Good ways to convert USD to BTC

[Joe200]

I am not just looking for another list of sites. I'd like to hear from people who've used specific sites and what their experiences were. Something established, easy, and fairly priced.

Here is what I've found so far. Haven't used any of these. Don't know much about any of them.

https://bitfloor.com/ : 0.3% or 0.4% fee. Plus possible fee to deposit / withdraw, but that can be avoided. Exchange, so you get a market price.

https://coinbase.com/ : 0.5%, which is reasonable. But do they use a fair exchange rate?

https://www.bitinstant.com/ : 3.99%? How can they hope to compete with the other sites?

https://mtgox.com/fee-schedule : 0.6%. Slightly higher than the competition, but they are the biggest exchange.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=87094.0 Have you used this? Using which method? How did it go?

[austonst]

BitInstant isn't a market itself; it just combines a lot of services and automates some of the more complicated transactions. Their fees vary

The big issue is that there's multiple steps to buying BTC with USD. Bitfloor and MtGox are exchanges, where you can trade USD you already have given to them for BTC from other users. The hardest part for a lot of people is getting USD to those exchanges in the first place, as that can be costly and subject to anti money laundering scrutiny. BitInstant usually takes around 1% for themselves, but what they do is automate many of the complex transactions between exchanges and coupons to make it easy and fast. The 3.99% you're seeing is for cash deposits, and the service they're working with takes around 3%, so they take their usual 1%.

If you use a standard exchange like MtGox or Bitfloor, you still have to deposit money with them somehow. The sites should have it listed, but usually there's a couple ACH methods, their own cash deposit methods, and bank wires. Most of these are going to be somewhat costly themselves. The sub-1% fees you're seeing is for the actual USD->BTC transfer they help set up.

[Joe200]

Bitfloor lists a couple of deposit methods that are free.

One thing that I also wanted to ask about is anonymity. Anything involving bank transfer is not anonymous. But does that matter anyway? I am not planning to do anything illegal.

[RodeoX]

Hi Joe,
I would highly recommend setting up an account at Mt.Gox and then doing a deposit at bitinstant. It is not the cheapest way but for those new to BTC or not tech savvy, it can't be beat.

[TangibleCryptography]

You probably won't find much feedback on the direct buyers who acquire our surplus coins.  They tend to be large buyers ($3,000 to $5,000 is the most common transaction size).  Buyers who are sophisticated and want to avoid costly delays, expensive fees, market spreads, and the dreaded slippage.  Our price is 0% over MtGox last (occasionally as low as 1% below MtGox if we run into an imbalance of funds).  It is simply not possible to buy in volume at a better price. Period.  We also offer qualified buyers an optional price lock service.  Buyers can lock a sale at current price and then take up to 72 hours to fund it.  Price locks are considered binding and penalties do apply in the event that the order is not funded.

There are plenty of reviews for our FastCash4Bitcoins service.  
Same company, same good service, just a different type of client.

[Joe200]

How do you make money?

Do you take money orders? How anonymous is bank wire? Do you see my bank info?

[TangibleCryptography]

How do you make money?

Buy low sell high.

There is more demand for fast cash sales then off exchange purchases so our buying and selling prices reflect that.

Do you take money orders? How anonymous is bank wire? Do you see my bank info?

We don't take money orders but we will consider adding it.  Anytime you send a bank wire the receiving party can see the originating bank & account information.  Of course we provide the same information to you as that is what is needed for a bank wire to work.

Cashier's check is a very private option.  The check is issued from the bank's internal account not yours.

[Stephen Gornick]

I am not just looking for another list of sites. I'd like to hear from people who've used specific sites and what their experiences were. Something established, easy, and fairly priced.

The factors that matter:

 - Where are you?
 - How much are you looking to buy?
 - How soon do you want them?
 - How important is getting the "best price"?
 - Is privacy a factor?

For most people, the answer is "soon, a small amount (e.g., $50 or less) and price isn't critical".  And for them, depositing cash and getting bitcoins is the best solution.

