There are exchanges and I use them. But they all feel at least somewhat dubious right now, at least if you are a US citizen.
1. Bitstamp....very good reputation, but there are few who feel really good about a bank in Slovenia. . US banks are reluctant to send there, but it has become easier. I did it, but I have been very nervous each day I left any balance there. Bank could collapse, fraud on wallets without anyone to guarantee my money/balances.
2. btc-e, huobi. I can't use it since it's in China (at least I can't convert to USD), and I would never trust any company in China presently. Huobi has already been shown to be faking data as well.
3. Coinbase isn't an exchange but comes close. However, really poor customer service, poor customer experience unless you are doing very small volumes and they seem to be hedging customer transactions. I had 12 out of 15 transactions canceled, most at the last minute after a week of waiting, with a paper loss of around 12K. I just don't trust them right now anymore and stopped using them. I also know their engineering on the backend to be highly suspect; maybe that is improving. But MongoDB, seriously??? A transactional, financial system on a schemaless database.
4. CampxBx has lost their bank for now.
5. Gox....don't need to say anything here
6. Waiting to see what CoinMKT can do.
7. SecondMarket feels the most sane/robust to me, but they are just beginning.
8.. Localbitcoins.... given recent news I would rate this as highly suspect
I'm hoping for US folks that a US bank or exchange creates a bitcoin layer on top of their existing infra. At some point they will realize they can't fight the positive of standardized crypto, and I expect to see them buy a company or make their own btc bank/exchange, or partner. Coinbase is unlikely to get bought out I expect due to the poor engineering and customer experience.