HOW TO BUY CRYPTOCURRENCIES STEP BY STEP
What makes Bitpanda.com special? Why is it worth trying?
- It is a renowned and prestigious Austrian cryptocurrency trading platform with a five-year history.
- It offers a wide portfolio of cryptocurrencies for purchase, sale and exchange.
- The use is easy even for absolute beginners. You can purchase Bitcoin in three simple steps.
- It offers a variety of payment methods. Bank transfer is absolutely free of fees for both deposits and withdrawals.
The credibility of Bitpanda cryptocurrency trading platform is also evidenced by the recent granting of the European licence under PSD2 (Payment Services Directive 2015/2366) by the Austrian financial regulator FMA.
What you should know before opening an account on Bitpanda.com
To get the most out of the service, you must verify your identity after opening your account. Unverified accounts can only trade and make monetary pay-outs of up to 30,000 EUR per month. They are not allowed to deposit money to buy cryptocurrencies. So, if you already have some Bitcoins, you can sell them there and transfer the money. However, if you are just getting started and want to buy cryptocurrencies first, account verification is a necessity.
Verification takes place via online services IdentityTM or IDNow and you need a webcam or ideally a smartphone for it. It doesn't take more than 10 minutes, but you should shake off shyness and know a few words in English or German.
All fees for buying and selling cryptocurrencies on Bitpanda.com are already included in the offered prices. Prices are continuously updated in real time. Bitcoin purchase fees are currently 1.49%, being 1.29% for sales. When you compare them to other servers, you will find that the fees are really low. For example, a similar server Coinmama.com Coinmama.com has the fees almost four times higher.
Personal experience with Bitpanda.com
I started trading on Bitpanda.com in 2017. The user interface was not so intuitive then. In early 2019, they made a very successful upgrade of the entire interface, which simplified purchases and sales and made everything clearer.
I tried deposits both by bank transfer and online by payment card. Withdrawals are always by bank transfer, which is free of charge (not counting 20 CZK deducted by FIO banka for transfer from abroad). You need to take into account that a bank transfer takes about 2–3 days, but this is normal. The money has always reliably arrived both back and forth. Of course, payment card transactions are online and instant.
Trading possibilities
Bitpanda excels in a very wide range of cryptocurrencies and payment options. You can make fiat currency deposits in euros, US dollars, British pounds, or Swiss francs.
How to set up an account on Bitpanda.com
You can set up an account on bitpanda.com in a few easy steps:
Click the Sign up button in the top right of the screen and fill out the form. Provide a valid e-mail address to which you will receive a message with a link confirming the authenticity of the mailbox.
In the next step, log in with the entered details. You already see the fully functional interface of Bitpanda.com. But at this point, you only have a basic unverified account that you can only use to sell cryptocurrencies. The account needs to be verified...
I used IDNow to verify my identity. Video conference can be done either via your PC webcam or smartphone using the IDNow app, which can be downloaded and installed on Android or iOS for free. This is a fairly quick process, but requires at least a minimum knowledge of English or German.
Personally, I recommend the second method with a smartphone. I tried a tablet first, but I failed because the image from my webcam was not sharp enough, and I had to hold the tablet upside down because it was somehow mirrored in the browser.
After installing the app, enter the code from Bitpanda that matches you with the account you want to verify. IDNow is a service that many websites use to authenticate their users – not just Bitpanda. When I passed my identity verification, quite a few people waited for confirmation before me. I was queued and waiting for my turn, which happened in about five minutes. It takes reliable Internet connection and a quiet, well-lit environment. So, I suggest you lock in your room and have a valid passport or ID at hand.
You can see how verification works on IDNow here:
Step-by-step IDNow account verification:
You can see the agent in the upper right corner of the display and yourself on the rest of the mobile phone screen.
First, you must verify that you want to trade solely for yourself and that it's for a Bitpanda.com account, which you confirm.
Furthermore, the agent takes a picture of you, so he or she will instruct you where to look, etc.
