Safe way to Buy & Sell Cryptocurrency

I will not go into details of Cryptocurrency as I have already published a  Cryptocurrency Beginners Guide which includes all the credible Exchanges you can use, wallets to store your crypto and general safety rules of Cryptocurrency and how its booming, this post is about a service which will allow you to buy and sell Bitcoins in your country through your local banks while providing escrow and some added tips how to get a good deal out of you your trade.

Update – Feb 2019 : LBC did face an advanced phishing attack , but no real damage was reported, details: LocalBitcoins Users Scammed in Advanced Phishing Attack : BTC Stolen

Update – Feb 2020 : If your LocalBitcoins Account got Suspended or you can verify your account on LBC you may consider using the alternative P2P Escrow services I have mentioned at the end of the article.

Risks while Buying Bitcoin

The biggest and only risk while buying BTC is that after you send your payment the other party simply vanishes , now there are a bunch of other services which offer buying and selling of BTC but they all have high exchange rates which makes them not ideal for starters.

Buy Bitcoin with ease and safety

A Finland based company, LocalBitcoins.com offer a great platform for buying and selling BTC without exaggerated fee structure while providing escrow. Escrow here would mean a Seller if in a deal with you will have to submit their BTC to the website as escrow and after you have made the payment the BTCs will be released to you . This way you will not be dealing with people who just vanish after you send them money. At LocalBitcoins.com, people from different countries can exchange their local currency to bitcoins. The site allows users to post advertisements where they state exchange rate and payment methods for buying or selling bitcoins. You reply to these advertisements and agree to meet the person to buy bitcoins with cash, or trade directly with online banking. Bitcoins are placed in LocalBitcoins.com web wallet from where you can pay your bitcoin purchases directly.

Key Factors for buying

Key Factors while trading on LBC :

• If the seller has set a very low buy price be vary of that
• “Number of confirmed trades” will allow you to establish how trustworthy the seller is
• Email, Phone Number, ID/Passport are another way of establishing the sellers authenticity
• Do not make hasty decisions
• When you initiate a buy do read the instructions given by the seller so the trade goes by smoothly

Trick to get the Best Deal on Localbitcoins

LBC is good for being the quickest way of selling and buying Bitcoin and I use it often. When you open the Homepage of LBC you will find many sellers with a very high rate, how to find the best buy ? Follow these steps to get the BEST Rate on LBC

• Step 1 : Click on Buy Bitcoins / Sell Bitcoins
  Note: Selling and Buying trick on LBC is same just follow this guide for both selling and buying
• Step 2 : Scroll down a bit and click where you see “Show More…”

  

• Step 3 : “Show More…” menu will expand and you will need to click the first option “All In Euro (EUR)” , this option will vary as per your country and currency
• Step 4 : A new page will open this time it will show the least expensive seller (in case you are buying) and most profitable buyer (in case your are selling) at the top, even if the Buyers / Sellers will be new they will give good rates so they can get a good start for their business

  

• Step 5 : As per above image I can see that pedromaster88 is the seller with best rate, click the Buy (Sell if you are selling) and see the user feedback score, last online time and feedback if there is nothing negative go ahead and initiate your trade.
• Step 6 : Enjoy a good trade with this simple Trick. Even if the user is new you can still trade confidently as this website provides escrow.

LBC was founded in 2012 and its running strong till now that makes its a very reliable service and I have used it myself thus I can recommend it to others aswell

LocalBitcoins Alternative

Localbitcoins has made their verification process very cumbersome and many may not be inclined to use LBC due to the same reasons, for those some alternative peer to peer platforms with same level of user base are in luck. I will share a few platforms which will let you do what Localbitcoins allowed us to do so for so many years. Some famous localbitcoins alternative platforms are :

• Binance – A robust and very old crypto exchange, offers upcoming coins which at times other exchanges lack, IOTA / ADA and such promising coins can be traded on Binance alongwith all the famous ones. If you want to trade this is the go to place. Using this referral will give you 5% commission. Also added p2p trading platform to all buying and selling where credit cards etc are otherwise denied and they are offering p2p features with 0% Fee.
• Remitano – Remitano provides escrowed P2P Bitcoin marketplace where people buy and sell Bitcoin easily and safely with notable simple UI, friendly online customer support 24/7 and lowest fee compared with major players on the market. Our team is comprised mostly by banking professionals with extensive experience in financial products, E-currencies, Payment System and Agile Software Development, and others.
• PaxFul – A global peer to peer payment logistics platform. Paxful is PayPal + Uber and the peoples Wall Street. Paxful provides escrow and has a strong userbase.

Ask your queries or if you need more guidance regarding any platform or generally something about cryptocurrency in the comments below !!!