Author: G

I’m sure all of you have heard about bitcoin by now and have a general understanding of it. Bitcoin is here to stay, the adoption by major institutions and banks has made it much easier to use now. Over the next years we see the w2w, w/u, and mg payment options getting harder and harder to use (not to mention more expensive). I am writing this post to outline and explain some of the easiest ways to pay for your order using bitcoin. It’s not as hard as it used to be, and its actually much cheaper then w2w, w/u, and mg. 

Online wallet and smartphone apps.

You can go online to set up, and fund your new wallet using a debit or credit card. We recommend using either coinbase, or cash app (cash app iOS or cash app Android). They both provide iOS & Android apps on your smartphone along with websites that allow you to create an account. Depending on what wallet you prefer, the set up time for the wallet is minimal. The process involves creating an acct with basic personal information. You then complete a brief KYC questioner which stands for ‘Know Your Customer’. These online wallets are required to have an image of a valid state issued ID on file. You take a picture of your ID and upload it, thats it. The reason for the KYC requirement is because you’ll be linking your debit or credit card to the acct, this is how you will fund it. To create the acct and link the debit or credit card takes about 10-15 min. We recommend linking your debit card to the acct, as this is the fastest way to fund it. If you choose to fund with a credit card they put a 3 day approval hold on the acct, for fraud purposes. Using the debit card takes 1-2 days for the acct to be funded/approved & active to buy/sell and send/receive Bitcoin. The set up process for opening a cash app or coinbase acct takes 15 min to open up, and 1-2 days to get approved (if you link to a debit card), but once approved you can pay for orders literally in 20 seconds. It’s so much easier than having to go into a physical location to send a western union, money gram or Walmart to Walmart payment, not to mention your order ships out the same day the payment is received. 

Pro’s

• You can pay for your order in 20 sec. online without leaving home
• Faster shipping time as we receive the payment in seconds and prep shipment the same day. 
• No risk of having payment flagged like w/u, MG, and w2w, and having to drive back to the store to refund and resend the payment.  
• Low fee’s to send payments (much cheaper then w/u, mg, and w2w)

Cons

• Approval can take 1-2 days
• Must complete KYC

We feel these online wallets are the easiest way to use bitcoin on an ongoing basis to pay for your order. Once the wallet is set up your able to buy bitcoin using funds from your debit card, and then send the Bitcoin to pay for your order within 20 seconds. You must complete the KYC questioner and provide an image of your drivers license, but you give the same exact info to the clerk when you send payment using W/U, MG, and w2w. You still remain anonymous using bitcoin, no one can see who your sending payment to & no-one knows what its for. If you want to use this method I highly recommend setting up an acct before you are ready to order, that way you have a few days to let the approval process complete and you’re able to send payment immediately when you place order with GearDepot.

Bitcoin ATM

There are bitcoin ATM’s popping up all over the world now due to the popularity of bitcoin and other crypto currencies. We call these BTM’s (bitcoin ATM’s). The function BTM is to allow the customer to put cash into the machine, and convert it to bitcoin. Most people use these machines to fund their own wallets, but if you don’t have a wallet and are new to Bitcoin you will simply use the machine to fund our wallet. When you deposit the cash the machine will ask you if you’re finding your own wallet? Or sending to someone else. If you choose the option to end your own wallet, but give them our wallet address it will bypass your need to complete the KYC questioner. So basically if you don’t want to create a wallet and simply want to pay for your order using cash, you can go to one of these BTM’s and deposit cash that is converted to Bitcoin then send to us to complete payment o your order. The only drawback on these BTM’s is the high fee’s they charge, most of them range from 7% – 20% to use them. If you want to use this option we can do a search for BTM’s in your are and help you select one that has fee’s under 10%. Many times these BTM’s don’t list their fee’s online in an effort to dupe you into starting the process on the machine only to find out hey are going to charge you 17% for send $300 or something. If you can find one of these BTM’s that has appropriate fees in your area this can be a great option for using bitcoin, but not having to create an acct etc. 

Pro’s

• No need to create online wallet
• No KYC questioner
• Payment funds fast, no waiting for receiver to collect funds

Con’s

• High fee’s 6-20%
• Limited number of BTM locations in most areas

The BTM is a good solution if you are opposed to opening up a crypto wallet/account. The main drawback are the high fee’s these guys charge too use their service. You can think of it like withdrawing cash from a ATM in Vegas or something, you can def get the job done but you’ll pay a higher fee to use it.

We are recommending our customers to try out bitcoin by opening a cash app wallet. We have put together a detailed step by step process that will walk you through the process start to finish. If you are interested in using this, we highly recommend starting the process before you place you next order so you can get the acct set up, verified and then funded before we send you the payment details for your order. If you do it in this order the process is silky smooth! If you have any questions on bitcoin and how to use it to pay for your order please let us know, we’re happy to help.