Then the video switches and you will see the view from the front camera to take a picture of your ID card. All 4 corners must be visible and the image must be sharp – just position the ID or passport correctly.
Furthermore, the front "flash" of the smartphone is switched on so that the agent can check the security features of the ID card (engravings, hologram). All you need to do is move the ID slowly from left to right, up and down, and tilt it according to the instructions so that the security features are clearly visible.
Then you have to wait for about 3 minutes when the agent checks the data (it was quite a long wait).
Then they just congratulate you and the verification is complete. It only takes a while and you can start trading right away, which is a big advantage compared to sending scanned documents and waiting for a verification.
If you want to invest more than 2,500 EUR in 24 hours, you need to verify your deposit by bank transfer (SEPA) from your account for the first time. I.e., the account from which you send the payment must be registered in your name and it can be between 25 EUR and 2,500 EUR. This transfer can take up to 3 business days. However, the authenticated user has extremely high limits depending on the payment method – for example up to 5,000,000 EUR per month can be achieved via SEPA transfer.
How to buy Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies on Bitpanda.com
To buy cryptocurrencies, you must have some funds deposited in your internal account (in EUR, USD, GPB or CHF).
In the top menu, click on the Deposit button and select the currency in which you want to make the deposit. It is ideal to use euro within the EU, but if you have your account for example in USD it will, of course, be better for you to choose this currency.
Then, select your payment method and enter the amount. When paying by bank transfer, Bitpanda will not charge you any fees, i.e. you only pay a fee for transfer abroad to your bank (e.g. it is only pleasant 20 CZK with FIO banka). The payment information will be displayed in the last step and also sent to you by e-mail. The reference number is very important, which you must provide when making a payment in order to match it correctly with your bitpanda.comaccount. It should be borne in mind that a bank transfer abroad takes about 2–3 days.
If you want to start buying cryptocurrencies immediately, I recommend using a payment card and transferring money online.
Trading on Bitpanda.com:
If you already have a deposit in your account, you can start trading.
First, click on the Trade button in the top menu and then select the Buy button to purchase.
The next step is to select the cryptocurrency you are interested in. There is a really wide portfolio of cryptocurrencies: BTC, XRP, ETH, EOS, BCH, LTC, XLM, ADA, MIOTA, DASH, NEO, ETC, XEM, ZEC, XTZ, OMG, REP, LINK, ZRX, KMD, PAN.
Then select the amount you want to purchase. In the last step, you can see the current exchange rate of the selected cryptocurrency and also how many coins you will receive. The rate is fixed for 1 minute, then it is updated.
After a successful purchase, you will find the cryptocurrency in your local Bitpanda wallet. The next reasonable step is to transfer the cryptocurrency to your own wallet. For the sake of the security of your cryptocurrency portfolio, I strongly recommend it.
How to send cryptocurrency:
Click the Send button in the top menu and then select which cryptocurrency you want to send.
First, enter the address of your wallet, which I recommend checking CAREFULLY. In the next step, you just enter the amount to send.
The entire transaction must then be confirmed in the e-mail. Be sure to double-check the address you entered. Also, remember that cryptocurrency transfer is, by virtue of the blockchain principle, usually subject to a fee. However, the safety is worth it.
The Bitpanda.com interface is very intuitive. In the Dashboard, you can easily find most of the information you need, including current exchange rates and your own transaction history.
What cryptocurrencies can be traded on Bitpanda.com:
Bitpanda.com offers a really wide portfolio of cryptocurrencies for purchase and sale. From Bitcoinu to Ethereum, Ripple, Pantos, Bitcoin Cash, IOTA, Litecoin, Komodo, EOS, Dash, OmiseGO, Augur, Stellar, 0x, NEM, ZCash, Tezos, Cardano, NEO, Ethereum Classic, Chainlink, Waves, Lisk, Tether, USD Coin, Cosmos and TRON.
Bitpanda offers an ideal opportunity for beginners
to safely step into the world of cryptocurrencies.
