guys can afford to pay some of you guys to make their moves. The avg. guy is a long way to using these coins. Thus they will plummet at some point, then rebound slowly. Only insiders and those with lots of contacts may apply...

Everything  wrote about encryption is deep science to 99% of humans, and to me, I am an investor and have plenty of cash, credit cards, etc. Bitcoin is limiting the usage by allowing creative scam artists into the source. So I have to carry my favorite book with so I can turn to page 9 and get my password written backwards ? Oops, sorry, my wallet didn't open, let me try again, there we go... Here is your .00012 bitcoin for my coffee. WTF... It's Cold !

Wish I had better contacts in the South Florida area... cough cough...

coinbase doesn't necessarily scam you.. they just cancel your transaction after 4 days. if you are looking to invest, you should go with them.. just buy a small amount at first, then once you're a verified level 2, you can buy up to 50 coins per day i believe.

with bitcoins, you don't need to worry about your will. you can just give it to the person you want to before you die.

I can sell you some. But first you must cash a Money order I send you from my homeland here in Africa. I am the only surviving relative of King mumbi here in Kenya. And to my future friends i am willing to share such a large fortune. You will only need to cash this money order. You may keep a wealthy sum of many dollars for you and your family. Only send me a small % so I can give it to the poor... :)

Gonna stick with coin base and try to get to level II

Barry

You sir deserve a thumbs up for that. I almost forgot about that ridiculous scam. 

This thread is a joke.

You're all idiots.

Coinbase is not a scam because they have anti-Fraud measure. Coinbase is not a scam because they took away your "theoretical" profit. Coinbase is not a scam because you cannot read their terms of service.

You're all mad that you didn't read before you purchased. Did any of you graduate from high school?

Yeah so why the fuck is my sale still bouncing around 6 days later? It should already be in my bank account! I normally wouldn't care much but it's for 40 btc ~ 33k.  Like WTF...

Well , you're really helpful ,aren't you?

thanks for sharing this information. i am using coinbase as main wallet but had some little poblems the last time. i'll transfer all my btcs to my offline wallet now.

I've had good luck dealing with Coinbase but I do worry if I try to sell when their's a run on BTC or an (even temporary) 'crash' - will they be able to deliver?
Or will they do something ludicrous like 'due to heavy volume we are suspending selling your BTC' sort of thing..
But then again there seems to be no guarantee on this anywhere..

Maybe the best bet is to have many accounts in many exchanges where you can sell small amounts of your btc at a moment's notice?

Your statement is not true, see..

http://www.sec.gov/News/PressRelease/Detail/PressRelease/1370539730583#.Un-nYiejN3U

Governments have to support what they tax.

I recently signed up with Coinbase and purchased about $300 worth of BTC on Friday. By the following Monday the ACH had gone through and the money was out of my bank account. I'm still waiting the 5 business days until the purchase clears (Friday). The delay is really annoying and their price per BTC is always a bit high, but there aren't many options in the US.

I sold a few last night on Coinbase. 
It says it would take 2 business days to deposit the money - so their estimate is on Monday.
I'll let you know if it goes as smoothly as they say it should - so far so good.

I got my "ONE" coin at the price they set and responses to emails right away. Alex, seems to be a great guy and gave me answers. That is all I know. I am affraid to open my Wallet as I don't want money stolen.  Will just wait for a while. Maybe when it hit 4K... :)  ;D
For those of you looking for a stock ride. Try DSS (Document Security Systems). They filed suit against Apple. The stock belongs up around 3 bucks. 2Bucks on earnings alone. Soared yesterday after the announcement "of course". But dont let that deter you, look at their chart, read the threads on IHUB and you will see this has a Huge markman coing up in February which will drive it up 2 to 3 times what it is now. Patent plays like this are huge. ANd you can use your bitcoin profits in Cash via Etrade to make another Taxable fortune.

Can you say pump and dump?

I just signed up with Coinbase last Friday and the bank verify deposits completed yesterday.  I only created an account to sell some of the btc I've mined.  I've read several horror stories but, it seems like every exchange out there has plenty of them.  Since I went to the trouble to create the account and get level II verified I think I'll go ahead and try to sell a small amount and see what happens.  I will post the results.

my funds have gone out to coinbase.. still waiting on my BTC to show up. the estimated time was dec 2.

after you make your first purchase, do you become verified and the process doesn't take as long?

I never had any problems with coinbase. Actually only have positive things to say about them.

I never had to give them my drivers license or utility bills. I just entered my info, it verified, done. Then wait 30 days to buy 50BTC/day.  All's been going great.

The OP may just be a sketchy person that was caught in their filter.  May have a tainted record of high number disputes. Who knows. There is a reason for everything though.

Also use your brain. Why would you buy futures during times of such volatility? Why didn't you just wait until they had coins they could guarantee you the price for right then? Think.

Thankfully, I have never had an issue with Coinbase thus far (have purchased 6 BTC). But I do constantly hear horror stories, so I consider myself lucky!

So is the only other option for US based buyers to meet locally with a seller?
And after you get your coins, what if you need to sell fast and get your fiat quickly? what do you use for that?

Signed up for coinbase, but they were saying I had to wait til thursday next week and who knows what happens with BTC by then.. there has to be a better US based exchange, no?

Don't know.  I used the following exchange comparison list - https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Buying_bitcoins (https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Buying_bitcoins).

Calm down, if you have thousands of BTC, 40 BTC is basically nothing  ;D

With so many negative comments on Coinbase (despite the various positive news pieces/recommendations from the internet), surely there must be a close and better contender. I'm still convinced to use an online and offline wallet to make my BTCs more secure after a while. And while Armory strikes me as a good offline wallet, MultiBit and Bitcoin-Qt should be useful alternatives. I'm happy to hear your thoughts on this though as I personally would like to have a safe wallet for my bitcoins.

Any suggestion for a newbie like me?
I have heard that localbitcoins is good. Any comments on that?

What should I use? Mt gox or camp bx?

