Bitcoin Payment Tutorial

[AussieWatcher]

As a relatively new member my first purchase from a TD has come with some nerves and some questions about the process. I couldn't find too much information regarding how to pay with Bitcoin so I thought I would create a bit of a tutorial:

There are many different websites and ways to own and transfer Bitcoin but for the purpose of this tutorial I am using coinbase.com. (I am in no way affiliated with them but they seem the most user friendly).

Step 1:
Create a coinbase.com account. Follow the steps to create your account and then you will need to upload a photo of your identification for verification purposes. You will also need to add a credit card that your purchases will be debited from.

Step 2:
You will then have access to the following home screen:

Here you can see the current market value of a lot of different types of crypto currency. For now lets stick to Bitcoin.

Step 3:
Click on the Bitcoin area bottom left of the above image. That will take you to the following Bitcoin part of the website showing current market value:

Step 4:
Buy some Bitcoin. On the right of the screen see the "Buy Bitcoin" button. Press this and then enter the amount of Bitcoin you wish to purchase. Please note that you will most likely be buying Bitcoin in your local currency. Go to google and type the amount in USD your TD wants you to pay and convert to your local currency. When buying the coin make sure you buy about 5% more to cover all fees. I usually take out 10% to be sure that I will have enough to cover the item after fees and a potential drop in Bitcoin value. WHICH BRINGS ME ONTO THE NEXT POINT: Bitcoin is a very fluctuating currency. If you buy $100 USD worth of Bitcoin you might have $97 in your account after fees. If the value of Bitcoin goes up then your $97 goes up and you will have available $100 worth of Bitcoin to use. Alternatively if the value of Bitcoin goes down then your $97 might go down and only be worth $94. This may catch some people out and you may have to pay more to your TD. After all Bitcoin is very much like a stock market. It goes up and down in value and can do so quickly. For example:

The following image shows the value of Bitcoin on July 29 at $13,508.

This image shows the value of Bitcoin 4 days later at $15,363.

Step 5:
Once you have the Bitcoin in your account you can send an amount to your TD's address. They usually provide this in an email after your order has been confirmed. If you click on the Accounts tab at the top of the coinbase.com home page you will see an overview of your owned crypto currency. Under Bitcoin click the SEND button. Enter the address the TD sent you and type the amount you owe them. This may have to be converted from USD to your local currency. Round up to the nearest dollar to make sure all is good with the conversion. Press CONTINUE and follow the steps until the payment is sent.


Please feel free to add to this if you have more experience than me. Hopefully this helps someone else out there!!

Regards,

AW

 

[AussieWatcher]

P.S. not sure the appropriate area to post this so mods feel free to move to somewhere if you feel it be more appropriate.

 

[Nivka]

Super helpful! Thanks for taking the time to put it together

 

[vagrant]

Yes, many thanks as TD don't accept Visa payment and PayPal only from members with positive feedback (so no newcomers) !

 

[ohnoes4096]

Thanks for this!

 

[trailboss99]

I think we need to move this to the FAQ before it gets lost.

 

[Ams55557]

Just a heads up. Some people have a hard time validating their accounts with drivers licenses. Took me a few scans.

 

[r0b9502]

A few other points, from my experience with coinbase

• You can link your bank account in addition to CC. I would believe that buying BCs with $s sitting in your coinbase account will be cheaper than buying with CC
• If you transfer $s from your bank to coinbase, be aware that it will take some days for hold to be released. You will be able to buy BC but cant send it over till hold is removed.
• If one is in the market to buy something with BC, it makes sense to move $s over sooner than later.
• Depending on your appetite for volatility, keep these $ as such! Dont convert into BC
• You order, and get an address to send the BC to. Then, buy the required amount of BC and immediately transfer.

 

[Hazing]

I have some questions. If anyone know the answers, that would be great.

