Dean
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Buy BitcoinThere are loads of different options to choose between when you are deciding how to buy bitcoins, but one of the most convenient methods which a lot of people want to use is to make a purchase using either a credit card or debit card.

Most sites that sell bitcoins do not offer this service because of ‘charge back fraud’; this is a problem because bitcoin payments cannot be reversed, but credit card transactions are actually very easy to reverse. Because of that some people will purchase coins and withdraw them to their wallet, and then reverse the payment in an attempt to get free coins. Some people will also use stolen cards to make a purchase, meaning that the payment will again be reverse but there is no way to get the coins back from the fraudster. For a long time it was impossible to buy bitcoin with a credit card because of these problem.

Fortunately, however, there are some great services around today that have found a way to offer their customers this payment option. Making a purchase in this way usually incurs a higher fee that some other methods, because the exchange themselves will have to pay the credit card company a processing fee for the transaction, so please be aware of that and consider another method if you are looking for the best possible deal financially. But, having said that, this is a very quick and convenient way to make a purchase and if you use the right service

Here are a couple of the best:

Coinbase: Coinbase run one of the most popular wallet apps in the world, as well as a well-established exchange which operates in many different countries, but particularly the United States and Europe. They have had the option to add cards as a supplementary payment method for funding your account or a while now, but recently added the option to buy bitcoin directly with your debit or credit card in certain countries – just the UK ad Spain as I write this article but they do have plans to expand this to other places soon. I have used this one myself and it takes just a few seconds to make a purchase once you have opened an account, and the 3% fee seems quite reasonable to me. There is no additional verification buy your card needs to use something called ‘3D Secure’ – most major providers seem to use this as far as I have been able to tell (my Barclaycard certainly did) so it shouldn’t be an issue for most people.

CoinMama: The CoinMama exchange has been offering this payment option for a lot longer than Coinbase and works in some countries that Coinbase doesn’t, such as South Africa and Russia. They have a very wide range of payment options which also includes things like Western Union and cash payments. I haven’t used this service myself and couldn’t find anything about the fees in their FAQ, so make sure that you do check how much you are paying before hitting that buy button.

CoinCorner: This company offers a sleek mobile wallet to consumers and eCommerce services to retailers who wish to accept digital currency on their website or through a ‘point of sale’ system in-store. They have also added an option to purchase with plastic. You have to verify your card before you can use it, by having a small transaction debited from your account, then logging in to check the amount and return to the site to submit the amount debited into a form. This reduces fraud risks for CoinCorner and as long as you are in a position to log into your account and check recent transaction over the internet it really doesn’t take long to do.

247Exchange: Lets you buy bitcoin and also a selection of major altocoins such as Litecoin, with an instant purchase option using credit or debit card. The site is available in English, Spanish or Russian and operates in a good range of different countries.