I heard localbitcoins is really good too!

The more I search about bitcoin exchanges and websites related to bitcoin the more I find that all is a scam.

Could this be the scam of the century?

Still waiting on the bank deposit.... Coin base says by 11:xx PM it should be there...  Sure hope so.


Edit for typo

11 something PM is pretty much a nonsense. Banks are closed by 5 PM and usually anything arriving after 3 PM will not be processed until the next day.

my btc should be coming within 30 minutes now.. i bought on the 23rd and it still hasn't arrived yet due to the holidays. hopefully it comes in today. i hope my transaction move a lot quicker after this one.

To be honest, Coinbase has by far been the best method I've ever used to acquire BTC. Granted, I went through all the verifications and got Tier II about a month ago. I haven't really used it since horror stories started appearing, but I'm quite sure I can still buy instantly with no issue. It's unfortunate that OP and others got caught up in the unethical transaction reversals.

I sold BTC0.05 thanksgiving night.  Coinbase said my money would hit my bank account on 12/04.  I still have cautious optimism that the transaction will complete successfully however, I will wait for it before selling any more btc.  Will post an update after 12/04.

I have used Coinbase to buy since March and I have had no problems. MMV

welp, finally received my coins about 9 days after making my order; it was delivered at the scheduled time. kind of a pain waiting that long, but i hope future purchases don't take as long.

I thought Coinbase is a nice one but after reading these feedbacks, I had a change of mind. I do hope though that these feedbacks will change their services to their clients.

I'll add my name to the list of people of who have been happy with Coinbase.
I had to wait out the transaction times, but since there really aren't many options in the US, I'm not complaining.

Yes, their prices suck. Yes, if your a newb and want to signup and buy bitcoins RIGHT NOW, you're going to have to wait.

However, for me, they have been upfront about their policies, and have lived up to what they said they would do. YMMV

We'll 11:54pm came and went. Bank shows no deposits.
Coinbase no longer says the part about "should arrive before 11:54 pm on Dec. 2". Instead there's no such estimate and otherwise the details page shows the same as before (deposit portion claimed to still be 'pending').

Not impressed. Perhaps tomorrow it'll come...

PM "Olaf (Coinbase)" and tell him your story. He will probably give you the bitcoins at the original price you bought at.

been looking for this information.. but does anyone know if it will still take me 4 days to receive my funds (the ACH payment to clear) now that i'm a level 1 and have done a transaction?

Yes it will. I've done 4 purchases (I'm a level 1 verified) and still the wait time on purchases coins.

Ya, you need level 3 to be able to buy and sell instantly...

I used them a few times a long time ago and all was fine.. i don't really have the stomach to buy coins on them right now though because of being trapped for 4 days with the coin price locked in.  Fine if the price goes up, but could be catastrophic if there was a sudden drop of a few hundred $.

I decided to send an e-mail to Coinbase support this morning and within 3 minutes I had an e-mail response from them! (I was pleased.)

The support guy claims they have done all on their end and it's a case of waiting for my bank to clear the transfer. 


I appreciate his quick response..  Do I believe him that it's all on my bank... well I don't know.. but I'll see what shows up by the end of the day.

Sure enough the money appeared in my bank account between 9/10 am this morning (EST).  A half day later than they claimed but all in all not too bad.  I'll give them the benefit of the doubt since there was a holiday since I ordered.

Overall I'm happy enough with coinbase that I'll do business with them again.

i've spent like two hours clicking stuff to get some btc on coinbase, i hope they send them to me!

I've got a pending transaction for a small amount. If it goes through should I just avoid coinbase until my account is level 2 for instant transactions?

This whole setup is pretty infuriating. I get that they have to protect against fraud, but they should let you deposit funds to the site, wait the 5 days, and then buy/sell at market rates with the funds you deposited. Instead you have to buy, wait 5 days, and have no idea if the price will tank or they will cancel the transaction.

If you want to wait to verify the funds are legitimate then let me deposit them and buy after they are verified.

I'm new to if you guys have any tips on investing in the new coins coming out or transferring them let me know.

So the process of buying through coinbase is a little slow, sure, but they're legit and I've had no problems with them.

Well I opened up an account with them recently, but since I'm a newb to this whole crypto currency trading, I haven't bothered putting any money in it yet, and I'm not sure I will. At most I would probably just put a few bucks in to test things out, that way if you lose it, or they charge an arm and a leg, it's no big loss

i think i'm the oldest member of coinbase from here. I bought from them btc worth 55k when the price was around $200. Never had any problems at all, no delays no canceled transactions etc. (i was ready to think this guys are the best out there) until last month when i bought 40 btc @ a very low price and they cancel my order in the last minute they had to clear my btc.

from now on all my transactions are flagged as high risk, customer support has the standard answers, give all the unnecessary answers like, erase cookies use one account, buy after 2 weeks etc.

I'm not saying i had a very bad experience with them, but when the shit hit the fan they are lost. They have huge holes in helping customers.

And for those who wrote here that you never had any bad experience with them there is something you didn't take in consideration. the word YET

all good things comes to an end.

Happy bitcoin :)

How fast is coinbase to withdraw BTC into USD to my bank account?

I sold on Tuesday night last week and they claimed I'd get them in 2 business days (which due to Thanksgiving would be Wednesday and Friday of that week).  They even claimed a date of Dec. 2nd and a time.

I ended up seeing the money appear in the bank on Dec 3rd in the morning.  They claimed the slow down was partially due to my bank's own processing of the transfer (can't confirm or deny this) which may have been made worse by the holiday week.

This has nothing to do with coinbase themselves... It all depends if the site you were "clicking" on really sends the money...

For me it took 3 days and was sent the day they said it would. The only thibg was that it was about and hour late but that's fine... :)

how is coinbase doing now? still canceling orders?

For me it cancelled the first two. Luckily I bought it when it was 120 and it dropped to 110 by the third purchase...

I have no problem with this work, and I'm still waiting. In October I wanted to Encourage them (some people just asking the same questions I do not answer my emails.).

