So how on earth am I supposed to get bitcoins in the UK?

[paraipan]

...

Mercabit tried to charge me something like £12.50 per bitcoin. No thanks... it was £8 or something last time which was reasonable :s

Pease pm me your email to check it out, and apologize if that's true.

[BitLucky]

For Bitcoin in the UK, BitInstant just released an online bank transfer system. This has not been publicly announced yet, but it works, and is very fast.  

On BitInstant.com, select your UK flag (You can see many other countries are available for this as well), then select Online Bank Transfer and go through the process. You can have the funds converted automatically into BTC and sent to your Bitcoin account, so you don't even need to bother with any exchanges. Fee is 3.49% if over $100 worth, and 3.99% if under.

EDIT: note that these bank transfer payments are nearly instant (matter of minutes). It does not take 1-3 days like most bank transfers. It's pretty baller, actually

Just tried this with various amounts and received the same message:

"We are sorry but we are unable to accept this transaction at present. Please double check your transaction amount is within limits or try again later"

[Boussac]

Convert your funds to euros and wire tranfer to bitcoin-central.net EUR account:
Account Holder Name: Paymium (Paymium is the registered company operating bitcoin-central, instwawire, instawallet and Paytunia)
IBAN: FR76 3006 6108 8700 0200 7310 542
BIC: CMCIFRPP


If you do not want to convert, send GBP to Paymium's account in GBP .
Your bitcoin-central account will be credited in Euro at the going rate when we receive the funds.
IBAN: FR76 3006 6108 8700 0200 7310 930
BIC: CMCIFRPP

In any case, since the UK is in the SEPA zone, the wire transfer is free.
There is a 15 € fee only if you mistakenly send euros to a GBP account or vice versa.
Do not forget to copy your bitcoin-central account number (BC-XXX..) in the "comments" field of your wire transfer online form.

[BitLucky]

Convert your funds to euros and wire tranfer to bitcoin-central.net EUR account:
Account Holder Name: Paymium (Paymium is the registered company operating bitcoin-central, instwawire, instawallet and Paytunia)
IBAN: FR76 3006 6108 8700 0200 7310 542
BIC: CMCIFRPP


If you do not want to convert, send GBP to Paymium's account in GBP .
Your bitcoin-central account will be credited in Euro at the going rate when we receive the funds.
IBAN: FR76 3006 6108 8700 0200 7310 930
BIC: CMCIFRPP

In any case, since the UK is in the SEPA zone, the wire transfer is free.
There is a 15 € fee only if you mistakenly send euros to a GBP account or vice versa.
Do not forget to copy your bitcoin-central account number (BC-XXX..) in the "comments" field of your wire transfer online form.

Which banks allow SEPA transactions for free? Natwest trying to charge me £25!

[scribe]

Convert your funds to euros and wire tranfer to bitcoin-central.net EUR account:
Account Holder Name: Paymium (Paymium is the registered company operating bitcoin-central, instwawire, instawallet and Paytunia)
IBAN: FR76 3006 6108 8700 0200 7310 542
BIC: CMCIFRPP


If you do not want to convert, send GBP to Paymium's account in GBP .
Your bitcoin-central account will be credited in Euro at the going rate when we receive the funds.
IBAN: FR76 3006 6108 8700 0200 7310 930
BIC: CMCIFRPP

In any case, since the UK is in the SEPA zone, the wire transfer is free.
There is a 15 € fee only if you mistakenly send euros to a GBP account or vice versa.
Do not forget to copy your bitcoin-central account number (BC-XXX..) in the "comments" field of your wire transfer online form.

Which banks allow SEPA transactions for free? Natwest trying to charge me £25!

Heh, same with Barclays, from what I've read. I'm not convinced the UK *is* actually in the SEPA zone, but only just started looking into it...

[paraipan]

Convert your funds to euros and wire tranfer to bitcoin-central.net EUR account:
Account Holder Name: Paymium (Paymium is the registered company operating bitcoin-central, instwawire, instawallet and Paytunia)
IBAN: FR76 3006 6108 8700 0200 7310 542
BIC: CMCIFRPP


If you do not want to convert, send GBP to Paymium's account in GBP .
Your bitcoin-central account will be credited in Euro at the going rate when we receive the funds.
IBAN: FR76 3006 6108 8700 0200 7310 930
BIC: CMCIFRPP

In any case, since the UK is in the SEPA zone, the wire transfer is free.
There is a 15 € fee only if you mistakenly send euros to a GBP account or vice versa.
Do not forget to copy your bitcoin-central account number (BC-XXX..) in the "comments" field of your wire transfer online form.