For those wishing to get the best price, then what will matter is current market conditions.  Today, for me, the best deal happens to be at Camp BX, funded with Dwolla USDs -- someone is selling well below Mt. Gox bid there.    Previously, for me, the best deal happened to be at BitFloor.

Now that there are lots of cash out methods, including to PayPal, I don't see desparate sellers often, but it used to be that you could put up a listing on #bitcoin-otc and put in a lowball bid and just wait -- often times a seller would find your offer acceptable.  That's less likely to occur nowadays though.

 - http://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Buying_bitcoins

[lanternblue]

canadianbitcoins.com

[Ploompuu]

I am not just looking for another list of sites. I'd like to hear from people who've used specific sites and what their experiences were. Something established, easy, and fairly priced.

Here is what I've found so far. Haven't used any of these. Don't know much about any of them.

https://bitfloor.com/ : 0.3% or 0.4% fee. Plus possible fee to deposit / withdraw, but that can be avoided. Exchange, so you get a market price.

https://coinbase.com/ : 0.5%, which is reasonable. But do they use a fair exchange rate?

https://www.bitinstan[Suspicious link removed]m/ : 3.99%? How can they hope to compete with the other sites?

https://mtgox.com/fee-schedule : 0.6%. Slightly higher than the competition, but they are the biggest exchange.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=87094.0 Have you used this? Using which method? How did it go?

U forgot https://btc-e.com/exchange/btc_usd

[TruSteve84]

I have only done it once, but I have converted USD to BTC with a moneypak.

[shtylman]

The Bitfloor fee rate is not correctly listed. We charge 0.4% for takers and rebate 0.1% for liquidity providers.

[coyotama]

The Bitfloor fee rate is not correctly listed. We charge 0.4% for takers and rebate 0.1% for liquidity providers.

I'll be sure to take a look.

To the OP: good luck, there any many options, so it can be confusing at first. you'll get the hang of it, though.

[Bjork]

Anything that doesn't involve Dwolla, they are a major pain and take too long.

[tarrant_01]

Well to be fair, transactions between Dwolla an Exchange (Mt. Gox) Dwolla is very slow, but Dwolla to a bank is very quick.

[shtylman]

Well to be fair, transactions between Dwolla an Exchange (Mt. Gox) Dwolla is very slow, but Dwolla to a bank is very quick.

Bitfloor will do direct deposit into your bank account so you can avoid Dwolla altogether. Our deposits usually hit your account the next business day.

[RHA]

There is Intersango: https://intersango.com/  : 0.65% trade fee; transfer fees differ from free to 2.46 EUR.
It is run by Bitcoin Consultancy.
You open an account (USD, EUR, GBP, PLN), deposit there some money by bank transfer and then you can buy/sell Bitcoins.

[TangibleCryptography]

Demand for our other service is very high

You probably won't find much feedback on the direct buyers who acquire our surplus coins.  They tend to be large buyers ($3,000 to $5,000 is the most common transaction size).  Buyers who are sophisticated and want to avoid costly delays, expensive fees, market spreads, and the dreaded slippage.  Our price is 0% over MtGox last (occasionally as low as 1% below MtGox if we run into an imbalance of funds).  It is simply not possible to buy in volume at a better price. Period.  We also offer qualified buyers an optional price lock service.  Buyers can lock a sale at current price and then take up to 72 hours to fund it.  Price locks are considered binding and penalties do apply in the event that the order is not funded.

There are plenty of reviews for our FastCash4Bitcoins service.  
Same company, same good service, just a different type of client.

Update:  demand for our fastcash service is outstripping our ability to quickly sell on the exchanges.  This constrains our cashflow so our pain is your gain.

Until further notice we are selling our surplus bitcoins at 1.25% BELOW MtGox last price.   When you consider the trading fees and the effect of slippage you are getting coins at almost 2% below market price.  These "sales" only happen when our supply of coins grows too large and won't last long.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=87094

[Mt.Gox_Support_Natalie]

Hello,

The Mt.Gox fee is volume-based and gets lower according to how much you trade and ranges from 0.25% to 0.6%.  We also have discounts on our fees from time to time.  You are most welcome if you would like to get started with us.  We look forward to being able to serve you.