The Ultimate Coinmama Review: Is It Scam Or Is It Better Than Coinbase?

I answer these and other important questions in this review. I also compare Coinmama to 3 alternatives. So please check out this Coinmama review now.

As a bonus, you’ll learn important information about credit card purchases. It applies to credit card purchases at all exchanges. It can help you avoid the situation some people found themselves in.

Disclosure: this page has affiliate links that may make me money. But the content is objective and trustworthy.

2019 Update Of This Coinmama Review: 3 Important Changes

  1. Coinmama stopped supporting Western Union. However, it added another payment method.
  2. The new payment method is SEPA bank transfer. It costs 5.9% fee. That’s twice cheaper than credit or debit card fee of 10.9%. However, this payment method isn’t available in the USA.
  3. The number of supported cryptocurrencies rose from two to eight. They’re listed below. 

Available Cryptocurrencies

  1. Ethereum (ETH)
  2. Bitcoin (BTC)
  3. Litecoin (LTC)
  4. Bitcoin Cash (BCH)
  5. Cardano (ADA)
  6. Ethereum Classic (ETC)
  7. Ripple (XRP) 
  8. Qtum (QTUM)

Coinmama United States: 25 States Where It’s Available

  1. Idaho
  2. Texas
  3. Nevada
  4. Arizona
  5. Florida
  6. Indiana
  7. Kansas
  8. Montana
  9. Kentucky
  10. Virginia
  11. Illinois
  12. Maryland
  13. Michigan
  14. Missouri
  15. Colorado
  16. Tennessee
  17. Louisiana
  18. Wisconsin
  19. California
  20. New Jersey
  21. New Mexico
  22. Pennsylvania
  23. Massachusetts
  24. North Carolina
  25. South Carolina

If you’re in some other US state and want to pay by card, please check out my review of Bitit. If you want to pay by cash, please check out my review of Bitquick. Both of them have lower fees anyway.

Besides US states above, Coinmama is available in the majority of countries. That includes United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Japan, and Singapore. In total, Coinmama is available in 217 countries.


Is Coinmama A Scam Or Is It Safe?

Coinmama has been in business since 2013. So it’s one of the oldest bitcoin companies. Furthermore, it has fewer complaints than other bitcoin companies of comparable age.

Take, for example, Kraken bitcoin exchange or Coinbase. Each of them has many more complaints. By the way, Coinbase is the worst of the two. So it’s probably the worst US cryptocurrency exchange.

However, I explain the reasons Coinbase is so bad a few sections below. In this section, I explain complaints against Coinmama.

What Are The Two Most Common Complaints Against Coinmama?

The majority of complaints against Coinmama fall into two categories. First, there are complaints about rejected credit card payments. Second, there are complaints that cryptocurrency wasn’t received after a certain period of time.

Common Complaint #1: Rejected Credit Card Payments

This section contains the first part of important information mentioned in the introduction.

The first category of complaints are common among bitcoin companies that accept credit cards. Many major banks have started blocking cryptocurrency purchases from their credit cards. So many bitcoin buyers have flooded forums and social media sites with complaints about credit card purchases.

These complaints always sound the same. The payment processor – in most cases, Simplex – rejects a credit card payment after it was made. Then the user is asked for additional documents. In some cases, providing these documents doesn’t help because credit card issuer bank blocked the transaction.

If this happens to you, cancel the credit card transaction with your credit card issuer bank. But do this only if providing the documents to Simplex doesn’t help. In many cases, that does help.

Even though the above happened to many people, it’s relatively rare. Most of the time, you’re asked to provide documents only to Coinmama. After that, your transaction goes through quickly and smoothly.

To avoid one of the unlikely situations described above, Google the name of your bank plus “blocks cryptocurrency purchases”. Even if your bank blocks credit card cryptocurrency purchases, you can use Coinmama to buy cryptocurrency. However, you’d have to use Western Union instead of a credit card.

While Western Union may not be as fast as a credit card, it allows you to pay by cash and is cheaper.

The second part of important information mentioned in the introduction is in this Coinmama review a few sections below.

Coinmama Review Screenshot

Common Complaint #2: Occasionally Long Delivery Time

The second category of complaints are also common among bitcoin companies. Insane demand for bitcoin has made it difficult for companies to deliver it in a timely fashion. So oftentimes bitcoin exchanges either are late in delivering it to your address or take forever to verify you.

