My user experience with Bitcoin

I know about Bitcoin for 3 years & experienced user myself. I never been in U.S. so I still don't know anything about purchasing Bitcoins in U.S.

In Russia my own user experience was never bad. Once I learned about LocalBitcoins every transaction went smoothly (LocalBitcoins take 5% for exchanging on each transactions on Russian markets - fees are high, but I always buy any amounts of Bitcoin very smoothly).

So no troubles buying Bitcoin in Russia.


My family isn't experienced with Bitcoin at all, but they are ready to follow any technical/banking steps I provide.


Few months ago my sister wanted to sign up with CoinBase & she even deposited her $30 or $50 to her account in U.S. dollars. She lost her money, because she already don't remember what email assigned to her coinbase.

She told me that it took 3 days to confirm her account, and once she confirmed it... They asked her to wait another 3 days.

Yeah, maybe it was all her fault, because she never stores passwords properly, sometimes I feel she's losing her passwords all the time on purpose.


**This time we got simple task**: I needed my family to transfer me some $100 and I refused receiving any Western Union transfers - and now we think together about how to convert their paper dollars in Bitcoin. So yeah, basically I'm trying to survive in Russia only on Bitcoins. There's no problem in Bitcoin withdrawals in Russia. Huge challenge is teaching my family to use Bitcoins smoothly. My sister finally got computer which supports TeamViewer & I can even remotely connect to their system, but its gonna be hard for me to learn all the banking stuff about U.S. Next week they will need to send me small payments.

3 days ago we tried to sign up with Circle. I remotely connected to their computer using TeamViewer, first time we tried to sign up using sisters identity.

My sister received email from Circle saying that she can choose "passport, driver license or some 3rd document I don't remember the name of it" - since my sister have only social security & green card (she's not a citizen yet, some 3rd document isn't available for her).

So somehow we stuck on NetVerify process on circle.com because my sister wasn't unable to confirm her identity with circle.

Since my Mom's more careful with documents, we tried to sign up on Circle again but now we started the other account.

And this time we was ready for NetVerify. But we didn't received any letter from NetVerify during the sign up. I really don't know why! 3 days ago we wrote Circle's technical support with question "Why we don't receive NetVerify", and now they're not responding!

Its the 4th day since we signed up & when we try to "Add funds" from Mom's account, Circle says "Your credit card is in process is being verified blah-blah-blah"

Today we've got plan to try register account on CoinBase for mom. Because I'm already delayed my payment for landlord & miss that $100, and soon if we won't find some solution, I'll have some problems. Don't try to recommend me Western Union or any fiat exchange, I hate them.

We're already waiting for opportunity to use Bitcoins for 4 days, and it seems like we will have to wait another 3 days, because my mom just registered on coinbase, and we just figured out how to sign up with my mom's online banking which can't confirm instantly, so we have to wait another 3 days for deduction to appear in her banking statement.

We tried also signing up on BitStamp, but I don't understand how to use it! So here's the results:

- We tried Circle. Can't use it due to their customer support ignoring (we received 0 emails for 4 days)

- We tried CoinBase. It never confirms instantly, always asks to wait 3 days (and even this process doesn't guarantee that I will have money 3 days later). My Mom is using mountain america bank.

- We tried BitStamp. I think this exchange service works only with EU.

- We tried LocalBitcoins. Its frontpage says something like this "This web-site doesn't works in Germany" (whaaat? we're trying to access it on U.S. computer from U.S. IP address, even whatmyipaddress says that its Utah IP address!). LocalBitcoins, WTF with your geolocation?




Now we're trying to transfer those $50 which my family got. My sister is keeps annoying me with "easier fiat way", "she's ready to pay fee to Western Union" but I'm saying that I'd rather not accept any money & starve to death here (already went into some problems, but I'm fine).

So I need some more web-sites & recommendation. Where it went wrong? Why my family can't deposit their dollars to Bitcoins for 1 week?

But most importantly:

- Since U.S. got wrecked chargeback system & stewpid credit card, checking system - what are alternatives? LocalBitcoins.com doesn't works! My sister lives in Provo, so she can visit someone in Provo if they accept cash, is there other classifieds web-site except for LocalBitcoins for meeting for cash in-person?

- Except for Circle, Coinbase & BitStamp, is there any approved exchanges which doesn't steal credit card identities?

- What are more safe alternatives in U.S. to fix our problem? (We can't afford losing our last $50)