CoinCorner – Is It Good?

CoinCorner is a cryptocurrency exchange based in Isle of Man with quick verification processes and fast transactions. You can buy as little as 10 British Pounds worth of Bitcoin through them in less than 10 minutes in the platform. However, its high fees and the fact that they’re a small, non-regulated platform with bad reviews can be concerning for some people.

So how good is CoinCorner? Is CoinCorner trustworthy? Is it only for British people? And, most importantly, how does it stack up against other platforms?

What Does CoinCorner provide?

Established in 2014, CoinCorner is not a new scam service looking to keep your money. So far they’ve got over 150,000 users, with a lot of them being from the UK, although it’s not exclusively a British service. It quickly gained an audience when it became one of the first places British people could buy Bitcoin using their credit cards.

CoinCorner was founded to try and solve the issue of “wanting to buy Bitcoin from the UK from somewhere you can trust”. It’s therefore ironic to see their 3-star TrustPilot rating. Most of the people complain about its high fees, the lack of support for deposits and withdrawals of British Pounds and the lack of support for withdrawing crypto. You can only purchase, sell and store Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple and Litecoin, and you can’t withdraw them from the platform, you’ll have to use a separate wallet.

Buying Bitcoin in CoinCorner is quite simple. You start by creating you account with your address and password and verifying your email and phone number. Next you have to verify your account by sending a proof of address and a selfie with your ID and a handwritten randomly-generated number. Finally you can fund your account with a card, bank transfer or Neteller tab and start buying crypto.

A unique feature of CoinCorner is definitely the ability to send Bitcoin as a gift. The platform gives users the ability to create an e-card for any occasion and send it with Bitcoin attached to it. The designs are arguably good and the idea is novel, however they do charge an extra fee when using this service to “cover the network transaction cost”, which just adds up to the already steep purchasing fees.

Despite being targeted in 2016, CoinCorner hasn’t had any security issues, which speaks to its security. CoinCorner also recently announced the plan to start releasing a physical Bitcoin Visa debit card, although at the time of writing no release date has been set.

Supported Countries

Although almost half of its users are British, CoinCorner is also supported in most of Europe, Australia and some parts of Africa and Latin America. It’s currently not supported in the United States.

CoinCorner Rates and Buying Limits

CoinCorner rates for Credit or Debit card deposits are quite high for this type of platform:

CoinCorner fee: 2.5% plus £0.40

Although a below-than-average rate for credit card purchasing, it’s quite steep for those using debit card. If you want to use an international bank transfer, you’ll have to pay a flat £25 fee. You also have to pay a small flat fee whenever you’re buying or selling crypto. The minimum amount you can purchase is £10.

If you’re looking to purchase over 100,000 USD worth of coins you can use the CoinCorner Concierge by filling an online form and waiting for a representative to contact you.

CoinCorner Cons

• Lack of withdrawal support: You’ll have to transfer to your separate wallet before you can withdraw your crypto.
• Lack of support for alt-coins: Besides Bitcoin you’ll only be able to buy Ethereum, Litecoin and Ripple.
• High fees: A 2.5% fee or £25 for transfers is quite substantial and above the industry’s average.

Sign Up at CoinCorner

Is CoinCorner Good for Bitcoin?

CoinCorner is a simple approach to get Bitcoin and a few alt-coins that can be attractive to the beginner. They’ve recently lowered their fees to make it cheaper to buy and sell in the platform and transactions are quite fast once you’ve opened and validated your account. The gift option and the promise of a physical card are quite interesting and necessary to break through the noise of competition.

You however still have to plan ahead and decide how you’re going to top up your account to avoid large fees. The lack of support for withdrawals also kind of flies on the face of the “instant service” they try to advertise since transferring to a separate wallet will be bothersome specifically to those looking to spend as little time as possible trading.

CoinCorner has made some great decisions and shows some promise. Use it for the right features and it can become a great exchange alternative, although it may not become your main platform just yet.