Buy bitcoin with cash deposits at most banks in the USA with Bitcoin-Brokers

[CrazyMiata]

.......

I'm in a very similar boat as you. I just setup earlier this evening as a seller. Testing the waters and will report back. The feedback did seem legit enough and that pushed me to try it. I will report back here as well. My account is 4 months old  is that worth anything even though I'm dealing with bitcoin since 2011.

[1714055668]

1714055668

[1714055668]

1714055668

[The 4ner]

Would you ever consider adding Schools First Federal Credit Union to your list?

I am sorry but, I wouldn't want to waste your time, by having you think that there was a possibility that anybody would ever make a deposit into that credit union.

It simply has too few branches to be considered a viable option. It could be the best credit union, with the friendliest staff, but it doesn't offer what we need....branches.

If you can offer an account at a major bank such as one of the existing ones, or SunTrust or Capital One or something which has thousands of branches, then I would be happy to make adjustments on the website to reflect your bank.

I have had two sellers in the past offer bitcoin at credit unions....they never sold. I hope you understand.

Thanks.

Most credit unions in the USA have agreements, any member of any other credit union can use them just like the home credit union without fees.

It's called shared branching and it makes almost any credit union have branches almost everywhere. For deposits it's dead simple.

That's why I suggested adding SchoolsFirst to be added. Whenever I need to withdraw money I can use the ATM of another credit union closer to where I live without being charged any fees.

[sayulita]

I am happy to say that Bitcoin-Brokers has finally reached a point where there is an ample supply of bitcoin available at most major banks.

A lot of new sellers signed up over the past few weeks and are able to offer up an endless supply based on current demand.

Instead of taking on more sellers, I think the right thing to do at this time is to let the buy side of the business play "catch up".

If you are an existing seller, you are in, and can continue to supply at whatever pace you wish.

If you wish to be a new seller at Bitcoin-Brokers, feel free to contact Dan through the help desk, and your name will be placed on a list for the next time the doors open for new sellers to join.

Thanks.

[tvbcof]

I guess I and crazymiata made it in just in time as sellers.  Happy days.

With something complex like this, some of the questions and considerations don't appear immediately.  One thing that hit me was that my bank (Wells Fargo) takes until the next business day to change deposit status out of 'pending' status.  They also don't make the deposit scans available immediately.

One exploit I could think of is that a fraudulent buyer issues a check but doctors things up to look like cash on the scan.  In that case I might see the funds (albeit in pending mode) and release my coins then have the check bounce and the funds clawed back.

I deem this to be a low risk thing mainly because the it would be a lot of risk for reward, and pretty clear fraud generally which the bank might expend resources investigating.  None-the-less I probably would want to wait for the banks scans and shift out of 'pending' mode before releasing multi-thousand dollar BTC values.

Anyway, I wanted to get a discussion going on this type of thing mainly because I am unfamiliar with banking generally, various types of fraud that people attempt, and how likely a bank is to pursue what types of fraud.

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Another risk which is probably not so unlikely that it should be neglected is that Bitcoin-Brokers.org gets put under pressure by regulators or law enforcement and have to freeze things.  It (and the possibility that they themselves are running some sort of scam) are risks that I weighed in determining how much BTC to entrust them with.  I'd welcome any legal theories about where the possible points of weakness are in the various aspects of what they are doing.  And what I and the seller are doing for that matter.

As I mentioned in a previous, I would feel more comfortable if Bitcoin-Brokers personal identities were available through an escrow to be released if they ran.  Partially mitigating this is that it is usually possible to track people down if they use third-party services and one spends enough time and money doing so.  Another mitigating factor is that in my experience so far, the results and service quality indicate a legitimate and effective service.

[CrazyMiata]

Identity under escrow would be great reassurance but if the business is running smoothly should technically run fine as the owner has incentive to keep it runnin. However if any of the old timers remember it could be mybitcoin esque. I am depositing with a non popular bank we'll see how long it takes.

[Otoh]

The fact that the OP has capped sellers atm is a good sign for his honesty, otherwise he would just encourage more & more sellers to send coins until he'd amassed the max possible to abscond with.

[tvbcof]

The fact that the OP has capped sellers atm is a good sign for his honesty, otherwise he would just encourage more & more sellers to send coins until he'd amassed the max possible to abscond with.

I'm not trying to knock on the solution which at this point I have every reason to be happy with, but I always play devils advocate and try to gauge observations against the multitude of possibly hypothesis.  So...

