How to buy Bitcoins

You can buy bitcoins from either exchanges, or directly from other people via marketplaces.

You can pay for them in a variety of ways, ranging from hard cash to credit and debit cards to wire transfers, or even with other cryptocurrencies, depending on who you are buying them from and where you live.
Surprisingly, it’s still not easy to buy bitcoins with your credit card or PayPal, depending on your jurisdiction.

This is because such transactions can easily be reversed with a phone call to the card company (ie ‘chargebacks’). Since it’s hard to prove any goods changed hands in a transfer of bitcoins, exchanges avoid this payment method and so do most private sellers.

However, the options have recently grown for consumers in some countries.

In the US, Coinbase, and Circle offer purchases with credit cards. Bittylicious and CoinCorner also offer this service in the UK, accepting 3D Secure-enabled cards on the Visa and MasterCard networks. For small amounts of bitcoin, you can use a card to buy $20-worth at Tinkercoin.