Coinbase is probably not the best choice given their historically trash customer service.
I think that Binance is a really good alternative, although their services might be affected by the recent CFTC probe.
Frankly, buying BTC with debit/credit cards is almost always a bad idea given that you're going to get rates that are at least 1-2% above spot accounting for all the processing charges, even at large exchanges. If you're buying from P2P platforms then this could go as high as 10%.
Just deposit via bank transfer/cash deposit instead, it's much more cost effective.
The rates on those old P2P platforms are with such high premium because of multiple layers of fees added:
+ blockchain network fees (can be as high as $15-50)
+ P2P platform trading fees (typically 1%)
+ deposit/withdrawal fees (if any, but usually not)
+ final end-payment method for cash conversion fees, i.e. Visa/PayPal/etc. (can be from 0.1%-to-1.0% depending on service provider and your country)
= 3-4% so far of additional fees
and last, but not the least "fee" is the greed of buyer / seller, and local liquidity premium (less liquidity -> higher premium)
That explains such price discrepancy. And that's what we are aiming to solve at least partially on as.exchange (
https://as.exchange/BitcoinZeroFee) by eliminating P2P fees, and compensating users their BTC network fees where you can buy Bitcoin using debit/credit card or any other payment method. So, would be really happy for your feedback and comments guys. Let's make P2P trading great again, together