Represent Bar and in the process I Learned a lot in the beginning, I must be patient, because I'm sure it will be a pressure on the business cash VC.

so they cancel your orders and now you bought again and it worked?

This was about half a year ago... If your order get canceled try buying again if the price drops. If the price increases contact coinbase and tell them that your order got canceled and you want to buy at the same price... ;)

yea i know the scheme... the problem is they have many demands now and since your message is read by one of the staff members will take a long time.

I'm sure they have thought of this scheme even before reading my post... As far as buying, I don't buy btc. I only earn it...

Well, I'm pleased and relieved.  The transaction completed and the money showed up in my bank account yesterday - a day earlier than the coinbase estimate.  It took 3 business days which is the same as PayPal and most other ACH based bank transfer services I've used.  I feel comfortable enough now to sell a larger amount.

For me it takes 4 business days for it to post to my account. 2 for transfer from coinbase to officially show up at the bank and 2 for the 48 hour hold my bank places on electronic deposits. So far, I have not had any problems with them, though it makes me a little concerned to read what others have gone through. 

I posted the screenshots of me selling my balance, money was in my account the day it said it would be. I just sold some more today and it said it should be in my account by Monday.

So far I don't have anything bad to say about coinbase.

Michael

Neither did I for the first 5 months...

I've heard this from a few different people but personally I have not had any issues yet, but thanks for the heads up

The other day in the massive crash I bought 4 low instantly and sold $200 higher a few hours later.  Both transactions went through fine and my money was in my account this morning.  Was a nice and easy way to make several hundred dollars :)

I just recently got into buying bitcoin. I have been researching the tech side of it for many months now. Obviously the world needs decentralized money!

While there are a bunch of problems out there, I personally have had none with Coinbase, but then again I buy in reasonable amounts.

Maybe people should think about the kind of buying they are doing. If your trying to buy 10 bitcoin to ramp the system so that you can then sell and make money ???, I kind of chuckle at the fact you might have had a problem.

First reason is; you've missed the whole point. If your trying to collect paper off of bitcoin, your pushing this crypto-wagon uphill. The real power of bitcoin is to eliminate that paper. Not to make YOU rich, because you think you understand how investment banking works.

Second reason is; that type of thinking is a brick wall. Like a giant spire. In the end it will just be you and some other morons like you trading the currency back and forth in large amounts between themselves trying to push everyone else out.

If bitcoin is strictly an investment to you, then you have missed the whole philisophical journey that bitcoin and other crypto's are. Your still trying to bank. Even though history is teaching us that banking is a form of evil.

So, if your tryin to turn bitcoin into another giant pyramid for your payout I sure hope you fall flat on yer ugly face at every attempt.  :)

 

No, we don't AGREE with your point.  I didn't miss a thing.  Yippie for you that you have that goal.  I have a goal of paying my bills, which funny enough I can't do with bitcoin ;)  So when you're done wishing ill on people how about you contribute something useful.

My main problem with coinbase right now is the high premium they charge to buy bitcoin. They seem to be going pretty high even when there is a huge dip for an hour or so. Not sure if its because supply and demand or coinbase is becoming greedy. THeir buy sell has a huge difference sometimes (I have seen up to $15) which they are making huge profits on plus their 1% fee. CUstomers must not like this or having problems with them for sure since if you look at the number of transactions graph it has been plummeting. The whole point of bitcoin for a lot of people is to play the peaks and dips like a stock market and coinbase is taking advantage of this too much I feel on top of their normal cancellation problems.

There's a developing trend in the space. The more popular an exchange becomes, the more backed up they become with customers, the higher the currency risk for the customers already entering the pool.

You have every right to feel the way you do about what happened to you on that transaction. However, I don't know how far I would go on suggesting others to adopt new, smaller exchanges (which would actually be healthy for the BTC economy).

Some users don't want to be capped at low buy/sell orders, which new exchanges will have to be limited to in the short term. On the other hand, larger exchanges tend to be big targets for hackers and price manipulators. The two biggest crashes in BTC history have both resulted from Mt.Gox, the first was a hack, the second was a server crash that was caused by excessive traffic.

As far as your personal decision to not use Coinbase, I can understand it and would probably act similarly if founded with the same scenario. However, that's not to say that every new user has something to lose by trying Coinbase. Coinbase has a very intricate hardware and software foundation, along with a lot of liquidity and customers. Their wallet is also easy to use and looks nice.

My conclusion would be to suggest that you disburse your bitcoins onto different exchanges and addresses to make the most utility of the fact that Bitcoin was created to give you options.

I've had no problems with Coinbase whatsoever, and no need to jump through all the massive "send them copies of my ID" hoops.  Done a few hundred dollars in BTC purchases, and about five hundred worth of withdrawals to my bank account so far.

Is there anyway to speed up that 4 day wait? It's killing me and I don't know another service that withdraws out of my account tike that, help?

If you get level 3 verified with a credit card you can instantly buy up to 10.

never liked coinbase. lost 0.07BTC in a compromise long ago. dont trust them or any other bank/online wallet.

How does the "instant buy" option work? Do they charge your credit card or do they charge your bank account and use the credit card as backup payment if the ACH transfer doesn't go through?

Thanks.

The second.  They debit your bank account and then fall back to the credit card.

I would like to know what other people use to turn their bitcoin to cash. I find the coinbase is the fast and most reliable way to sell bitcoin. I have used localbitcoin, but it seem cumbersome to wait for a response.

When I was mining earlier this year I switched to Coinbase to cash out my btc profits. Can't say I ever had a bad experience with them.

I'm currently waiting for my first large buy order to be finalized. Placed the order Monday, they said I'd have my BTC by Friday which annoyed me. What also annoyed me was the fact that my bank account had already been charged as of Wednesday, but I still have to wait until Friday to see my BTC.

I understand the logistical challenge of running a BTC exchange, but this is ridiculous. I'm going to start the process of level 2 and 3 verification to hopefully avoid this in the future.

