What is the most reliable way to convert fiat to crypto asset?

[DYING_S0UL]

Sometimes delays are understandable. I have been using centralized exchanges for my P2P trading but never encountered such issue as you did, OP. CEX's are still one of the reliable ways to convert fiat into crypto. And as you are already using it, you should look for others merchants. Not everyone delays their payments, or keeps waiting. Or maybe you could try changing the exchange and see if the same things happens with you there. Anyway, I believe in most of the cases, despite the delays, you funds would be safe.

Btw, avoid banks if possible. Use others ways! I am telling this because you said you had restrictions..

[Hammer_Summer]

Your thoughts will be highly appreciated.

As someone who also uses P2P regularly I can identify to your situation. P2P is handy and frequently the easiest way to convert fiat especially in places with restrictions but delays like those can severely disturb your trust. The appeal system helps but having to wait days can be irritating. I think it’s crucial to always examine the seller’s trade history and rating before making a deal. Also attempt to trade within support team working hours so issues get resolved faster.

Recently my friend told me that some users are now shifting to more reputable P2P groups on applications like Telegram or WhatsApp where the moderators act as intermediaries.

[KiaKia]

You can use Bybit because this is the platform that I am currently using and their customer service is reliable, I want you to think about what would have happened if the customer service of the platform you used sucks, I think you should keep using that platform because they helped when you needed help, it's a different story on other exchange platforms out there.

Even if you find another peer to peer exchange  you can still be peer with con artists like the other platform experience, people always try to cheat others and the only way you can avoid them is by following the exchange p2p rating of the peered person, make sure they have good trading record so far.

As a Bybit user I always make sure you have made over 1000 successful trades before doing any business with you.

[DYING_S0UL]

You can use Bybit because this is the platform that I am currently using and their customer service is reliable, I want you to think about what would have happened if the customer service of the platform you used sucks, I think you should keep using that platform because they helped when you needed help, it's a different story on other exchange platforms out there.

Even if you find another peer to peer exchange  you can still be peer with con artists like the other platform experience, people always try to cheat others and the only way you can avoid them is by following the exchange p2p rating of the peered person, make sure they have good trading record so far.

As a Bybit user I always make sure you have made over 1000 successful trades before doing any business with you.

I have one account there but I personally haven't used their P2P service yet. Does they have any feature like time limit? For example the one we see in kucoin is where the order is valid for 1 hours! So if they buyer/seller doesn't sends his funds in that timeframe the order gets canceled automatically.

You are correct. Even if the rate is low compared to others, if that person has a good trading counts/history and success rates, then we should choose him. It keeps the drama out.

[Cheema02]

In my own experience, the P2P is still the most reliable platform in converting your fiat to crypto in the case were your country has restricted banks from facilitating the conversion of fiat to crypto. What you have to do is to make sure you are trading with vendors that have conducted a reasonable volume of trades from 3000 and above and have a positive feedback from 95% upward from previous trades conducted. And you should also avoid chasing vendors that are giving high rates more than what majority of the vendors are giving.

Or better still when making use of P2P platform, look for exchanges that has the express option and make use of the express option. In the express option, the exchange itself chooses the most reliable vendor for you to trade with. Imagine a situation where the exchange select a vendor for you, the chances of being scam is drastically reduced.

Yes, it is right, it is right to a great extent that P2P is still the most reliable way to convert your money into crypto. When your country, your nation when your people are showing interest in something or who are starting to understand things, your government tries to create hurdles for you because it is such a system. It is not one or two connections here, there is a very long chain of connections where people are connecting each other. They are in touch with each other. So P2P is the best way. But if you want to stay up to date and avoid scams then use the express option as it is in the discussion. So you yourself will have to stay a little updated with things and people. In what way can you benefit yourself and protect yourself from fraudsters.

[adultcrypto]

Scams through centralized exchanges is now prevalent thereby requiring that we pay more attention and triple check every before releasing the funds. Even though such scams are perpetrated by users CEX unconnected with the exchange, the way some exchanges handle such issues is a saint on their reputation.  There was was a case where someone report the case yet the CEX his coins to the scammer without resolving the dispute.

[Rustam Meraj]

Scams through centralized exchanges is now prevalent thereby requiring that we pay more attention and triple check every before releasing the funds. Even though such scams are perpetrated by users CEX unconnected with the exchange, the way some exchanges handle such issues is a saint on their reputation.  There was was a case where someone report the case yet the CEX his coins to the scammer without resolving the dispute.

Yes you are right to point out that there are more and more scams happening on exchanges. This means we all need to check double before we send any money.  Like you said with that example how one of these exchanges deals with these scam reports can really hurt their reputation. If they do not look into it properly and scammers will scam their users so people will stop trusting them. So due to this these platforms need to have good ways to solve problems when there is scam and they need to make sure people money is safe even if scam did not start with platform itself. If they are careless about this it can really damage their image.

[lionheart78]

Even user ratings aren't a solid indicator of the integrity of users in performing deals and transactions. I personally was intentionally scammed by a seller on Binance who had high trust ratings and no one complained or left a negative rating in his profile (except me the later) The story was that I made a mistake sending money and didn't notice that he canceled the whole order while I was sending the money.

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Does the seller in Binance have the option to cancel the order? When did you do the transaction.  I have been using Binance for years now to sell my crypto and from my experience, the seller don't have the option to cancel a sell order unless the time expires.

It is possible that the time limit expires before you send and tag the order paid but I doubt that option would be available once the order time limit expires.

After I asked him to release the crypto, he refused, and support couldn't convince him that this was a human error that always happens. I believe he abandoned his Binance account completely. I lost over $800, and unfortunately, I still often resort to using peer-to-peer platforms when I can't find a local seller.

