What are some effective/reliable ways to buy goods and services with bitcoin?

[zabzob]

I'm always looking for new ways to use bitcoin to pay for stuff. Not looking to buy a Lambo or a mansion, mostly just useful everyday stuff. I don't live in El Salvador so my options are limited. Two of the best services I've come across are Travala.com for hotels and flights, and bitrefill.com for gift cards. Purse.io was great for spending on Amazon, but they went out of business recently.

Any other good options out there? I only consider options with no KYC, so that means debit cards are out.

[BitMaxz]

Have you tried the two below?

- newegg.com
- g2a.com

Also, check this list of alternatives for bitrefill here https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5208530.0

You can also use the BTCmap to find nearby restaurants, grocery stores, cafes, or any local store that accepts crypto in your current location.

[OmegaStarScream]

Here are you have more gift card providers: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5208530.120;topicseen

There is usually a slight difference in prices, and the supported gift cards but if it's a major service you want to buy from, you'll probably find its card anywhere.

For hosting services, you have Namecheap and Vultr. For VPNs, I think most providers out there accept bitcoin now.

[dkbit98]

Any other good options out there? I only consider options with no KYC, so that means debit cards are out.

You can't really buy physical items without doing some kind of registration of your name, address and personal details, except if you are using PO boxes.

There are several services that accept purchasing for Bitcoin in EU, for example shopinbit.com is one of them, but there are other options.
I also saw one member was using alternative for amazon that accepts monero payments, but he had a bad experience with them.
Another way to bypass situation when website is not accepting bitcoin is to use non-kyc crypto debit cards.

[Potato Chips]

Here is another directory you can look into: https://cryptwerk.com/

Yelp.com afaik also has "cryptocurrency" filter whenever applicable. But because it's not possible to filter which cryptocurrency individually, you'll have to inquire before you go just to be sure bitcoin is also included in the list of cryptos they accept. I believe most shops these days have various channels to be reached to online.

[Lucius]

~snip~
I don't live in El Salvador so my options are limited.

If you live in the belief that in that country you can pay for everything with BTC, then you are greatly mistaken - a legal tender may sound great on paper, but in reality things are much different. You've already received some good advice, but now it all depends on where you live, because if you're in Europe, it doesn't make much sense to order something from the US or Japan, because you'll pay a lot for it due to customs and VAT.

Any other good options out there? I only consider options with no KYC, so that means debit cards are out.

There are more than enough of them  -- https://spending-bitcoin.com -- , it's just a matter of what you're looking for

[Faisal2202]

Here is another directory you can look into: https://cryptwerk.com/

Yelp.com afaik also has "cryptocurrency" filter whenever applicable. But because it's not possible to filter which cryptocurrency individually, you'll have to inquire before you go just to be sure bitcoin is also included in the list of cryptos they accept. I believe most shops these days have various channels to be reached to online.

You are right Most of the shops these days have options to pay with crypto, but not all of them are reliable because sometimes buying with BTC is expensive in comparison to buying with Fiat, so why would a person (OP) prefer buying with BTC? Maybe he doesn't want to share his financial details with the store, etc.

Well, the sites mentioned above are the good ones. I see a a gap or opportunity here to make a tool that will compare all the sites for some X product and will provide you with the best offer you can get such a tool will be of great help to all of us if one is not already in the market and I'm not aware of it.

Omegastarscrea --> I think we can only buy virtual devices on Vultr but not VPNs like nodevpn or any other vpn like it?

[FatFork]

OP, here's a service you might not have heard of yet: BitPay Bill Pay. It lets people use Bitcoin to pay bills directly like your utilities, internet, or even rent to your landlord and  instead of doing a bank transfer which costs money, BitPay takes your Bitcoin and converts it to fiat for you automatically to pay your bill.  The cool thing is it keeps you more anonymous since your bills just show a payment from BitPay rather than your name and bank account to it.  

I haven't tried it yet but it seems like a good way to put some of your Bitcoin to work if you don't want to cash it out but have bills to pay.  Depending on who sends your bills you may be able to ditch the bank transfers.  Definitely something to check out if you want an alternative way to pay bills directly from your Bitcoin wallet.  Just a heads up, though,  while BitPay itself doesn't require KYC verification for using their wallet, Bill Pay might have some limitations depending on the biller you're paying. It's always good to check their specific terms for that.

You are right Most of the shops these days have options to pay with crypto,
<cut>

Unfortunately, that is very far from being true. Most shops online still don't have the option to pay with crypto.

[joniboini]

If you're into online gaming and live in Asia, you have some decent options. I had a good experience with Kaleoz in the past, quite good for buying gift cards or top-up your online game balance. They are not friendly with VPN users though, so it's probably not a good idea if you need to use VPN regularly. Not sure if they've improved anything but I left them because I had a hard time logging in to my account for unknown reasons. I think it's not a widespread issue but you should keep this in mind if you want to check them out.