Do you sit on any bitcoin balance or do you just buy bitcoin as you want to spend it? I understand it's volatile but does it tend to pretty consistently trend upward? I'm talking small dollar amounts. Let's say no more than $1000. And let's say I have $1000 in bit coin but spend $650, do you convert the unused portion back to usd?

Or would it be better off to just buy what you need plus 10, when you need it?

I have money sitting in cashapp that I know I'd like to use for watches.
Cashapp allows you to buy bitcoin but no dealers or members take cashapp. Will cashapp be like my bitcoin wallet? (haven't used bitcoin yet so not sure how the process of paying with it goes). Or do I need another app/medium? Like the app you mentioned.

In other words - Can I use bitcoin in cashapp to pay anyone requesting bitcoin or do they also have to have cashapp?

I know there's a lot of questions there. Sorry if some are silly. And I'm know some of these questions are asking opinions. I understand that and I'm not asking for financial advice (or if it loses value, coming back here screaming "you told me it was okay. ????" - just trying to get a feel for what people others do.

I'd probably be more involved with bitcoin but every time I am on the cusp of doing something, I hear a story about someone losing a lot. There was a post on here the other way where someone lost $1100 in bc. That put me on my heels a little.

Sent from my SM-G892A using Tapatalk

 

[Hazing]

And thanks for the thread. ????

Great idea.

Sent from my SM-G892A using Tapatalk

 

[GhostRider83]

no one had ever explained to me so well how to buy six bitcoins ... not even bank’s manager

 

[HotNHorny]

Would it be better to just not buy bitcoin and just pay and let coinbase withdraw the money from bank based on the amount paid?

Or is that even possible?

For instance. I transfer $688 (total cost I need to pay to TD) but instead of buying bitcoin first, I let coinbase do the work. I just tell it what the amount I need to transfer and it calculates everything.

Is bitcoin to bitcoin transfer free or is there still a 1.49% fee as noted in coinbase for US BANK transfers?

Or maybe you said buy bitcoin via ACH to avoid the additional 1.49% fee plus any transaction fee to TD?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Ams55557]

HotNHorny , coinbase doesn’t really do that, but there is a crypto that is locked to USD (USDC). So if you don’t want volatility exposure to BTC you transfer money in (pay fees as appropriate) and the. Convert to BTC when you purchase. This takes a few days depending on how you fund it.
Bitcoin fees themselves are minimal.

 

[HotNHorny]

What other wallets do you use? I downloaded blockchain but can't seem to figure out how to transfer funds to it.

I started a coin base account and currently has a $0 deposit limit. So I can't even deposit funds. RIP


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[RolAP]

That was very useful, thank You ! I have been setting up my account today. Only issue is getting to use the BC for payment right away. There is a hold for up to 13 days

 

[Hazing]

So thinking I should post an update. Especially because I googled some of the questions I had and I found a lot of wrong answers that lead me to believe that I couldn’t do what I wanted and couldn’t do what I did. Just in case anyone else is wondering.

You can use cashapp to buy and pay with Bitcoin and the other user does not have to be a cashapp user. You just withdraw using their block chain. I Did run into a few problems but I was able to get it done. I have a verified account with cashapp and I bought bitcoin for the first time. When I went went to pay though, I had to verify again, in the bitcoin section. I was all ready to pay and then couldn't withdraw because I wasn’t verified. Which was just a selfie and a pic of my license. once I verified, it only took about 12 hours to authenticate which was nice because when I googled it, one site said it can take weeks. That would have sucked.

Once verified, I just hit withdraw and pasted the block chain and was good to go.

While here, I will reiterate the OPs sentiment and suggest you add 10% more than what you need. I added 8% and came up like a few dollars short. Other than that, not much too it. I’m glad this thread was here because it gave me a little nudge to try it. And now that I have, it freed up a lot of options.

 

[Duckber]

So thinking I should post an update. Especially because I googled some of the questions I had and I found a lot of wrong answers that lead me to believe that I couldn’t do what I wanted and couldn’t do what I did. Just in case anyone else is wondering.

