Topic: So how on earth am I supposed to get bitcoins in the UK? (Read 14522 times)

You mean because TransferWise no longer allows withdrawal to Bitcoin exchanges?

CurrencyFair is about the equivalent of TransferWise.

wot do now?

I agree with the TransferWise plan - use it with one of the exchanges... it's pretty straightforward and will save you a fair bit of money on charges and exchange rates.

If you choose priority payment it always arrives the same day for a small fee, and still a lot cheaper than UKASH or using blockchain.info (they charge something like 6%) or other transfer methods with hefty bank fees...

I use Bitstamp and it always lands quickly and safely, but it works with other exchanges as well. Then you can just move your coins to your wallet and voila  

Link here:

http://bitcointransfer.blogspot.co.uk/

best wishes and make sure you secure your wallet. I found Electrum to be easy to use and feels pretty safe once I got used to how it works  

Made this guide: www.bitcoinuk.blogspot.com

So far the cheapest way that I found to buy btc from UK..

Hope it helps.

No, they don't.  MoneyPak is a product for U.S. only, however in the UK is a similar product, UKash.  A UKash can be used to buy SLLs (which can be traded for BTCs) at VirWoX, or UKash can be used at Mercabit.eu, Bitcoin Nordic, and more.  The fees aren't trivial but this is one way to pay with cash, with no bank system intermediary.

They dont sell moneypaks in UK?

Well, that Bit2Brit appears to either have been a scam attempt or, less likely, simply failed to launch.

Just noticed I got a mention above " mjb monetary metals - a bit clunky  it's quite catchy as a tag line 

I'm now at http://www.bitcoinfridge.co.uk/ - its possible if your quick making the bank transfer to have your btc sent within 5-10 mins, although it can take a little longer I handle each trade individually (clunky  ) so its no automated exchange but the fee is now just 2.5% . I've done a few hundred trades now with no issues to report .

Where did the website go ?

They were beta testing a new online bank method, but then removed it.  I'm not sure if they just had to remove it to rework something or if they no longer are planning on offering it.

dunno if im just dumb, but I can see no UK options on Bitinstant

My 2btc - there are SWIFT payment services for £8 that you can send a FPS transfer to and they will pass on to MTGox

In short: Transferwise seems best. But it's worth the effort to get into meeting local people.

Summary (add to first post danny?):

#bitcoin-otc-uk
https://blockchain.info/wallet/deposit-bank-transfer
Blockchain Pingit - >5%
Moneygram. Couldn't get the calculate fee thing to work. Must be rubbish.
Bitstamp via Transferwise and others: "Payments of up to 300 GBP/EUR cost you just £1 or €1" - still need to remember to check the rate though making it a bit clunkier than Intersango was
& other Paymium routes
http://mjbmonetarymetals.co.uk/ - >5%. Bit clunky
bit2brit.co.uk - unproven. avoid or escrow
ukask-cashu-OKPAY: total fee?
localbitcoins.com - currents ~5%. Durable, condusive with Bitcoin ethos but clunky.
Future - droplet
MtGox via 3rd party FPS/SWIFT transfer service: £8 flat fee?


Well, it's pretty easy to hide bitcoins and pretend you never got them; not so much with Gibson, there is a whole postal track record and the physical object in your house, etc.
[/quote]

This is very true in practicality but I think technically it's not in that hopefully one day there will be legal precendent where if the customer sends their recieving Bitcoin address in recorded comms to a seller and an exact amount requested arrives at that address that we can all see on Blockexplorer then really to my mind that is harder to prove non delive1ry of than a squiggle on the 80's fedEx PDA, no? Of course law doesn't always make sense but we shall see in time.


Just to clarify this. Technically the UK is in the SEPA zone. It's just a case of ripoff Britain and maybe cronies thinking they are different from "The Europeans" (you are Europeans you idiots!)

#bitcoin-otc or #bitcoin-otc-uk on freenode is the easiest place to get bitcoins in the UK.  I buy and sell there and would highly reccomend, you can get better rates than most places and it doesnt take long either.

Bumping with new deposit method:

https://blockchain.info/wallet/deposit-bank-transfer

other method is the post office if you dont want to deal with bank accounts and 3 day delays.

they have a service called money gram. which is like western union.

bitinstant takes moneygram payments and exchanges them for bitcoins. check out instructions on bitinstant for method of doing it.
thats business method in. or theres the localbitcoins, where you find someone nearby to accept the payment.

soon there will be a bitcoin/litecoin exchange that deals in UK£ without and transfer to US$ which will make purchasing and selling bitcoins for us british folk

I was just seeing a P2P payments upstart in the UK:


 - http://techcrunch.com/2012/12/03/droplet-plans-to-disrupt-mobile-cash-with-no-charges-payment-app-for-iphone/

This is a little different from PayPal for payments transfer because (presumably) the app requires location tracking (geofencing), and thus a lesser chance of claiming it was not an authorized payment.