[Lucius]

OP, here's a service you might not have heard of yet: BitPay Bill Pay. It lets people use Bitcoin to pay bills directly like your utilities, internet, or even rent to your landlord and  instead of doing a bank transfer which costs money, BitPay takes your Bitcoin and converts it to fiat for you automatically to pay your bill.  The cool thing is it keeps you more anonymous since your bills just show a payment from BitPay rather than your name and bank account to it.  

I haven't tried it yet but it seems like a good way to put some of your Bitcoin to work if you don't want to cash it out but have bills to pay.  
~snip~

It seems like a convenient thing for those who want to pay bills with cryptocurrencies, but there is one "small problem" in the whole thing - the service only works in the US and in certain federal states. If you want to pay bills in HR, there is a domestic solution for that

Who can pay bills with BitPay?

Currently, only US residents in the following states can use BitPay to pay bills with crypto: Alabama, Alaska, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, Ohio, Oregon, South Dakota, Tennessee and Washington. We are actively working to make this feature accessible to more people. For users outside of these areas, visit our Merchant Directory for a curated collection of the top places you can pay with crypto regardless of your location. Alternatively, sign up for the BitPay Card to pay with crypto like cash.

[Faisal2202]

Unfortunately, that is very far from being true. Most shops online still don't have the option to pay with crypto.

I was not being very accurate but I was saying in general that, compared to past or past few years or months, the adoption of crypto is increasing and more and more vendors and shops are now accepting payments in crypto. Either they are offline or online. You might have seen an image on the internet that an Indian rickshaw driver is also accepting payment in crypto.

[zabzob]

Thanks for all these informative replies, guys. Lots of useful resources here.

[superman22]

Few months back my country had international debit/credit card suspended for saving foreign currency. I had big trouble. I went every one for seeking my domain and hosting payments. It was my painful months. Thus, I checked my hosting company had reliable BITPAY and BTCPAY option to purchase domain and hosting without KYC verification.
This was my business fall saving for me.

[NotATether]

Gift cards will get you quite far in terms of payments, but you shouldn't rule out directly paying in Bitcoin and also using prepaid cards for almost everything else that doesn't come with gift cards. Although for some other infra payments you'd still need a CC or wire transfer.

[joniboini]

Few months back my country had international debit/credit card suspended for saving foreign currency. I had big trouble. I went every one for seeking my domain and hosting payments. It was my painful months. Thus, I checked my hosting company had reliable BITPAY and BTCPAY option to purchase domain and hosting without KYC verification.

That's surprising. So they suspend any card as long as the user saves some foreign currency in their bank account? Why would they need to do that? Luckily domain or hosting services are not strangers to cryptocurrency, although some do ask for KYC afaik.

-snip-

Saw similar images a while back, not sure if it was in India or Nigeria. I don't think I'll see this in my country though. IIRC some of them accept lightning too, which is a good idea since they only deal with small-value transactions. CMIIW.

[examplens]

Few months back my country had international debit/credit card suspended for saving foreign currency. I had big trouble. I went every one for seeking my domain and hosting payments. It was my painful months. Thus, I checked my hosting company had reliable BITPAY and BTCPAY option to purchase domain and hosting without KYC verification.
This was my business fall saving for me.

Use virtual credit cards which you can refill with crypto and do not ask for KYC. For example PayWithUs - Virtual cards - NO KYC. Pay with Crypto.
And you have crypto-friendly domain registries, which also do not require KYC. For example, Namesilo, has the option of direct payment in BTC, without intermediaries, i.e. payment gateway.

[Lucius]

@examplens, the only advantage that card offers is that it can be topped up - but as far as I can see (still) it doesn't support Google/Apple/Samsung Wallets and it doesn't have a 3DS, which can be a problem for online payments in Europe. In addition, the card is not even free.

Virtual cards that do not require registration at all seem much better to me, they can be added to one of the mentioned wallets for physical payments, which expands the possibilities for paying with them.

[examplens]

@examplens, the only advantage that card offers is that it can be topped up - but as far as I can see (still) it doesn't support Google/Apple/Samsung Wallets and it doesn't have a 3DS, which can be a problem for online payments in Europe. In addition, the card is not even free.

Virtual cards that do not require registration at all seem much better to me, they can be added to one of the mentioned wallets for physical payments, which expands the possibilities for paying with them.

@superman22 was looking for an option to pay for hosting & domains, and I tested that card just to pay for domain and hosting renewal and everything worked flawlessly. That's why I suggested it.

[OmegaStarScream]

-snip-
Omegastarscrea --> I think we can only buy virtual devices on Vultr but not VPNs like nodevpn or any other vpn like it?

I just saw your post as I haven't received a notification since you missed a letter from my username but to answer you, yes. Vultr is for hosting. You cannot buy a VPN from it. But you surely can buy a server and host your own VPN using WireGuard or similar projects.

[zabzob]

Virtual cards that do not require registration at all seem much better to me, they can be added to one of the mentioned wallets for physical payments, which expands the possibilities for paying with them.

What are some virtual cards that don't require registration? And how does one use them to to fund those wallets, e.g. Apple or Samsung? I'd appreciate some more specifics, thanks