A very shrewd operator who was being dis-honest may halt taking in new money with stories about imbalances to give cover to a period of non-activity seen by the seller (who's coin's the operator currently controls.)

Of course a perfectly up-front operator would be happy to avoid an excess of balances for which they were responsible.  I certainly would if I were trying to run such a service.

On balance, the interesting news of the halt in accepting new buyers sellers strongly supports the 'is legit' hypothesis.  At least it does in my mind.

  edit: correct sense buyer/seller which was wrong and misleading.

[marcus_of_augustus]

Devil's advocate:

There is another opening that users should consider as Bitcoin Brokers grows. It seems that the bitcoins the sellers place in escrow with BB are then solely controlled by BB (correct me if I'm wrong here?).

So as the business grows and the number of transactions increases the amount of btc in the current float (under BB escrow) increases accordingly. At some point in time that amount of btc may become an incentive that overwhelms the incentive to honestly continue business. I'm not saying this will happen or that the current owner is dishonest, it is just a remaining conceptual hole in the business model using anonymous money and anonymous exchange operator that I would like to point out ... in case of different owners, circumstances or copycat businesses etc.

I'm not sure what would be the best practice of closing this hole in the business model either, (maybe delegate 2 or several independents to facilitate the escrow?) .... I think ways to fix this can be found. Generally I'm very impressed with this business model and think it is Gen 1 of many more that will come and improve upon it, with more automation, crypto hardening, separation of duties, knowledge, privacy, etc.

An interim protection measure for sellers, is to only put in escrow with BB what you can afford to lose (but seeing as we are all in bitcoin only with money we can afford to lose then that shouldn't be a problem )

[HenryRomp]

Looks a little shady to me... I really like the concept and I will be watching closely to see how this pans out but thus far I don't feel convinced yet.

[ruletheworld]

Dan,
Perhaps the right solution would be to allow/encourage your sellers to go MtGox -x% instead of MtGox +x% to balance out the buy/sell part? Everyone knows MtGox prices aren't the best prices when it comes to buying Bitcoin. Just a thought.

[tvbcof]

Dan,
Perhaps the right solution would be to allow/encourage your sellers to go MtGox -x% instead of MtGox +x% to balance out the buy/sell part? Everyone knows MtGox prices aren't the best prices when it comes to buying Bitcoin. Just a thought.

I've never seen any indication that setting a negative vs. Mt. Gox is dis-allowed.  To the contrary, it seems to be effective

I kind of like the opportunity to guess about what might be happening with my 'competition' in the seller's space.  It adds another element of intrigue.  Of course it might add extra hassle and add opportunities for error if sellers are changing their terms all the time, but so far the brokers seem to be able to stay on top of things.  At least to my level of satisfaction.

This service is actually just plain fun.  It requires some attentiveness in order to provide satisfaction to the buyers, but presumably I could lock up things if I wanted to take a vacation or something.

[ruletheworld]

Dan,
Perhaps the right solution would be to allow/encourage your sellers to go MtGox -x% instead of MtGox +x% to balance out the buy/sell part? Everyone knows MtGox prices aren't the best prices when it comes to buying Bitcoin. Just a thought.

I've never seen any indication that setting a negative vs. Mt. Gox is dis-allowed.  To the contrary, it seems to be effective

I kind of like the opportunity to guess about what might be happening with my 'competition' in the seller's space.  It adds another element of intrigue.  Of course it might add extra hassle and add opportunities for error if sellers are changing their terms all the time, but so far the brokers seem to be able to stay on top of things.  At least to my level of satisfaction.

This service is actually just plain fun.  It requires some attentiveness in order to provide satisfaction to the buyers, but presumably I could lock up things if I wanted to take a vacation or something.

Sounds like a good deal, I've written to you to inquire more about this. It is definitely interesting how this will pan out if you have more sellers. I hope you don't go on a permanent holiday though

[Extravagant]

I did read the thread u prick.

there is just as many post's saying they had success as there are ones with worries and potential problems.

[Extravagant]

I wanted to check back and thank everyone OTHER than this idiot prick pankkake,  on recommending Bitcoin-Broker,

My first transaction with BB was a breeze. I will be using them again in the future.

The customer service they provide is top notch.

And JFYI, Dwolla does CampBX transfers. But the first transfer is held 31 days!!!