Don't trust third parties like Coinbase to hold your coins. You simply cannot verify the security conditions under which your funds are held.

Get a desktop wallet, learn how to encrypt properly, consider cold storage, etc. Secure your own funds. Otherwise, you are just waiting around for Coinbase to screw you.

Use them to buy/sell if you need to. That's it.

It is not as ridiculous as you think. ACH transfers can be canceled and reversed. Copinbase waits for 5 days in order to reduce the risk of fraud.

Try this: open an account at any bank (other than your current bank) and transfer money from you current account to this new account. Time how long it takes before you are able to withdraw cash from your new account. I bet it will be no faster than Coinbase.

Most people are ignorant about how money and banking work. One of the benefits of the Bitcoin movement is that people are starting to understand what money is and realize how incredibly inefficient the banking system is.

For example, a few years ago someone in the US banking industry came up with the crazy idea of ACH being done instantly rather than taking 3-5 business days. Of course, the idea was considered absurd even though it is a trivial to implement. So, the industry instead voted on reducing the time down to a single day. The banks voted overwhelmingly against it, so we are still stuck at 3-5 business days.

I trust coinbase more than a desktop wallet. I enabled two facto so you would need to steal my phone to get access to my account and you would need to crack my password which would take a few hundred years to crack with brute force.

I met a couple of the guys at Coinbase at an event in San Francisco a few weeks back. Being that they are based here, in SF, makes me comfortable dealing with them. I found the service to be good, though I have only funded my account through localbitcoins and sent some bitcoins to another exchange.

Overall, from what I gather, they are a very intelligent group that really cares about providing good service. There may be some hurdles for them here and there, but I can say they are highly trustworthy and go to large extents to make sure things are secure. Such as getting paper copies of the bitcoins and distributing them throughout the world in different locations so not one person at the company knows where they all are. They stated many times that they are much more secure than the banks. They have to be given the nature of bitcoin vulnerability.

I can definitely say I would recommend these guys after meeting them.

Same here. If they run off with my money I can file a report since they are only a few cities over.

Screw filing a report, crow bar, duct tape, and a road trip. Feed them to the gators.

Haha, that too. I am trying to get an internship (I'm 14) there for the summer (not much luck yet) so don't take me... ;D

Looking at your website, you seem like a gifted person. Kinda remind me of me when I was your age. I was writing vb programs in my sleep at your age, got away from it for over 10 years and it's hard to get back into it.

Then again, that was back in the mid 90's.

Wow, well the site that's up is actually pretty old. I am working on a very beautiful new design in Ruby on Rails.

I don't know if its true or not but my understanding is during that 3-4 day transfer time, the money is essentially in limbo for lack of a better term, and that the banks somehow use this time to invest the money and earn profit.

So no longer 14 then, good to know.

No, I'm 14. I haven't updated the design just the content. It was made using a theme at bootswatch. My new site doesn't use a theme (its custom codes) but won't be out for a few weeks.

op says he had to scan drivers license and utility bill? I don't think I was asked to do this is there something I missed. Needing to have a credit card (would not accept debit card) for instant buy is bs by the way the way.

https://coinbase.com/verifications (https://coinbase.com/verifications)

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-tDKxTMsgTVs/UqEbnzYGB7I/AAAAAAAAQVM/C2IEk0NCeBA/s0/Screen%2520Shot%25202013-12-05%2520at%25206.34.12%2520PM.png

I use my debit card...

Yes but don't see where you have to scan a bill or license.

only some debit cards may work... mine did not

I knew it was one of them. Sorry.

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-EBBNkInMRzY/UqEizu0IBDI/AAAAAAAAQVc/BExYXoLL2yc/s0/Screen%2520Shot%25202013-12-05%2520at%25207.04.52%2520PM.png

I am ready to go with Coinbase. Localbitcoin prices are just too high. Will report back on my experience

I've done two sells on coinbase since this thread started and haven't had any issues. The last on I sold when BTC was at $1,138.32 and it drop almost 100 and it still went through.

I see a lot of the issues are buying btc, I mine so I needed a place to sell btc.

Michael

So far I've had good luck with Coinbase. Just was able to complete an instant transaction as well. Funds haven't been taken out of my bank or my cc but they have posted to my coinbase account. Purchased 0.1 BTC @ $976 per BTC. Looking at this is it not possible to make money on the "spread". I've noticed that Coinbase typically trades lower than Mt. Gox and other exchanges. Could one buy low on Coinbase, then send to Mt. Gox where you can then make a limit or market order on a higher exchange? I'm new so be gentle!

I have the same question

Also a follow up...would sending BTC back and forth between Coinbase and Mt. Gox raise any flags?

You could theoretically do that but if everybody could then the mt gox prices would be very similar to coinbases. The reason people dont do it is because your funds usually get stuck in mt gox. If you are able to quickly and safely sell at mtgox then go for it!

Nope, they are a wallet service. They cant block a transaction unless its illegal (satoshi dice, betting) so dont worry, nothing will happen.

My .02 coinbase to mt. gox transferred in about 5 minutes. I haven't tried a market order yet with Mt. Gox yet though. I have a limit order with them but price hasn't reached $1240 yet

Are you able to withdraw your fiat through them with you issue?

I'm based in US so I was under the impression that I couldn't withdraw USD from Mt. Gox. My plan then would be to send it back to Coinbase if I needed to withdraw or just leave it in Mt. Gox for awhile.

I got my BTC in a few minutes once the transaction on coinbase went through(took 5 business days as quoted). Nothing really to complain about. Their process is drawn out and inefficient, but its also exactly as advertised.

Make a small transaction and then get approved for instant.

Haha, if you are in the US (like me :D) then good luck getting fiat out. There is sooooo much verification that you have to go through that its going to be hard.

Not  really, on coinbase you can get fiat out with level 1, I've sold btc twice on coinbase. Mt Gox requires all the verification to do fiat out.

