Edit; ok I just read their faq and it says no to pp visas. Any other suggestions for places to safely trade a vsnilla reload pack to closer to the current rate?
As far as I'm aware, you cannot buy with a credit card on coinbase, but when you add your cc as a backup then your daily buy limit goes up.
Bitcoin purchases are done by ACH transaction with your bank account. It is common for these kinds of transactions to take a few business days. If you add your cc and verify identity then you can get $100 instant buy. When you buy more than $100, it takes 4 business days to get the coins, but locks in your price to the time of initial transaction.
Localbitcoins might be a good option, or if you got a circle invite then they do instant buy with cc/debit.
I've used Coinbase for a while, and I've never verified my identity. For the little amount of trading I do, the wait isn't much of an issue and I won't come close to the limits, so verifying my identity isn't worth the hassle and decrease in personal security. You only need an email address, phone number for 2FA, and a bank account for Level 1 verification. Adding a credit card along with that enables instant buy, which gets you a $100 instant limit. Verifying your identity and making a successful transaction gets you to Level 2 after a 30 day wait, which increases your buy and sell limits significantly.
+1 Newbies shouldn't be day trading. If you are buying for the long term, it doesn't matter if it takes a week to get your bitcoin.