I'm glad you are taking the plunge and learning how to use Bitcoin!  Good job navigating through your first purchase experience.  As others have suggested, I would advise signing up for Coinbase and using that for future purchases.  It's far simpler and connects directly to your bank account, no need to use a credit card.  The sign-up process is not too hard and Coinbase is a reputable company that endeavors to comply with all US laws & regulations.  The only reason not to use it is if you want to totally stay off the grid and remain as anonymous as possible, but as you've noticed, doing that means increased inconvenience especially if you will be transacting frequently.

you can just buy it on localbitcoins.com from someone locally with cash.

Depends on where you are but one of the easiest ways for me when I first started out was Circle or Coinbase. My first BTC was bought to play poker.

Thanks for sharing, as a bitcoin holder , i didn't realized it's this difficult and expensive to buy bitcoins for newbies in US.

This post has been linked to from another place on Steem.


  - [Oct 23 - Steemit Ramble #41 - Don't You Hate it When You Miss Good Posts?](https://steemit.com/curation/@shadowspub/oct-steemit-ramble-41-don-t-you-hate-it-when-you-miss-good-posts) by @shadowspub




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Great post. Voted and followed. I think the crypto community always needs fresh perspective on how difficult things are. I walked my wife through how to convert her SBD into an Amazon Gift card balance, and it's no easy process for those not familiar with it. Hopefully more fresh perspectives like this will continue to add pressure to make things easier for everyone involved.

2011 bitinstant.com  (gov overreach shut it down - put charlie in prison)  Back then, you had to moneygram via walgreens, wait a day, and btc finally appeared in trading account on exchange.  These days, I'm Coinbase registered.   

For your small $100 purchase, I'd say a face-to-face trade (cash) in public place/bitcoin meetup. There are money limits on face-to-face transactions due to money handling laws - and vary by state.

Cherry is popped now....awesome @whatsup.  I've never touched bitcoin.   You help me when I  get some cash.

@whatsup, can you guess on my game or resteem it for me.   I seriously need help with the cryptocurrency, so im hunting you down when i have the cash.

http://i.imgur.com/SsfejKK.jpg
Hi @whatsup, I just stopped back to let you know your post was one of my favourite reads today and I included it in my Steemit Ramble. [You can read what I wrote about your post here.](https://steemit.com/curation/@shadowspub/oct-steemit-ramble-41-don-t-you-hate-it-when-you-miss-good-posts)

Thanks for sharing your experience. This really highlights the difficulty that exists for people to buy in to Steem/SP. I am glad you were able to figure it out.

I was lucky enough to have my brother who was a 'bitcoin expert' to guide me through it. He had me signup for coinbase, and I've been using it for many years. Its as easy as paypal / online banking in my opinion, but the downside is you have to share quite a bit of personal information (bank account # included) to use it.

As far as using Poloniex/Bittrex to exchange BTC for STEEM and SBD + transfer in and out of Steemit, thankfully others had published fairly straightforward 'how to' guides, where I pretty much just followed the instructions.