Has anyone had any experience using Coinbase to receive payments from people?  I just signed up with them and am considering using them for a 'pay with bitcoin' button on my website.  I'm not sure what the other options are though yet, I'm new to this.

I was talking about Mt. Gox... :)

Well I havent used that button but I do know how it works. When you press the pay button, it has full bias towards coinbase (its says if you have a coinbase account, login) but I believe that it also generates a address to send money to. All in all it works 100%. It also automatically generates invoices! :)

I have just tested them out. No problems at all. Sold some BTC, the funds were in my bank when they stated they would. Bought some BTC instantly.

I did all the verifications that they asked. What I remember about the credit card verification is that it had to be a Visa. My debit card is MC, so I had to use a CC.

I'm happy with them.

will try them on monday. i hope they will let me  purchase some coins. any other buyer who had problems before and now can successfully purchase coins over coinbase?

i dont trust them. too many horror stories. best of luck to those trying them out.

If you are in the US, most banks have the option to be instantly verified!

thanks for the heads up all. i am staying away from this place!

Just getting started with Coinbase; hope things work out all right.

I used coinbase for faucet money starting out  :)
 Also, incase people don't know, in order to get instant buy of btc, you have to verify a credit card.

i agree, dont use them. you risk having them renege on your reserved price. also, using any 3rd party wallet service is dangerous -- use your own wallet!

If this really happened, couldn't you just instantly transfer your BTC to another exchange and try it there? Bitcoins are fast/mobile, they aren't stuck in limbo forever like cash in ACH transactions.

So far I have had 0 problems with Coinbase except for a transaction that I thought never processed due to lag/offline time randomly show up on my account 3 hours later :| .

YET

Thanks .
I would be careful

I have made 3 purchases with coinbase and the only issue I have this far is the wait time...

Thanks fro the advice!

Thank you for this thread for a Newbie its helps a lot. Before joining this forum I had Looked / Considered them as a possibility.. Now I have lots to read here from real world experiences.

Is coinbase OK for selling? It seems like the only way to get money for us located in the US. Everything else you have to go through tons of hoops and other methods + fee's to get it into a bank. I was thinking of exchanging on something else (such as Cryptsy although that looks kinda iffy for now, but an exchange) and then transferring the BTC to coinbase and selling there.

I have sold through coinbase and it was fine. you can also try localbitcoins if you want to sell for cash

They're not scam artists and they're backed by VC firms.  You can read their bios on the website and all the articles written about them.  They're also not an exchange so things work a little different.

...lol what I bolded just reminded of that capital one viking commercial 'what's in yer wallet' ... anyhow glad I saw this thread today. I signed up with Coinbase last year and was just about to transfer to BTC using Coinbase again (considering the recent BTC 50% drop from around $1100). So volatile though, I'm still hesitant.

coinbase is like the other major companies out there. they put themselfs first before customers. they are not scammers but they are trully deceiving people when they want.  deal with caution

Same... I'll post if anything bad happens but so far so good. Let's keep it that way  ;)

So far I've had more problems with BTC-e and MtGox than CoinBase. Out of all the exchanges I've used, Coinbase is the 2nd best and I found them to be very reliable. So far...

I purchased bitcoins from coinbase several times without problems. My only problem with them was when I tried to verify my credit card. Coinbase emailed me that small charges had been made but I couldn't find them so I can't verify, and they keep sending me emails reminding me to verify.

I think best is still bitstamp

What's the first best?

Call your cc provider. It is probably something to do with them. I didn't have any issues verifying my debit card!

I have never had any issues with coinbase so I never tried bit stamp. How much verification do you need to buy and is it instant?

Well.... BTC-e is cheap and has been reliable so far.

I haven't had any problems with coinbase.  They do have long transaction times at the beginning, but it is a scaling system, much like having to post/wait here.

Probably go with BTC-e too. They don't always have the greatest of rates but getting money into and out of the exchange has always been speedy and hassle-free (EUR, BTC, FTC and LTC deposits/withdraws so far).

They support a lot of external providers and the btc-e e-code things seem to be accepted by places.

What do you mean cheap? They should be roughly the same price, otherwise you can buy on btc-e and sell on bitstamp.

BTC-e is basically almost $100 to $200 and sometimes even more cheaper. Only in the USD/coin ratio though. If you are doing coin/coin, then the ratio is about the same as if BTC was valued at $1000.

The reason for the very cheap $$ prices is because it is nearly impossible to deposit any money there, so people are comfortable selling it for a cheap price. So they can get some cheap $$, and use that small amount of $$ already deposited to perhaps profit in the future.

 I was waiting on a deposit couple weeks ago when it never showed up o began to worry . It turns out they ran out of money . Didn't even bother sending me an email had to find it out online.

So your saying that I can still buy BTC for $200?

he probably means cheaper than other exchanges. it's quite amazing how the rates are so close now.. $850-$870 between btc-e, mtgox, and bitstamp.

last tonight i saw that price is $737 now the price is $866. so, now the price increase?

No it obviously decreased  ::)

/sarcasm

i agree generally, i would stay away from coinbase. good luck out there!

why?

Is there any online wallets that doesn't need JS to be turned on?

You lose the internet.

If anybody does not want to bother with Coinbase or any exchanges and would like to purchase btc quickly and at a fair rate, PM me or email me at info@cryptocap.com. I'll be glad to help and can provide btc at affair rate and quick turnaround time.
Thanks.

Use escrow with this guy, or lose your money.  Warned

coinbase screwed me on a buy when price went up and didnt screw me on a buy when price went down, hmmmmm

I have used coinbase twice with no problems.  It just takes a few days to get your btc.  Set up an account straight from my bank account.  The few days can be nerve racketing in that the price may change by a lot.

Thanks

I've only had positive experiences with Coinbase. It can be a little annoying waiting for coin to be delivered after placing the order, but they have come through every time for me so far. However, I had just made a few purchases when BTC briefly fell to ~$550 and am waiting until Friday of this week for delivery -we'll see how it goes now as price has risen considerably since. They've also raised my buy/sell limits from 10 to 50 a day; so I've been a happy customer and plan to continue business with them, as long as they fulfill my recent order, of course.

hello
i use virtex to get my coins...
have had no problems....

can you tell us when that happened?? and was you account flagged as high risk?