Which banks allow SEPA transactions for free? Natwest trying to charge me £25!

Heh, same with Barclays, from what I've read. I'm not convinced the UK *is* actually in the SEPA zone, but only just started looking into it...

I think UK is just tad behind implementing SEPA transfers to other EU contries, source:

https://www.ukpayments.org.uk/payment_options/cross_border_payments/single_euro_payments_area_(sepa)/

Although the UK is a non-euro country and the number of cross-border euro payments to and from the UK is comparatively small, the UK payment industry is committed to making SEPA a reality.
A number of UK-based payment service providers (including many Payments Council Members) currently offer SEPA Credit Transfer products to their customers. These institutions account for in excess of 85% of the UK payments market by volume. Customers of these institutions are able to make SEPA Credit Transfers from their accounts in the UK on a SEPA-wide basis.
At this stage, we believe that the creation (or realisation) of SEPA will be invisible to the vast majority of UK customers making sterling payments, as the sterling Schemes will continue to operate alongside the SEPA versions. However, UK-based businesses and individuals who make or receive payments in euros will be affected by SEPA as its geographical scope extends beyond the eurozone.

I found out British people could use transferwise for sending SEPA wires though

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=4149375

[Evolvex]

From the UK, the cheapest way to buy with GBP is via PingIt to Blockchain as the post above says (you have to open up an account with Barclays first). The fee is 0.97% total which is reasonable as even with Mt Gox you still have to pay a 0.6% transaction fee. The other way is to do international money transfer to say Mt Gox but it is expensive, e.g. with Barclays this costs £25 per transfer. I think Mt Gox's bank in Japan also charges like 1000Yen for handling the transfer so altogether you are looking at around the £35 mark. To make this cost efficient, you'd have to do a transfer of at least £10,000 and this gets the charge down to 0.35% plus add on the 0.6% from trading and you have equivalence with the PingIt/Blockchain method. Downside with PingIt though is you can only transfer a maximum of £250 per week.

WE WANT A CHEAP NO LIMIT WAY TO BUY BITCOIN IN GBP DAMNIT!

Update on this one - the fee for blockchain.info pingit deposits is now 5.97% - so not so great. Does suck in the UK at the min for getting bitcoins. But yeah, try localbitcoins.

[nobbynobbynoob]

Some meaningful news on Mt Gox's troubles with Barclays / the UK banking system would be nice. Will this get fixed any time soon?

[keynet10]

Easiest method seems to be.............
Pop down to the local shop and buy a Ukash voucher,
Use Ukash tools on their website to convert to Euros,
Register with Cashu, convert Ukash to CashU,
Register with OKPAY, add funds to account with CashU,
Buy BTC`s via MT.Gox adding funds using OKPAY - 1% fee,


Yeah, I know it is a joke trying to buy BTC`s in the UK,

[piuk]

For those unable to use PingIt we now also offer an instant bank transfer option. Limits apply.

[Bit2Brit]

Hi,

Have a look at http://bit2brit.co.uk, you can buy and sell BTC here, buy bitcoins: http://bit2brit.co.uk/buy-bitcoins-uk, and trade btc for gbp here: http://bit2brit.co.uk/sell-bitcoins-uk at a good exchange rates.

We are based in the UK and offer personal meetings to trade large sums over 2k.

Please PM me or email me at info@bit2brit.co.uk if you have any questions.

Best Regards,
The Bit2Brit Team

[piramida]

People say that you can't do it by credit/debit card because of the risk of a chargeback, that's bullshit. I just purchased a £2000 Gibson by debit card, same thing. How is it different all of a sudden just because the product is bitcoins?

Well, it's pretty easy to hide bitcoins and pretend you never got them; not so much with Gibson, there is a whole postal track record and the physical object in your house, etc.

[Stephen Gornick]

Have a look at bit2brit.co.uk

There are unanswered questions about this exchange that was launched by someone not recognized as having participated yet in the Bitcoin community (i.e., consider using an escrow if doing a trade.)

