Posted 16 Dec 2010
It was on January 2014 when I first reviewed Coinmama. It was among the first services I reviewed in the website 99Bitcoins. What’s so great about Coinmama back then was the fact that it allowed users to purchase Bitcoins through Western Union. Well I’ve decided recently to visit the website again and saw a lot of changes in it, so this is gonna be a renewed review for this service.
Among the big changes in the industry of Bitcoin for 2014 is the method of buying bitcoin easily by using a credit card. This is because of companies like Simplex who have allowed brokers and exchanges to verify users who has less risk, therefore accepting the use of credit cards.
This change is much welcomed since if this is not allowed yet, you would still be using the traditional method of really going to Western Union’s counter and deposit money personally. Now Coinmama allowed Simplex to integrate in its system which permitted you to use any Mastercard or Visa you might have.
Since the methods became much more advanced, it made the fees cheaper as well. For your information: before the credit card was allowed, a Bitcoin could cost a person as much as $310 with the Bitstamp rate of only $257. That is an enormous 22% fee. Yikes!
The moment they implemented the changes, a bitcoin’s price would still be $287. It means that fees are just around 7%. It still sounds a lot though, but the fee is just the same everywhere with other companies selling Bitcoin using a payment method of credit card. This is because the companies deployed expensive measures just to prevent fraud and chargebacks.
The speed in which you can get your coins is the last thing that was improved. What happened in the past is that you need to wait for the transaction confirmation to appear from Western Union. But now, when your payment is done, you can immediately withdraw your coins and that is perfectly awesome.
It is considered crucial since the Bitcoin’s price can fluctuate in so many ways in day or two and you can end up purchasing bitcoins for a lesser or higher price than you intend to. Take note that there’s a limitation on how much Bitcoin can first time users buy and that is $520 as of writing.
Just like the old times, I always make sure that I cross-refer the review I made with Bitcoin’s subreddit as well as the Bitcointalk forum. I was looking for other reviews around the internet about Coinmama, but what I only found is this thread, which a lot of users report that they are delighted with the website.
However in Bitcointalk, I wasn’t able to see any informative post, except for one saying that the website is not notable and other one complaining about its high fees (before the fee structure changed to lower one).
If you choose or consider using Coinmama, this is a short tutorial I made to help you about the whole process.
The quick answer is yes. It is such a reputable company and its only downfall is the high fees. Sadly, it can’t be avoided by the use of credit card this time.
The long answer in addition to is “it depends”. If you can find other option in which you can use a different mode of payment than your credit card, then you can go elsewhere and avoid the high fees.
To sum up all, the service is great enough and hopefully it would be more affordable in the future. I’d appreciate if you can share as well your own personal experience with Coinmama in the comment box below.