As a result, impatient users have labeled various bitcoin companies as scams. Some of these users called Coinmama “a scam”. This is common in bitcoin space.

Just Google the name of any bitcoin company plus the word “scam” and lots of search results will validate your fear. So what do these “scam” search results say about Coinmama? Is it really so bad it’s an outright, shameless scam?

Let’s look at the search result that proclaims “Coinmama.com ARE SCAMMERS!!!!” I like the number of exclamation points and capital caps. Very impressive. Feels like someone is screaming in my ear.

In that BitcoinTalk forum post, the guy complains that he hasn’t received his bitcoin after 3 days. If you read this forum post from beginning to end, you’d know he received it a day later. But that’s not the only complaint he made in that forum post.

He also complained that Western Union wasn’t working due to holidays and so Western Union didn’t send Coinmama his money. So it clearly was Western Union issue. However, Coinmama support staff went out of their way and gave him discount coupons anyway.

Many complaints about Coinmama are similar. People get impatient and assume they were scammed.

Is Coinmama Secure Or Not?

Coinmama was never hacked. That’s impressive. Many major bitcoin exchanges were hacked. Bitfinex  and Bithumb are some of them. However, Coinmama is different from them.

It sells cryptocurrency and doesn’t hold it. This forces you to be more serious about the security of your cryptocurrency. While it may seem like a problem if you don’t have a wallet, there’s a solution.

Many bitcoin wallets are free apps that you can install on your phone or computer. However, hardware wallets are much more secure than apps. Plus, they are recommended by cryptocurrency experts. So if you don’t have one, please check out the best hardware wallet right now. You’ll be surprised by how affordable this wallet is.


How Does Coinmama Compare To Coinbase And Other Bitcoin Exchanges?

Unlike Coinbase and other bitcoin exchanges, Coinmama doesn’t support wire transfer. However, unlike the majority of them, it supports credit/debit card payments and Western Union. This said, Coinbase does support credit/debit card payments. In short, Coinbase has more payment methods.

Coinmama is faster than Coinbase though. In most cases, it takes less than two hours to buy bitcoin at Coinmama. Most exchanges take at least one week and often more than a month just to verify you.

Customer support is one area where Coinmama outshines Coinbase. Average response time from Coinmama support staff is less than 24 hours. Average response time from Coinbase is slower.

Customer support isn’t the only bad thing about Coinbase. It’s also notorious for its invasion of people’s financial privacy.

They keep tracking bitcoins of its users after they moved them out of Coinbase wallets. When they find companies they don’t like among payees – for example, perfectly legal gambling websites – they close accounts of users who paid them.

In short, it’s best to avoid Coinbase even if you decide not to use Coinmama.

For additional comparison, please check out the table below.

Another Coinmama Alternative

You can see a comparison of Coinmama, Coinbase, Bitquick, and Bitit in the table below. When reading it, keep in mind that Coinmama, Coinbase, and Bitit are companies from which you buy bitcoin. Bitquick is different because it’s a peer-to-peer marketplace where you buy bitcoin from a private individual through their escrow service.

Coinmama Vs. Coinbase Vs. Bitquick

If you're on a mobile device, place your finger on this table and slide it to the right to see all of the table content.
CompanyFeesSupportMaximum LimitsVerificationPrivacy RecordUser ReviewsAverage Purchase Time From Verification To Bitcoin ReceiptConclusion
Coinmama5.9%
-
10.9%
GoodOne million dollars per monthAlways requiredGoodExcellent1 hour - 1 day You can use it if you're okay paying high fees to an established company.
Coinbase1.49%
-
3.99%
Bad$50,000 per dayAlways requiredTerrible. They track all your cryptocurrency activity.Terrible1 day - 5 daysStay way from this evil exchange.
Bitquick2%Excellent$9,999 in one transaction. You can place a few separate orders to get more cryptocurrency.Not required for purchases of less than 400 dollarsExcellentExcellent2 - 3 hoursTwo thumbs up. Excellent way to buy cryptocurrency. So here's the link to Bitquick website.

Bitquick fees don’t include a bitcoin network fee of 0.0001 BTC. Coinmama fees include that fee. Coinbase, unlike Bitquick and Coinmama, doesn’t send bitcoin to your wallet. It keeps your bitcoin in Coinbase wallet under your name and charges you bitcoin network fee when you transfer it.

What Are Coinmama Fees? How Do They Compare To Other Bitcoin Sellers?

