Last week I bought some Bitcoin using LocalBitcoins.com for the first time and this is a review of my experience using the service for anyone interested.
LocalBitcoins.com allows anyone to buy and sell bitcoins locally somewhere near you using a variety of payment methods.
I'm currently living in Mexico and had $100 US dollars that I exchanged into Mexican pesos at a local currency exchange before I could use the service. There were some sellers that would accept dollars but charged a fee to do so that was higher than the fee to just change it into pesos first.
Signing up to the site was very straightforward. I created a username, it asked me for my email and sent an email verification to confirm it. Once that was done it automatically created a bitcoin wallet on the site for me.
Then I activated a two-step verification with my cellphone using the Google Authenticator app which you can download on Google Play or Apple ITunes Store for free.
There was a profile page that I visited and set up a profile. Since I was buying and not selling bitcoin, I kept it simple and added some basic information.
Navigating around the site was easy enough. The home page asks if you are selling or buying bitcoins and asks where you are in the world.
Once I entered my location and that I wanted to buy bitcoins the screen listed a number of sellers in my area and the payment options, fees, and the price they were selling bitcoins for.
Since I'm in Mexico the prices per bitcoin were listed in pesos and most sellers sell them at a slightly higher price than the actual rate of an exchange.
I reviewed the list of possible sellers and selected one with a high reputation score and a lot of successful transactions.
DondeBit had over 3000 transactions and 100% satisfaction from the buyers they sold to. Good enough for me.
Next is a list of payment options they accept and included Oxxo, 7-11, BBVA (a bank), Practicaja, Farmacias, and the price per bitcoin they charge.
Clicking on the Buy Button on the right side of their listing took me to a page that explained more details on how to buy from them. It looked like this.
Before sending them any bitcoin I put in the amount of cash I wanted to spend in the blue box in Mexican pesos. (MXN) This would be in the currency of the country you are in if you used it. Entering the amount will show you the amount of bitcoin you will receive in the blue box right next to it that reads BTC.
The Payment Window is the amount of time you have to deposit the cash in one of their accounts before the transaction is canceled so be sure you are ready to do so before clicking the big green Send Trade Request button.
Before clicking the button I sent them a message and they responded within one minute which made me feel more confident. You can aso click on their username on this page and it will take you to a page with more information about them that looks like this.
On this page I could see they were last seen on the site 1 minute ago, they are trusted by the community, and I can read reviews and comments from people who have bought from them. All of that made me feel they could be trusted.
I decided to use the local OXXO which is like 7-Eleven in Mexico because it was just down the street from where I was at the moment. They messaged me right back and answered my questions in perfect English and gave me a number to use to make a cash deposit at the store and told me the store would charge 9 pesos (about .40 cents).
Right after I asked my questions I could see they already had that information on their profile but I didn't see it. Still, having a fast response from them in English made me feel good.
I walked down to the store and handed the cashier the numbers and the cash and told her I wanted to make a deposit in that account number and it did cost 9 pesos.
Here's a screenshot of the comments between me and the buyer and the time stamps on them shows how quick the whole process was from the time I first messaged them until the time I had my bitcoins.
The LocalBitcoins Wallet is really easy to use but the site keeps some of it(about $5) when I transferred it to a more secure wallet. I didn't feel like leaving it in their online wallet.
I did all the math to see what the total cost was to buy bitcoins using LocalBitcoins.com and when I added up the premium on the purchase price, the exchange rate to exchange my dollars to pesos, the 9 pesos fee at OXXO and the $5 the site kept it was about 9% total.
Thankfully, the price of bitcoin climbed over 14% a day later and is still climbing so I recovered it all.
The experience was very smooth and fast with no snags at all and the site was very intuitive to use and on every page of the site, there were links to click that answered every question I had on how to use the site. That, coupled with the fast response to my comments by the seller made it a great experience.
I would use LocalBitcoin.com again for sure and recommend it to anyone wanting to buy bitcoins locally. It still amazes me that two complete strangers can exchange value like this online. What an amazing technology Bitcoin is.
I used cash but there are sellers that accept PayPal, ITunes Gift Cards, Moneygram, Western Union, Bank Transfers and many other forms of payment.
Do you know of any other ways to buy Bitcoins with lower fees? Please share your experiences with us. Also, if you have experience selling on LocalBitcoins please share your tips.
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