I'ld be curious if this would be a tool used for either low-cost bitcoin cash-out (payment send via Droplet, from a trusted party) or for face-to-face transactions where there is less risk of carrying physical cash.

Of course, this has the same level of being traceable as bank transactions do, so there's that.

[Edit: I see a thread on it already exists:

 - https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/droplet-disruptive-mobile-payment-128948 ]

I am saying that there is no charge for the SEPA wire in euro (obviously there is a charge for converting GBP to EURO with the bank in UK).

Also, Transferwise delivers fast SEPA wires to Paymium from the UK without triggering additionnal charges at the receiving end.

"You must confirm"

From which UK bank you made a EUR SEPA wire transfer free of charge?

Tell people which bank if there is really one which makes them "free of charge" or don't spread misinformation.

I must confirm that the simplest is to convert GBP to EUR first, then send the funds (in EUR) to Paymium EUR account. That's a SEPA wire transfer, free of charge. You only pay a currency conversion fee applied by the bank of origin (in the UK).
A wire transfer in GBP would not be considered SEPA (yet).

Hi,

Any news on this? I don't have the bank deposit button, only pingit and phone deposit.

Thank you.

You could give my site a try http://mjbmonetarymetals.co.uk/ fill a form from the bitcoin tab

I buy bitcoins at mt. Gox gbp price and sell at +5%

Might be useful for some in the UK, at least until we get a fully functioning exchange.

There are unanswered questions about this exchange that was launched by someone not recognized as having participated yet in the Bitcoin community (i.e., consider using an escrow if doing a trade.)

 - https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/bit2brit-121265

Well, it's pretty easy to hide bitcoins and pretend you never got them; not so much with Gibson, there is a whole postal track record and the physical object in your house, etc.

Hi,

Have a look at http://bit2brit.co.uk, you can buy and sell BTC here, buy bitcoins: http://bit2brit.co.uk/buy-bitcoins-uk, and trade btc for gbp here: http://bit2brit.co.uk/sell-bitcoins-uk at a good exchange rates.

We are based in the UK and offer personal meetings to trade large sums over 2k.

Please PM me or email me at [email protected] if you have any questions.

Best Regards,
The Bit2Brit Team

For those unable to use PingIt we now also offer an instant bank transfer option. Limits apply.

Easiest method seems to be.............
Pop down to the local shop and buy a Ukash voucher,
Use Ukash tools on their website to convert to Euros,
Register with Cashu, convert Ukash to CashU,
Register with OKPAY, add funds to account with CashU,
Buy BTC`s via MT.Gox adding funds using OKPAY - 1% fee,


Yeah, I know it is a joke trying to buy BTC`s in the UK,

Some meaningful news on Mt Gox's troubles with Barclays / the UK banking system would be nice. Will this get fixed any time soon?

Update on this one - the fee for blockchain.info pingit deposits is now 5.97% - so not so great. Does suck in the UK at the min for getting bitcoins. But yeah, try localbitcoins.

I think UK is just tad behind implementing SEPA transfers to other EU contries, source:

https://www.ukpayments.org.uk/payment_options/cross_border_payments/single_euro_payments_area_(sepa)/


I found out British people could use transferwise for sending SEPA wires though

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=4149375

Heh, same with Barclays, from what I've read. I'm not convinced the UK *is* actually in the SEPA zone, but only just started looking into it...

Which banks allow SEPA transactions for free? Natwest trying to charge me £25!

Convert your funds to euros and wire tranfer to bitcoin-central.net EUR account:
Account Holder Name: Paymium (Paymium is the registered company operating bitcoin-central, instwawire, instawallet and Paytunia)
IBAN: FR76 3006 6108 8700 0200 7310 542
BIC: CMCIFRPP


If you do not want to convert, send GBP to Paymium's account in GBP .
Your bitcoin-central account will be credited in Euro at the going rate when we receive the funds.
IBAN: FR76 3006 6108 8700 0200 7310 930
BIC: CMCIFRPP

In any case, since the UK is in the SEPA zone, the wire transfer is free.
There is a 15 € fee only if you mistakenly send euros to a GBP account or vice versa.
Do not forget to copy your bitcoin-central account number (BC-XXX..) in the "comments" field of your wire transfer online form.

Just tried this with various amounts and received the same message:

"We are sorry but we are unable to accept this transaction at present. Please double check your transaction amount is within limits or try again later"

Pease pm me your email to check it out, and apologize if that's true.