Not many exchanges allow you to buy bitcoin instantly with debit card or credit card. That’s where bitcoin sellers like Coinmama come into play. They charge high fees but you get bitcoin much faster. So how high are Coinmama fees when compared to others?

Its fees are much higher than the fees of exchanges that accept bank transfers. One example is CEX.IO bitcoin exchange. It has free bank transfers.

The upside with Coinmama is that you get bitcoin or ethereum much faster. You get bitcoin or ethereum in one day even with verification. In some rare cases, that may take you two days to get it.

Coinmama charges a fee of 5.9% plus a transaction processor fee. The latter fee depends on the payment method.

Credit or debit card transactions carry a Simplex credit card processor fee of 5% and often a bank’s cash advance fee of $10 or 5%. You can read more about cash advance fee in the following section.

Western Union fee is lower. Most of the time, it’s 2%, though it’s often higher. It varies depending on the amount of money and your location. So please check the amount of Western Union fee before making a transaction and remember to select “cash at an agent location” option.

Otherwise, you’d be paying Western Union a huge fee. Above-described option is the cheapest one for this type of transactions.

Cash Advance Fee For Credit Card Purchases

This section contains the second (final) part of important information mentioned in the introduction.

Banks often charge cash advance fee for credit card cryptocurrency purchases. It’s the greater of $10 or 5%. For this reason, I recommend that you never buy bitcoin instantly with debit card or credit card. Use Western Union instead if you choose Coinmama.

Locked Crypto Rate

Unlike unscrupulous bitcoin sellers, Coinmama doesn’t change the price of bitcoin after you bought it. Coinmama calls this feature of price locking “locked crypto rate”. You get as much as you paid for.

While that may sound like common sense, not every company in crypto business follows this model. Some change the price of bitcoin after you agreed to purchase it if there’s significant price movement.

That doesn’t happen when you use Coinmama.com. That’s one of the reasons to use it.

Conclusion Of Section About Fees

Only 5.9% is charged by Coinmama. However, the total fee ranges between 5.9% and 10.9%. It seems high, but it isn’t the highest in crypto business.

Cryptocurrency exchange with the highest fees is Changelly. It charges between 20% and 50%, not even telling you the exact percent.

The only benefit is that they occasionally don’t send any cryptocurrency after you paid them. I say it’s a benefit because you wouldn’t have to worry about cryptocurrency volatility when you don’t have any cryptocurrency.

So as you can see, Coinmama fees are relatively high but somewhat acceptable.


What Are The Three Disadvantages Of Coinmama?

  1. High fees is the main disadvanatage of Coinmama.
  2. Lack of trading platform is another disadvantage. So you can’t trade cryptocurrency there. You can only buy cryptocurrency on Coinmama.
  3. Another disadvantage is a lack of mobile app. But there’s a mobile-friendly website.

What Are Coinmama Limits And Verification Levels?

Many bitcoin sellers have low limits. Coinmama isn’t one of them. Coinmama limits are among the highest in crypto business. You can buy one million dollars of bitcoin in one month there.

To buy more than fifty thousand dollars of bitcoin, you need to be Level 3 verified. In case you’re verified for first two levels, the only requirement is to fill out a short form. In case you’re not verified for first two levels, there are additional steps you need to take.

Level 1 requires you to upload two things: 1) government-issued ID; 2) photo of yourself with that ID and a paper with “Coinmama” and the date you’re uploading it written on it. For this level, they accept driver’s licenses, ID cards, and non-US international passports. Though they don’t accept US-issued passports for this level, they accept US driver’s licenses.

Level 1 is perfect for you if you want to buy small amount of bitcoin. You can buy as little as 60 dollars of bitcoin. You can also buy as much as 10,000 dollars of bitcoin in one month.

Level 2 requires a second government-issued ID and a utility bill. This level allows you to buy 50,000 dollars of bitcoin in one month.


Coinmama Review: Conclusion

Fees
Speed
Ease Of Use
Customer Support
Average

Coinmama isn’t the best option. But it’s definitely better than Coinbase.

Coinmama fees are high. But it’s faster than some alternatives. It’s also safe and easy-to-use.

Plus, you can use Western Union instead of a credit or debit card to minimize your fees. Just remember to select “cash at an agent location” option if you choose Western Union.

That’s the end of this Coinmama review. So if you decided to use it, please visit Coinmama now.

Try Coinmama right now

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