Meaning if you havent used it before you must wait 31 days before campBX gets the funds, I did as they suggested, transferred a small amount today ($20) and use another service in the meantime. Eventually the funds will go through and then from then on ur transfers are instant.

Thanks again to everyone that was helpful.

[sayulita]

Happy to hear that you were satisfied with the service.

[tvbcof]

Point of potential interest:

I got an under $1K deposit from spooksville, USA on the East coast a few days ago.  Actually, it's also where Dulles Intl Airport is, and where plenty of non-spooks live as well to be fair.  But anyway...

I got a phone call from customer service at about 20:30 Pacific time with the lady asking me if I was satisfied with Wells Fargo's service related to my deposit in that location.  Somehow it did not 'feel' like an ordinary call-center type thing, but maybe I'm just paranoid.  I told the lady straight up that it wasn't me, and I sold something to someone via a broker so I have no idea who deposited the money.  But the money is in the bank so I'm happy with their service.

I went on to ask her about the legality and mentioned that everything I have found indicates that it is perfectly legal to deposit cash in someone else's account.  She said "I don' know anything about that." and more or less hung up on me.

Between this unusual cash deposit pattern and the eventual wire from Mt. Gox which I hope makes it to my account before the earth stops cooling I figure I'll be lucky to retain an account with Wells.  And if the various banks communicate, I might end up being one of the more well-to-do 'unbanked' persons around.  We'll see.  It would be hilarious if I got kicked out of the banking system just in time for the Cyprus style 'bail in' which is, from what I read, now in vogue amongst the corp/gov planners as a means of re-capitalizing Western banks when the run into trouble after rehypothecating my savings and losing it in highly leveraged derivatives bets.

[marcus_of_augustus]

Between this unusual cash deposit pattern and the eventual wire from Mt. Gox which I hope makes it to my account before the earth stops cooling I figure I'll be lucky to retain an account with Wells.  And if the various banks communicate, I might end up being one of the more well-to-do 'unbanked' persons around.  We'll see.  It would be hilarious if I got kicked out of the banking system just in time for the Cyprus style 'bail in' which is, from what I read, now in vogue amongst the corp/gov planners as a means of re-capitalizing Western banks when the run into trouble after rehypothecating my savings and losing it in highly leveraged derivatives bets.

Yes, please ... kick me out of your poxy system before it goes tits up and screws anybody stupid enough to be left using it ...

[sayulita]

Just FYI, Capital One has been added as a payment location.

[tvbcof]

I had to go to town today and chatted with my personal banker with whom I have a good relationship.  We had talked about Bitcoin and MSB's and such before.  Neither she nor any of her co-workers had even heard of Bitcoin which surprised me a bit, but then it is a small town.

My banker assured me that there is nothing untoward about random people dumping cash into one's account.  She did suggest that I open a different account so that I don't need to give out my account number so freely though.  I'm close to done with my current sales plan for now, but if/when I use this Bitcoin Brokers again I'll probably do that.

In total, my own experience with Bitcoin Brokers as a seller has been fantastic, and I hope that they let me back in as a seller when I wish to do another batch.  I was normally pretty prompt in noticing and taking action on sales, so hopefully the buyers of my BTC had a good experience as well.

I met with a lot of derision (sort of) when putting money into Bitcoin (and losing it) several years ago.  Everyone thought it was risky.  Well, no shit.  I did to.  I was prepared to lose it all and had confidence in my analysis about the potential so I never let my actions and the reactions of others bother me.  On my visit today the banker herself commented that whatever the case, Bitcoin bought me a pretty nice excavator.  That was my feelings as well.  In short, if you are a buyer and feel that you've done adequate due diligence and have the capacity to absorb risk and potential loss, don't be embarrassed about doing 'unusual' stuff.  We are forced into this scenario by people who want to control our own money and by extension our own lives else most of us would do things in a bit less of an unusual way.

[BixCoinage]

So, after finding many exchanges that are under the mtgox price I finally found Bitcoin-Brokers. I tried to do as much research as possible, reddit, this forum etc. finally I took the leap of faith and it worked!! To date I've sold 47 btc with them, all have been extremely smooth transactions, I look forward to doing many more. Also I try to respond asap so buyers get their btc asap, which means repeat buyers....good for me as a seller. Some days it may only be a small transaction, some days large but either way it's money in my account, which makes me totally satisfied with Bitcoin-Brokers.