I recently received a 500$ prepaid visa giftcard from a friend at work
Where do you find friends like that?
my visa is only good in the U.S. Is it even possible to buy bitcoins with a Visa Prepaid giftcard?
Can the card be used at an ATM?
Cash works for buying bitcoins.
Do you have a Chase location nearby? Bitcoins can be purchased at BitMe with cash deposited at Chase. There isn't always liquidity so buying in the $500 range there might take a bit for sellers to take you up on your buy order. (or you can always buy at the current price for the sell orders, but that is about 5% over the spot price).
You can also buy bitcoins using cash through BitInstant.
-
http://www.BitInstant.comThere is a service that accepts credit and debit cards, I don't know if they have restrictions against prepaid cards. At the moment the site reads: "Availability: Out Of Stock" though.
-
http://btcquick.comOr you might find a local trade (paying cash):
-
http://www.localbitcoins.comAdditionally, there are frequently individual traders on #bitcoin-otc who are willing to accept a prepaid card and after spending the funds successfully will send you the coins for the agreed-upon purchase price. Using the history from the Web of Trust (WoT) helps to ensure a safer transaction -- or perhaps asking the seller to agree to using an escrow is another way to lessen the chance that you would be cheated.
-
http://bitcoin-otc.com/ -
http://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=#bitcoin-otc-foyer -
http://bitcoin-otc.com/viewratings.phpOr if you are considering a bank transfer, there all kinds of options are available:
-
http://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Buying_bitcoins