Have they refunded you?

I've seen reports from users about the wait time. Can someone tell me why they do this? I mean a transaction should be fast but they delay it for what? Why?

because ACH payments take 4 days to clear. since bitcoins are non-reversible, they need to have the money in their hand before sending you the bitcoin. any system that uses this method of payment will have delays. the only way to avoid this is to register your personal information.

Probably one way for Coinbase to improve its system is to provide funding of an account balance, and then a user can purchase in real time when they wish.

Thanks.

I had the same exact thing happen to me, and I never went back..They blamed it on "robots" as well! Now I am having a terrible issue with a wire transfer to BTC-e...going on 3 weeks, no money and no replies to my support tickets! They are scary..I am brand new here will start a new thread on that issue to see if I can get any advice..

If you're US based you can try CampBX as an alternative to Coinbase.  Slower to fund with Money Order, but I haven't heard too many complaints.  I have an account but haven't bothered to trade or get verified there.

Because they're a scam like every other shit exchange in the United States.

my experience with coinbase has been nothing short of excellent.

I agree, coinbase has been without problem for me, if somewhat slow.  Awaiting completion this evening of a purchase; we'll see how it goes.

Coinbase has been, by and large, the easiest, quickest and most convenient method of buying BTC. Outside of buying face-to-face, good luck on going from unverified on any exchange to buying BTC funded from your account in less than two three days.

Hi I'm total noob, can someone explain these exchanges for me? Do they have a certain amount of bitcoin that you can buy or sell for USD, or are they like a commodity exchange where they match up your buy orders of BTC for someone else's sell orders?

i been using coin base for about a couple months now never had any problems with it so far. i had brought around 500 dollars worth, the only problem is the wait time of about a week though

I haven't faced much problems with Coinbase. But ill stay safe though. Thanks

thanks for the tip.

I wish I would have read this thread a week ago.  I didn't buy much, just .04 - but they cancelled the transaction saying "high risk" and yet they're still holding the money.

Paypal was sued with a class-action when they first started. They were doing the same thing. -  I'll have to dig through my emails and see if I still have the lawyer's name.

"they match up your buy orders of BTC for someone else's sell orders" -Yes,

the following page on the Bitcoin wiki should answer most of your questions, as well as give you a great list of exchanges that are out there. (sorry to pass the buck, but this would do far more for you for now)

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Buying_bitcoins

I'll have to chime in on the pro-coinbase side. It did take a week for my first purchase to go through, so you need to be patient at first. I've had my account since summer and recently verified with my visa and can now buy something like 50BTC instantly. Theoretically... In the last week or two I've bought on several occasions and they all went through quickly and the price was good.

One caveat -- I haven't tried to cash out BTC for USD as I'm more interested in holding BTC long term.

Also, when I want to do some trading, I'll buy through coinbase and send the BTC to my account at btc-e. It takes a little bit for the transfer to happen, but that's more bitcoin-related than coinbase I think.

I don't have a whole lot of any coin yet, but my next thought is to start moving my long term holdings to a more secure wallet. However, the convince of coinbase is hard to beat.

Awesome, thanks.

I was pro coinbase until they have been ignoring my messages and mysteriously deleting proof of my bitcoin purchase from my account. I am yet to receive my btc and the money was pulled out of my bank account days ago. When I sent them an email saying to look in my buy history, as that is the only place my purcahse was listed, that Buy History was deleted later that same day!!!

If they would only get back to me or provide a phone number where I can reach them, I would be at ease. Instead I receive nothing. The deleting of my History is seriously shady and Im not sure where to go to address this issue. Lickily I printed out the screen and my bank account shows the payment made to them.

+1-415-580-2710 is their number (from https://coinbase.com/merchants (https://coinbase.com/merchants)). They might get mad though, because it is for merchant questions only. Please do post back what happens.

Coinbase is US based and US Venture backed company.   Their investors want them to go public or get bought out at some point.  They are in this to make money and in a lot of respects that seems to be at odds with the whole idea of digital alt currency.

We are in the process of thinking through an anti-Coinbase.   Faster processing times, less transaction fees, Non-US, No venture funding etc.    Idea would be this would be a platform built by people in the community for the community to use.   Feel free to PM if of interest to you to discuss further.

Great thx for the tip.

I have recently set up an account with coinbase and am still waiting for the tier 2 verification process to finish. So far my experience has been good. However waiting 1 week to get the btc in my account so far is very annoying. I have heard of localbitcoins, but have not used them. I am interested in looking for more options other than coinbase just in case. Does anyone have any good alternatives for getting money from a bank in the usa to bte-e (primary), mtgox or bitstamp (backups) exchanges faster. Currently i buy bitcoins from coinbase, then transfer that to the bte-e (exchange).

Little off topic, I know I am probably not understanding how it all works yet. But so far it seems you could buy btc from bte-e, then trasnfer if to mtgox and sell for higher. Seems mtgox is always selling higher than bte-e and thus you could make a profit. Since I am still waiting to get set-up on mtgox, and have not had chance to try this. Can anyone share there experiences in doing this?


Skully

I really prefer US based, US venture funded, because of the fact that I can get legal issue solved.

Yes, you can buy somewhere else cheaper.
Yes, you can sell higher at Mt.Gox.
But what good is it having fiat at Mt.Gox if they won't actually send it to you?
You need to read some more.

Good point.

ya coinbase sucks

Lel. you guys sucks. ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

Yep! Their office is about an hour away from my home so if they mess up, ill literally barge into their office.

Did you guys not read the tread? The issue got solved. The title is not misleading.

I use coinbase and didn't have to jump through the same hoops the OP described to deposit/withrawl.

If you are in America it gets really easy but anywhere else and it gets a hassle.