 - http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=121265.0

[Mjbmonetarymetals]

You could give my site a try http://mjbmonetarymetals.co.uk/ fill a form from the bitcoin tab

I buy bitcoins at mt. Gox gbp price and sell at +5%

Might be useful for some in the UK, at least until we get a fully functioning exchange.

[pintycar]

For those unable to use PingIt we now also offer an instant bank transfer option. Limits apply.

Hi,

Any news on this? I don't have the bank deposit button, only pingit and phone deposit.

Thank you.

[Boussac]

Convert your funds to euros and wire tranfer to bitcoin-central.net EUR account:
Account Holder Name: Paymium (Paymium is the registered company operating bitcoin-central, instwawire, instawallet and Paytunia)
IBAN: FR76 3006 6108 8700 0200 7310 542
BIC: CMCIFRPP


If you do not want to convert, send GBP to Paymium's account in GBP .
Your bitcoin-central account will be credited in Euro at the going rate when we receive the funds.
IBAN: FR76 3006 6108 8700 0200 7310 930
BIC: CMCIFRPP

In any case, since the UK is in the SEPA zone, the wire transfer is free.
There is a 15 € fee only if you mistakenly send euros to a GBP account or vice versa.
Do not forget to copy your bitcoin-central account number (BC-XXX..) in the "comments" field of your wire transfer online form.

Which banks allow SEPA transactions for free? Natwest trying to charge me £25!

Heh, same with Barclays, from what I've read. I'm not convinced the UK *is* actually in the SEPA zone, but only just started looking into it...

I must confirm that the simplest is to convert GBP to EUR first, then send the funds (in EUR) to Paymium EUR account. That's a SEPA wire transfer, free of charge. You only pay a currency conversion fee applied by the bank of origin (in the UK).
A wire transfer in GBP would not be considered SEPA (yet).

[miernik]

I must confirm that the simplest is to convert GBP to EUR first, then send the funds (in EUR) to Paymium EUR account. That's a SEPA wire transfer, free of charge. You only pay a currency conversion fee applied by the bank of origin (in the UK).
A wire transfer in GBP would not be considered SEPA (yet).

"You must confirm"

From which UK bank you made a EUR SEPA wire transfer free of charge?

Tell people which bank if there is really one which makes them "free of charge" or don't spread misinformation.

[Boussac]

I must confirm that the simplest is to convert GBP to EUR first, then send the funds (in EUR) to Paymium EUR account. That's a SEPA wire transfer, free of charge. You only pay a currency conversion fee applied by the bank of origin (in the UK).
A wire transfer in GBP would not be considered SEPA (yet).

"You must confirm"

From which UK bank you made a EUR SEPA wire transfer free of charge?

Tell people which bank if there is really one which makes them "free of charge" or don't spread misinformation.

I am saying that there is no charge for the SEPA wire in euro (obviously there is a charge for converting GBP to EURO with the bank in UK).

Also, Transferwise delivers fast SEPA wires to Paymium from the UK without triggering additionnal charges at the receiving end.

[Stephen Gornick]

I was just seeing a P2P payments upstart in the UK:

add cash to it via a debit or credit card (in multiples of £10) and pay anyone who both has the app and an email address which is associated with the app.

 - http://techcrunch.com/2012/12/03/droplet-plans-to-disrupt-mobile-cash-with-no-charges-payment-app-for-iphone/

This is a little different from PayPal for payments transfer because (presumably) the app requires location tracking (geofencing), and thus a lesser chance of claiming it was not an authorized payment.

I'ld be curious if this would be a tool used for either low-cost bitcoin cash-out (payment send via Droplet, from a trusted party) or for face-to-face transactions where there is less risk of carrying physical cash.

Of course, this has the same level of being traceable as bank transactions do, so there's that.

[Edit: I see a thread on it already exists:

 - http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=128948.0 ]

[franky1]

other method is the post office if you dont want to deal with bank accounts and 3 day delays.

they have a service called money gram. which is like western union.

bitinstant takes moneygram payments and exchanges them for bitcoins. check out instructions on bitinstant for method of doing it.
thats business method in. or theres the localbitcoins, where you find someone nearby to accept the payment.

soon there will be a bitcoin/litecoin exchange that deals in UK£ without and transfer to US$ which will make purchasing and selling bitcoins for us british folk