Where can I deposit money for bitcoin but not buy them just yet?

[lehappymerchant]

It seems like any service I send funds to will immediately turn them into BTC. 

I want to be in position to invest immediately, but not blindly throw money into BTC just yet. 

Thanks.

[theprofileth]

Coinbase is pretty nice, I started using it a week ago.

[earthwormjim1]

btc-e.com will do that

[Mike Christ]

Pretty  much any exchange will hold your USD until you're ready to start trading.

However, always expect an exchange to die and disappear, along with all your cash. 

[aysyr]

Yea most people suggest keeping it in your wallet if you can afford transferring coins back and forth.

[coinsandcoins]

this only works if your not a trader i learned that the hard way. it took 2 hours for my btc to show up in mtgox :/

[mehransaam]

Go with the largest and most trusted exchange:  mtgox.com  you can send money to fund your account by bank wire.

[lehappymerchant]

OP here

I really appreciated all the responses.  Yea im stuck b/c i want to use btce but obviously gox is where the volume is.  I'll probably go with gox until they straighten their mess out, because the markets will suffer until they do..

[theprofileth]

The reason I brought up coinbase is that once you link it to your bank account which takes between 2-3 days you can then make purchases instantly without havign to hassle about doing other shady stuff. The only down side is that you have to wait for the transaction to go through, which can take several days in order to get your bitcoins, though they lock the price to whatever you payed so there isnt any price fluctuation weirdness. The other thing about coinbase is that you can also sell bitcoins and have them directly deposit the money into your bank again with a wait but they typically just give you all the money you spent/earned on Friday though they do take the bitcoins while the transaction goes through, either way it is a good service that I have made a couple hundred dollars off of and they dont really charge much of a fee. You can buy bitcoins on coinbase and send them to other wallets or services like mtgox btw and vice versa to cash them out.

[lehappymerchant]

The reason I brought up coinbase is that once you link it to your bank account which takes between 2-3 days you can then make purchases instantly without havign to hassle about doing other shady stuff. The only down side is that you have to wait for the transaction to go through, which can take several days in order to get your bitcoins, though they lock the price to whatever you payed so there isnt any price fluctuation weirdness. The other thing about coinbase is that you can also sell bitcoins and have them directly deposit the money into your bank again with a wait but they typically just give you all the money you spent/earned on Friday though they do take the bitcoins while the transaction goes through, either way it is a good service that I have made a couple hundred dollars off of and they dont really charge much of a fee. You can buy bitcoins on coinbase and send them to other wallets or services like mtgox btw and vice versa to cash them out.

awesome, im on their site now.