Hey folks,
I have been through the mill in recent weeks purchasing significant quantities of BTC (circa 8,000 EUR worth). I have been a long-time user of
Intersango (though not very active until recently) but decided to try out
BTC-E since they tend to have a more active market and often better rates (Intersango's BTC/EUR price has often been poor).
I made 2,000 EUR transfers to each of them on Monday 20th via international bank transfer. In the case of BTC-E I went via their payments partner,
Perfect Money, who in turn use XML gold for actual deposits.
After a few days of nothing happening and asking on here, and getting some disturbing reports about Intersango, I also opened an account with
Bitstamp and sent them a transfer on the Wednesday.
I opened tickets with Perfect money and Intersango chasing my payments around the same time. Perfect money bounced me on to XML gold, and eventually they did find my transfer on the 30th(!), after my prodding. When the money did arrive with Perfect Money it was less a 3% handling charge, and then another ~3% charge to get the funds into BTC-E! I won't be using them again and strongly do not recommend.
Intersango processed the payment on the 28th. They did actually get the funds on the Friday but for some reason waited until after the British bank holiday.
As if the delay was not bad enough with Intersango, I have been having huge problems actually getting BTC out. You seem to have to keep cancelling and re-creating withdrawal orders. I had a ticket about it opened on about the 21st and later that week they said they'd fixed an issue, but a couple of days ago I was having the same problem; withdrawal requests stalled on status "Requested". Again, I shall not be using them any more!
By contrast, Bitstamp and been
superb. My payments were credited on the day of receipt (ie. usually next day - international transfers are instant!!) and withdrawing has similarly been instant (the confirms being the only delay of course). For anyone in the UK like me or Europe I recommend Bitstamp.
Finally, I did also try transferring a small amount via
VirWoX (you can buy SL Linded then buy BTC with them). The net exchange rate was utterly atrocious and you can only move small amounts that way. Again - do not do this!!
Anyway, I hope that some others can be spared the hassle I've gone through in my n00bish fumblings. :p
Kate.