I might deliver to them. I called up their customer services before and it was absolutely diabolical.

Anyway, I've just sent Blockchain some money with Pingit. I probably won't see the bitcoins until the morning as Pingit is all mobile based and transactions will have to be processed manually, and understandably, the fella who runs blockchain is probably sleeping, unless he is nocturnal like me.

A local lad down in Crocky is also selling coins, I might pay him a visit and take everything he has.

Shoe on head, sharpie in pooper and stfu.

You can buy gold and silver with bitcoin from coinabul.com and then sell  it locally

For Bitcoin in the UK, BitInstant just released an online bank transfer system. This has not been publicly announced yet, but it works, and is very fast.  

On BitInstant.com, select your UK flag (You can see many other countries are available for this as well), then select Online Bank Transfer and go through the process. You can have the funds converted automatically into BTC and sent to your Bitcoin account, so you don't even need to bother with any exchanges. Fee is 3.49% if over $100 worth, and 3.99% if under.

EDIT: note that these bank transfer payments are nearly instant (matter of minutes). It does not take 1-3 days like most bank transfers. It's pretty baller, actually

I sell bitcoin for a fixed fee. As much as you will realistically need. Pm me.

Ok I've figured everything out on Pingit I think, where it says 'message', should I put my reference no. in there? Going to try it out with a smaller deposit before throwing a few hundred quid at it.

Talk directly to me or Bitcoin Magazine. We sell a few bitcoins from time to time for GBP.

Hopefully the issues with Mt Gox's Barclays account will be resolved, or they'll set up another UK portal somehow.

Blockchain.info is legit, shouldn't have any issues with that site.

OK so I'm just opening my pingit account now. Can you verify that Blockchain is legitimate?

Interesting but lowest quote is £8.05. Highest bid on Mt Gox is £7.70 which means that the sellers on localbitcoins are making at least 4.5% profit. It will be cheaper to do international bank transfer to Mt Gox for £1000.

From the UK, the cheapest way to buy with GBP is via PingIt to Blockchain as the post above says (you have to open up an account with Barclays first). The fee is 0.97% total which is reasonable as even with Mt Gox you still have to pay a 0.6% transaction fee. The other way is to do international money transfer to say Mt Gox but it is expensive, e.g. with Barclays this costs £25 per transfer. I think Mt Gox's bank in Japan also charges like 1000Yen for handling the transfer so altogether you are looking at around the £35 mark. To make this cost efficient, you'd have to do a transfer of at least £10,000 and this gets the charge down to 0.35% plus add on the 0.6% from trading and you have equivalence with the PingIt/Blockchain method. Downside with PingIt though is you can only transfer a maximum of £250 per week.

WE WANT A CHEAP NO LIMIT WAY TO BUY BITCOIN IN GBP DAMNIT!

I don't have a Barclay's account, but I might go open one right now.

edit; just realised I can do it via lloyds.

There is a fairly viral solution to these problems that does work pretty well. I recommend trying it.

https://localbitcoins.com/

PingIt to blockchain should work for you. You could also open a US account.

You will most likely use SEPA payments, there's usually no direct charge from your bank to send a payment but you may loose a little depending on the exchange rates from GBP > EUR > USD. If your bank happens to offer free wire transfers (pretty unlikely tbh) you might be better off doing that straight from GBP > USD.

edit* Payments go to a bank in Slovenia where bitstamp are based

Any charges for Bitstamp in the UK, am I paying into a UK account?

Bitstamp.net  

The banking system in the UK is more controlled than most places. You're dealing in direct Rothschild territory. The Bank of England is bought out to the core. They have been since ground zero. Barclays and friends are close friends with J.P. Morgan who seem to be butthurt about Bitcoin according to a recent video about money laundering. Which proved to be just a giant shit on Bitcoin.

Basically, the banks there want nothing to do with Bitcoin. Good luck.

The only optioned seemd to be OKPay. They have documentation which proves who I am, and where I live official government documents. Yet  if I do a bank transfer, they need to see further proof, a photo of my holding my identification! Are they fucking idiots? What a load of bellends.

With the terrible customer service on Intersango and MT GOX, how I am supposed to get Bitcoins in the UK? (it can't just be their banks, I worked in business, paying in £5000 a day, with other locations paying in £5000-10000 a day, and I never had problems with my business banking, so it's funny how BTC exchanges are!

People say that you can't do it by credit/debit card because of the risk of a chargeback, that's bullshit. I just purchased a £2000 Gibson by debit card, same thing. How is it different all of a sudden just because the product is bitcoins?

Mercabit tried to charge me something like £12.50 per bitcoin. No thanks... it was £8 or something last time which was reasonable :s