Alternative to Bitinstant?

[Sentinelrv]

So I've been away paying a loan off ever since we completed the logo contest. I finally finished with that the other day and can now use my money to buy more Peercoin, but the problem is the service that I used to use (Bitinstant) is temporarily offline. I used to use the cash deposit option at the local CVS using moneygram and my bitcoins would be in my account within the hour.
 
Does anyone know a great alternative to Bitinstant which does the same thing? I want to buy and send bitcoins to my BTC-E account. I've heard a bunch of people mention that Coinbase is good since you can link it to your bank account. Does anyone have any experience with them or other services?

[catnip]

Hi - I've used both Bitinstant and Coinbase.  The main problem with Bitinstant was the 3.9-something-% Bitinstant fee plus the additional fee from ZipZap/Moneygram were almost a deal killer. The main advantage is you got your BTC right away.  Coinbase fees are much lower but the main problem with Coinbase is they delay you getting your BTC by several days.  I believe there is a second level of verification after you've been on Coinbase at least a month that will enable same day receipt.  It does work like a charm if you can stand the delay.

[Excelsior]

Same here. I used to use Bitinstant a lot. Then I thought, okay... I can wait the 4/5 days with Coinbase and get more coins out of it (because of their lower fees). Plus you don't have to drive anywhere, fumble with cash or deal with nasty moneygram phones (and their pleasekillmenow phone reps) or the confused CVS cashiers who never remember how to do moneygram and look at you like you're a terrorist because this is the seventh time you've "wired money somewhere" (not to mention the imaginary arrows flying from those behind you in line).

So I did Coinbase. And it was lovely, if slow. And then one day they announced to me I was verified for instant payment of btc. I was like yeah right. We'll see.

And it was insanely instant. Like as soon as I clicked "buy" instant. Like BTC instantly showed up in my account instant. Nothing compares. I was and am, in heaven with their service.


Use Coinbase, hook up your bank to it and then get to the 'instant' level. You will love cryptos even more.




By the way, thanks again for your selflessness with the logo contest. That logo is awesome thanks to you.

[Sentinelrv]

Same here. I used to use Bitinstant a lot. Then I thought, okay... I can wait the 4/5 days with Coinbase and get more coins out of it (because of their lower fees). Plus you don't have to drive anywhere, fumble with cash or deal with nasty moneygram phones (and their pleasekillmenow phone reps) or the confused CVS cashiers who never remembers how to do moneygram and look at you like you're a terrorist (not to mention the imaginary arrows flying from those behind you in line).

Lol, I know exactly what you mean.
 
I'm mainly stocking up on coins whenever I get paid and not trading them at specific prices, so I don't really mind the wait. About this 2nd level authentication, you just have to have your account open for a month right, or is there more to it than that? I thought I heard you had to keep bitcoin in your account for a month.

[Excelsior]

I'm not sure how it went about, but it's worth doing. I might have had to give more personal info and/or be a customer for a certain length of time. I'd check their site for details and just do what they say.

Got knows what germs are on those moneygram phones.

nas

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[calian]

now use my money to buy more Peercoin

Not to get too personal but what level of PPC holding do you aspire to as a percentage of either your crypto portfolio or your total investments? When I bought in I think I was looking to have 1% of my crypto as PPC as a hedge for the day when proof-of-stake takes the lead over wasteful POW mining.

[catnip]

or the confused CVS cashiers who never remember how to do moneygram and look at you like you're a terrorist because this is the seventh time you've "wired money somewhere" (not to mention the imaginary arrows flying from those behind you in line).

lmao...