I know this is why I used coinbase. Yeh, its a pain waiting or completing the steps for instant buys, but I'd rather deal with than the mess at all the exchanges.

I too went through all the trouble for instant verification with coinbase.  The fluctuation of bitcoin is to unstable for my tastes.  I remember a few months ago when coin was hovering around 120USD/coin.  Come back to it after 5 months and it bounces between 600-1k USD/coin.  I've been using localbitcoins lately, it takes a bit of time and effort, but definitely worth not having to wait to have my order be canceled because it is labeled High Risk.

I have recently created an account with Coinbase and have had no problems so far.  Not sure if anyone has mentioned it in this thread yet but an employee of Coinbase posted on reddit the other day that they are really swamped with all the new accounts created in the last few weeks and are working hard to get caught up.

I've seen reports from users about the wait time. Can someone tell me why they do this? I mean a transaction should be fast but they delay it for what? Why?

Once they give you the bitcoins they are gone. They have to make sure the transaction won't be reversed. What I don't understand is why they don't let you deposit funds, wait 5 days, and then buy the coins if you want. Seems better than holding BTCs for 5 days.

Seems to me that one of two things is at play, but without knowing how they operate, it's hard to say. Are they basically acting as a broker for you, executing all buys/sells? If so, and they won't sell while high, it's likely due to them being worried that THEY won't cover/profit when THEY sell the coins they just bought from you. Additionally, if that's how they're doing it and it's just 1 or a few greedy individuals, it may be a ponzi scheme and they can't cover a high sell because they don't have the money... Not sure why you wouldn't go straight to an exchange and execute the buys/sells yourself though? Is that not an option? I commented to someone about how unregulated the CC industry is and figure it's a matter of time before the gov't steps in and requires all transaction be handled by licensed brokers but I guess I don't know if the market has managed to regulate itself in that manner.

Thanks for the warning. It helps a lot.

I have been using coinbase since about april for both buying and selling and aside from the 4 day wait period to buy i have never had any issues. Its annoying yes. But its the most reliable way for me to buy at the moment local bitcoins in my area is just insane people want to charge ridiculous fees.

What is the username of the employee?

Thanks for the warning. All Bitcoin trading noobs should heed the advice. They'll probably just Google search and find them, not knowing what they're getting into.
One should always research well ahead of completing any transaction online.

Coinbase is a legit company. If you had read this thread, you would have known that this issue got fully resolved.

Hi
I have a small portion of bitcoins in my Coinbase.
the problem is that I don't have an American bank account and I'm not even American.
I'd like either to withdraw or transfer that little amount to BTC-e or into the bitcoin wallet from there.
Are these two options possible by any chance?
Thanks for your help

You can send your BTC to your BTC-e or local wallet address from the "Send/Receive" page on Coinbase.  Just choose "Send" and provide the wallet address you want to send the BTC to.

Thanks ldh37
Very kind of you.
Regards

I felt I needed to add my .02btc to this topic, and relate my experience with Coinbase.

On Dec. 10th I placed an order with them for .30btc, after following all their procedures to the letter and linking my bank account.  The order became "pending" on Dec. 12th, and on Dec. 16th the order was cancelled.  The reason given was that the transaction was cancelled because it was "high risk", meaning, according to their definitions, a reversable transaction because the funds came from a bank withdrawal.  Now, according to that definition, since any bank-withdrawal-based transaction is by their thinking "reversable", that would mean all bank-linked transactions would be "high-risk" and therefore Coinbase shouldn't even allow that option.

Of course, it doesn't end there.  ALL attempts at communication, through their site and through e-mail support are ignored.  You can open a case on their site, but of course the case is also ignored.  So I spent $291, Coinbase took it, cancelled the transaction, has my money and will not respond to any attempt at contact.

I've read lot of excuses for the lousy service by some Coinbase apologists here, but really, I'm a customer, Coinbase is (ostensibly) performing a paid service, so if their performance is this crappy, maybe they should find something else to (not) sell.

i didnt know that. Thanks for info...

I was researching for several weeks and watching this thread go back and forth on Coinbase recommendations, and the really odd transaction delays (why not use same day wires instead of ACH to cure the reversibility issue?). I appreciate the postings on both sides. 

I decided to use Bitstamp instead. The verification process took four days and the international wire took only 24 hours even though they said to expect 4-5 days. Less than a week in all.  I've been buying BTC (instantly) through the Bitstamp exchange ever since, which has been great during this dip in BTC value.

Thank you again.

Following advice from a financial newsletter, I decided to open an account with Coinbase. I listed, and verified, one of my credit cards as a back-up source for transactions funding. I also provided banking information, but didn't verify the account, because the verify transactions hadn't posted yet. Lucky me they weren't. After the credit card was verified, someone went on a shopping spree using that account. ALL transaction were done in CA. I live in NY. I was contacted by the credit card company, and I was were able to stop this. I'm convinced someone at Coinbase IS responsible for this.  STAY AWAY as far as you can.

It's not clear which account was hacked. Did they use your bank account, your credit card, or your coinbase account?

I use coinbase all the time and it works great. It took a while for my account to verify but since then I've had no problems.

On Sunday I put in a .3BTC order in their system, Bank transfer finished completed yesterday. Bitcoin transfer is in pending state and scheduled to be completed on Monday. I bought at $644 and they are now at $735...so we shall see.

I agree with the above.  I have my main bitcoin account at Coinbase and have had zero problems with it, EVER.  I can buy and sell up to 10 bitcoins instantly with no waiting (you have to make a purchase then wait 30 days, no biggie).  I also have accounts at other sites (I'm a finance guy and like diversification because you never know) and have no problems with them either, just have to deal with wire fees and foreign banks (as a US citizen).