It is clear a human error on your side and the receiver should have returned your money, the support has no power or authority in this scenario probably they have no evidence that the scam happened within the duration when the person set the sell order.

More likely the scammer is the one who put a buy order since their fund is outside the exchange and the crypto that is set to sell is within the hand of Binance.  I have experienced a buyer trying to scam me by sending a fake picture and text from a different number, not from the payment processor.  I checked my apps to see if the money arrived and there was none.  I inquired whether he really sent the fund and sent him the app screenshot.  He did not reply and I did not release the crypto.  No appeals from the buyer were made sadly I failed to tag that account.

[Odogwu-Blockchain]

In a nutshell, all I'm trying to point out here is that now the source I have been using for long is becoming practically not 100% reliable to me again. Are there other possible ways that could be more reliable because my country has some little restrictions on crypto especially from bank institutions...

What makes it not reliable? The people in your country that is trading with you are the ones. If you go to other P2P platforms, you will still experience the same thing there. This is not only happening in your country but it is happening everywhere. Only what you can do is to learn how to avoid P2P scam, but if you want to avoid something like this, check the rating of the person you want to sell your coin too and also check the duration of time the person use to complete his P2P trade.

This is informative, but to be frank I do compare ratings most times, aside from that, even those who tend to have a high rating still fall in this category. I keep wondering if it's an intentional act.

Then you have to be patient for the seller or buyer to release and send funds whenever so long as the time for the trading is still counting, it would be more annoying if the buyer upload to mark the trade as paid while he hasnt paid, thats the ugliest part of any p2p transaction. With what you said, you already know the rating signal to avoid scam, it might just be your bad days trading, some days may not be like that.

And for looking for other alternative other than p2p, there is none, the old system where you directly purchase crypto with debit cards no longer working for crypto restricted country.

[lovesmayfamilis]

OP, since we have a good aggregator, BestChange, on our forum, and it is a site that has earned a good reputation, I suggest you use the services of this aggregator. If you are careful with banks in your country, try not to save on commissions and make a double exchange (for example). Buy any digital currency that is not illegal in your country, then buy Bitcoin. This aggregator is full of offers where you can find convenient conditions for you.

[Issa56]

Your thoughts will be highly appreciated.

I do make use of p2p on exchange I know it’s not completely safe, but it’s better than  meeting people out of exchange to make transactions with them, because in my country people easily get scammed. If you are making use of p2p, the exchange do stand as a middleman for both buyers and sellers, incase when their any problem, the exchange will look for ways to resolve it, but even with that scammers do make use of exchange P2P.

If you are planning to make use of exchange p2p, what you should first check is reputation of exchange, then you will exchange if the exchange supports p2p in your country, because I was using Binance before, then the government stopped their operation in my country, then I switched to bybit, but even when making use of exchange p2p, you have to be very careful, because scammers do make use of it.

[Outhue]

Is there anything that's safer than CEX for Fiat exchange this days? I don't see anything else, because for trades to be successful you need a middle man, in between you and the person you want to exchange with unless it's between the exchange and you which is no P2P.

Go with top exchanges for assurance of not losing your money in the process, either it's a trade between you and the exchange or via P2P this is the best way to avoid stories that touches.

Be careful though, with P2P, to me it seems that many people have some cheating desires in them, don't release funds unless you get Fiat in your bank account or vice versa, it's also better to trade with people with lots of high reputation and past trades before.

[coupable]

Even user ratings aren't a solid indicator of the integrity of users in performing deals and transactions. I personally was intentionally scammed by a seller on Binance who had high trust ratings and no one complained or left a negative rating in his profile (except me the later) The story was that I made a mistake sending money and didn't notice that he canceled the whole order while I was sending the money.

.

Does the seller in Binance have the option to cancel the order? When did you do the transaction.  I have been using Binance for years now to sell my crypto and from my experience, the seller don't have the option to cancel a sell order unless the time expires.

It is possible that the time limit expires before you send and tag the order paid but I doubt that option would be available once the order time limit expires.

The story is that I was late with the payment due to a problem with the bank's app. I informed them of this and the order was canceled. However, I later received a notification from the bank's app stating that the request had been processed and the money had been successfully sent. Indeed, I discovered that the money had been transferred, and when I asked him to return the money or send me the crypto, he refused, claiming that the account I had sent it to did not belong to him and belonged to one of their neighbors, and that he could not force him to send back the money. I contacted support, but this did not succeed in forcing him to return the money. I was later informed that his account peer-to-peer  had been frozen until a solution will be found, and that was the most they could do. We have not communicated since then, and he must have had multiple accounts, so he would stop using any one at any time.

[LDL]

Your thoughts will be highly appreciated.

Honestly speaking, no exchange can be hundred percent trustworthy and perfect. There are some issues with every exchange, but they don't show it, and you will reveal them when you use it. In my personal experience, I use Binance for it, and I did not see anything wrong with it right now and hope that I never face anything like it. As you have been using it for a long time, it may be possible that at some point there were technical issues that caused the system to take some time, and you had to wait too long. Since you did not see such a thing before, I would suggest continuing to use it. However, if you need something more trustworthy, then use an escrow service. We both know how it works and that it is secure, so give it a try, maybe it will give you a good response.

Binance Exchange has had some bad experiences so far, such as the bad situations faced by Bybit Exchange. Millions of users like you have been using Binance Exchange and will continue to use Binance Exchange even in the worst situations in the future. However, there is one argument for my use, which is that I have not yet found a more reliable medium than Binance Exchange to convert my local currency. I convert my local currency through P2P. So I have to use Binance exchange even though I face hundreds of unexpected situations. Because I cannot use Bitcoin directly in my country, I have to convert it to my local currency, which I have no other source to convert except Binance exchange.