"what's this here Zip...Zap?  I've never heard of them before.  Oh, I see they're in Calee-fornia.  Whatcha doing sending money out of state?"

and don't even think of buying Sudafed on the same visit. 

clerk after you leave, on phone: "Hey Cindy-Lou, guess what about that there TRANS-plant you-uns was tellin' me about that y'all thought was a devil worshiper and a homosexual?    He just wired money to Calee-fornia AND bought Sudafed!  Well yeah we knew it about him all along didn't we, 'cuz he don't go to the Babdist church.  Let's dump some more trash in his yard and maybe he'll move back to Maree-land or wherever he came from.  Where'd you hear he moved here from?  Ioway?  I heard it was Maree-land.  But Calee-fornia and Sudafed.  Don't that beat all."

(state trooper walks into CVS)  (clerk to trooper): "Hey Bubba, y'all want a meth lab to bust today?..."

That's how it is with Bitinstant.  Coinbase is a little different:

(ring ring) "Hello?"
"Hi, this is Cindy-Lou from Third Farmers and Miners Bank.  I'm calling about your account.  Can y'all tell me what this here (pause..trying to read the name)...Coin Base is yer tryin' to connect to yer account is?"
(you explain)
"Well that's strange.  They even tried depositing a few pennies into yer account.  We've never had that happen before.  What's the deal with this here Bitcoin anyway?  You say it's some kind of computer thing?  Why dont'cha just write checks like everyone else does?"

(after you get off the phone with the bank) (bank teller calls her best friend, who works at CVS): "Hey guess what about that there TRANS-plant you-uns was tellin' me about y'all wuz suspicious of..."

I'm only slightly exaggerating.

[Sentinelrv]

now use my money to buy more Peercoin

Not to get too personal but what level of PPC holding do you aspire to as a percentage of either your crypto portfolio or your total investments? When I bought in I think I was looking to have 1% of my crypto as PPC as a hedge for the day when proof-of-stake takes the lead over wasteful POW mining.

I knew of Bitcoin a couple years ago through visiting the RonPaulForums economics board, but I didn't really research it until the big bubble started forming earlier this year. I felt it was too late to buy Bitcoin, so I looked into the alternate coins instead, which were still cheap. When Bitcoin finally crashed, it took the price of Litecoin down with it, which was up around $5-6. When Litecoin crashed to $1, I bought 2,500 coins. I made this purchase with a limited amount of time to research cryptos.
 
After that I started to dig a little deeper and figured out what makes the alt coins different from each other. I made sure to steer clear of the clone coins and only focused on the ones that offered real improvements. This led me to Peercoin. The idea behind ppc seemed revolutionary and ahead of its time to me and I felt that in the future things would sway in the direction of proof of stake. So I bought and currently own about 4,500 Peercoins with more on the way. It feels to me as if I'm one of the early adopters of something that's going to be huge sometime in the future, like I'm an early adopter of Bitcoin and Sunny King is Satoshi.
 
So Litecoin is my buy which I think may go up in the shorter term and Peercoin is my buy which I think is going to go up in the longer term. I also mined about 100 Primecoin, but I'm mainly focused on Peercoin right now because I think that's where the future lies. Sunny King is what gives me confidence. He's like a grandmaster chess player, always thinking ahead. I don't know how many Peercoin I want to buy yet. Right now I'm just loading up on them. I might get some more Primecoin too. I'm risking a lot, but I'm prepared to lose it all if I have to.

[Excelsior]

Yup, I too felt I missed the boat with Bitcoin and then discovered PPC. Now I have the pleasure of being an early adopter in something that I think will only go up and up. It's a risk, but a damn pleasurable one with someone like Sunny in charge.

These are exciting times.

[Sentinelrv]

Why does ppc have to go up while I'm waiting for my purchase to clear? 

[Excelsior]

Picture it this way...

Imagine yourself looking at the price of PPC in the future reading $3.84 (not unrealistic at all).

Now see yourself smiling and remembering the time you bought at the incredibly low price of $0.19!



Now try replay it with $10/ppc... or $100/ppc.

You should be celebrating!

[Sentinelrv]

I guess you're right, gotta put things in perspective!   

[Sentinelrv]

Transaction completed, just bought 2055 more ppc! Thanks everyone!