Just an update with my fiasco...I never did hear anything back from Coinbase regarding my situation, so today I started opening dozens of cases, actually over 100, just to see if anyone would respond, and what do you know, someone calling himself Rees finally responds and asks me to stop opening all those cases.  Again, to all you Coinbase apologists, don't you think it's pretty dern ridiculous that I had to resort to such a juvenile move as flooding them with cases just to get a friggin' response??  If you were in my position at this point, wouldn't you be forced to conclude that Coinbase sucks?

^  THAT ^


Is awesome.

I have had no trouble with them, not when compared with Cryptsy, Coins-E, CHICOIN, and all the other shady shiite out there.

That being said, they are pretty loose with your time before you hit Tier II...

If they say they have reached their buy limit, you should wait until they get more coins to buy from them.  Otherwise they will take the money out of your account and give you the market price as of the date they give you.  Coinbase is not an "exchange" it's more of a wallet service.  I use coinbase all the time and so do my friends and it is fine.  It's not a "scam".  If you need a question answered it's best to post in the coinbase Q/A on their site or on the reddit page.  Emailing them directly is pretty inefficient.  It takes forever to get an answer. 

I haven't had any problems with coinbase. All I had to do was put it bank info order some btc then in 4 days they credited it to my account. Why do some people have to go through all those hoops? I'm just curious.

Hi,  id like to start investing in bitcoins.  What exchange is best?  I'm hoping this will someday pay for my tuition fees!

@M1sty Yes you can invest in BTC therefore you'll exchange them for example with a seller.

Just wanted to add my voice to the chorus about Coinbase difficulties.
I went through the full verification, linked bank account, etc. and was
told I was all set to begin purchasing. I tried on 4 separate occasions
and every one was shot down as "high risk", even once when the price
of bitcoin went down over $150 while I was waiting for my order to be filled.
It looks to me like Coinbase just doesn't have enough bitcoins to sell.
This, coupled with the fact that localbitcoins is essentially useless in my area
is causing me to become very disillusioned with bitcoins in general. How are
they ever going to become the currency of the future if you can't even buy any?

If you find a way to contact support, they would gladly give you a btc at the price that you failed to get.

I've never had any issues with coinbase at all and I use them daily most purchases/sells that I've been conducting are around 0.1-1 BTC each

i havent had any issues with coin base..

and its a usa company so i feel more comfortable with them.

I second this.  I do use foreign exchanges simple for diversification I prefer Coinbase over them.  Its linked to my bank account for instant buys and very simple to use. 

I also like its a US company with big backers.  Who knows if it's "safer" than Bitstamp or Gox, but I trust it a bit more to get my money out, fast, if ever needed!

Honestly, after emailing after a failed transaction, I got an email two weeks later telling me they were approving the transaction AND crediting me .96 btw EXTRA because of what I could have done with the BTC had I had it. I was astounded. Stick with them. It might take a while to get answers, but once you get them, you might also get BTC you didn't realize you had. It was like a Christmas present! This was for a $1300 original transaction, so instead of getting 1.5 btc for that, I ended up getting 2.5 btc.

And just so everyone knows, this happened on December 27!

There is nothing wrong with coinbase.  You just have to go through their entire one month verification process.

Brian Armstrong (the CEO of coinbase) participated in an interesting panel during the 2013 bitcoin conference.  It's worth a watch if you want to get an idea of why they have to resort to such an extreme verification process. 

vid here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7Dl7vIGnU0

coinbase can be extremely aggravating. lack of explanation for their actions is what really gets me. some people say they have good customer service but theyve never replied to me.

This.  They are a US company under US laws.  I like them taking forever to verify people and going through the process.  The more regulation you have the better the lawmakers will look at BItcoin and the companies supporting them that they are for legit reason and not all for money laundering and drug buying.

 :P :P :P :P

Just want to note that I have used coinbase twice to sell BTC.  Fiat showed up promptly w/o any issue.  I have yet to purchase BTC with it, but works great for selling

When I first created my account, I had Coinbase cancel 2-3 deposits due to "suspicious" activities. However, after email them I haven't had any issues ever since. They're certainly the easiest to use, and I feel the most confident about them over other sites (like mtgox, btc-e, etc).

Yeah - but do you all trust Coinbase enough to keep your bitcoin out on the site? I'm working on getting my cold storage process down, but in the mean time I've got some bitcoin just sitting out there. Hopefully it's safe - the 2-step authentication seems pretty solid, but I know it's never safe unless you have them in possession.

Just to pipe in, using Coinbase for a month with no issues. Been able to sell and withdraw without issue. Have not done the purchasing process though, so don't know if that's a more complicated process.

This brings up a good point. Many Americans view bitcoins as a criminals currency and so they dont use it. If we can prove that its safe then more and more people will start to buy.

All your stories are quite scary... But I have never had any problems with CoinBase, to be honest. In fact I'm Tier III already.

It sounds like it was worth the long wait then.

What do they do with the current situation of bitcoin prices jumping up and down? Do they charge you the higher price if the transaction is not immediate and the price drops while you are waiting?

i've never had a problem with coinbase either.  other than the 4-5 day wait to actually get my coins, they've been solid.  i'm a little too paranoid to verify, so will deal with the wait.

coinbase has been a disaster for me.

instant verification took 1 month of BS glitches to accomplish. (no replies from "support" team)

after finally being verified for instant buy, every cancellation is now instantly canceled as "too high risk"!

WTF?

Now, the ability to purchase BTC the old 5 day wait way is gone.

I hope they use their new 25 million well....

Coinbase has probably been the smoothest for me thus far. Instant purchase is awesome.

What does every cancellation is canceled? You're trying to cancel orders you've placed?

Everyone takes 30 days for instant buys above .1 BTC.

No. Sometimes buys and sells get cancelled because them seem like a high risk.

What are your limits at Tier III and how did you get it? I'm T2, but that seems to be all that is listed as available to verify on my account (10 BTC instant, 50 BTC/day).

Pretty sure there isn't a Tier III.  What you have is the highest Coinbase will go.  10 instant, 50 / day.  Which once you get, being linked to bank account, is by far the best deal out there for Americans.  Not sure why people don't like this company.  Go through the process, its simple.