You can use cashapp to buy and pay with Bitcoin and the other user does not have to be a cashapp user. You just withdraw using their block chain. I Did run into a few problems but I was able to get it done. I have a verified account with cashapp and I bought bitcoin for the first time. When I went went to pay though, I had to verify again, in the bitcoin section. I was all ready to pay and then couldn't withdraw because I wasn’t verified. Which was just a selfie and a pic of my license. once I verified, it only took about 12 hours to authenticate which was nice because when I googled it, one site said it can take weeks. That would have sucked.

Once verified, I just hit withdraw and pasted the block chain and was good to go.

While here, I will reiterate the OPs sentiment and suggest you add 10% more than what you need. I added 8% and came up like a few dollars short. Other than that, not much too it. I’m glad this thread was here because it gave me a little nudge to try it. And now that I have, it freed up a lot of options.

I thought cashapp has no fees when buying/sending bitcoin? why need 10% more? What fees does it cover considering cashapp states there are no fees?

I want to use bitcoin for purchases as they give a % discount but if the % is just added back, even on cashapp, i do not see the advantage

 

[Hazing]

I thought cashapp has no fees when buying/sending bitcoin? why need 10% more? What fees does it cover considering cashapp states there are no fees?

I want to use bitcoin for purchases as they give a % discount but if the % is just added back, even on cashapp, i do not see the advantage

That was my thing too. I was thinking “I can see why they offer a 5% discount. It still cost me 10% more.” I was wondering that very thing after the first transaction and assumed most people liked it because would eliminate the need to send a CC to China but it seemed like a hefty fee for that. I was glad I did it to learn about bitcoin but wasn’t sure I’d be buying too many watches that way. And where it was my first time, I wasn’t too sure about how much was fees vs how much was a fluctuation in btc value.

That first transaction had two elements that sucked. 1. I had some loss due to fluctuation between buying btc and sending to the td during that verification process. And 2. I made a few rookie mistakes not understanding how to navigate the bitcoin segment of the app. A few $ here and a few $ there and it added up with none of them being more than $6-8 individually on an 800 order (.001) but when you put 2 or 3 of them together, it added up.

I did just place a 2nd order (like 10 minutes ago) and it came out right to the dollar. And it was a quick and easy transaction. Cashapp is really convenient. I’ll give them that.

 

[Duckber]

That was my thing too. I was thinking “I can see why they offer a 5% discount. It still cost me 10% more.” I was wondering that very thing after the first transaction and assumed most people liked it because would eliminate the need to send a CC to China but it seemed like a hefty fee for that. I was glad I did it to learn about bitcoin but wasn’t sure I’d be buying too many watches that way. And where it was my first time, I wasn’t too sure about how much was fees vs how much was a fluctuation in btc value.

That first transaction had two elements that sucked. 1. I had some loss due to fluctuation between buying btc and sending to the td during that verification process. And 2. I made a few rookie mistakes not understanding how to navigate the bitcoin segment of the app. A few $ here and a few $ there and it added up with none of them being more than $6-8 individually on an 800 order (.001) but when you put 2 or 3 of them together, it added up.

I did just place a 2nd order (like 10 minutes ago) and it came out right to the dollar. And it was a quick and easy transaction. Cashapp is really convenient. I’ll give them that.

Interesting. I have done some more research as well, and it still seems like a good option all things considered, I am curious why it was on the dot for you.

I am in the market for 3 watches, and at an 8% discount for those 3 watches is 100 USD less with bitcoin. Cashapp, from what I now understand, charges a mark up of 1% (titled a "spread")

That 1% is about 13 dollars more, so I pay 13 dollars extra for BITC and sent that over to the TD. So I should theoretically still save 87 USD.

I have not done it yet, but that's what I read and learned online.

I wonder how you came about even on your latest purchase.

 

[xartan]

If I’m not mistaken coinbase gives you a better conversion rate. Paying no fees is great but if they just rob you by the conversion rate it’s easy for them to not charge fees.