Coinmama – Is It Good?

Based in Slovakia and operated from Israel, Coinmama is a leading broker that takes different payment options to get Bitcoin and alt-coins, including credit cards all over the world. Coinmama isn’t an exchange, it’s a broker, which means that it sells you the coins directly as opposed as, say, a P2P exchange, where you’re only buying from other people. Although this means that you never have to go look for a buyer or seller, it tends to be more expensive.

So how good is Coinmama? Is Coinmama trustworthy? How expensive are the fees? And, most importantly, how does it stack up against other platforms?

What Does Coinmama provide?

Established in 2013, Coinmama is definitely not a new scam service looking to keep your money. In fact, it’s one of the oldest exchanges in the industry and it has been accepting credit cards for longer than any of its competitors, which may explain its popularity.

Before making any purchase, you’ll have to verify your identity, having three levels. The first level requires a government ID and a selfie of you holding the ID with a note of the date and “Coinmama” written on it. Level 2 requires a second ID and a utility bill. Level 3 requires filling a short form. This verification process is one of the biggest sources of complaints online.

Coinmama is also quite fast, After the initial verification which takes 10 minutes, all purchases are delivered instantly. This is very important since cryptocurrency tends to fluctuate quite a lot, so Coinmama locks the Bitcoin price as soon as an order is submitted. However, Coinmama doesn’t provide its users with a wallet. Instead to purchase you should already have a separate wallet. You can pick one right here.

With an easy and intuitive design and fast experience, Coinmama is an excellent option for beginners who are looking to purchase their first share of Bitcoin. More seasoned users however may want to look elsewhere for cheaper transaction fees.

Coinmama has seemingly focused exclusively on people who are looking to purchase crypto with a credit card on their computers. They don’t take PayPal, Amazon gift cards or even American Express. And despite having been in the business for so long, they’re yet to develop a mobile app.

You don’t have to use it only for Bitcoin. Coinmama also supports alt-coins like ETH, LTC, BCH, ETC, XRP, QTUM and ADA.

Supported Countries

Coinmama is supported in most countries except those with sanctions. It however doesn’t have a great coverage in the United States, supporting only the following 24 states:

Arizona, California ,Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and Wisconsin.

Coinmama Rates and Buying Limits

Coinmama earns the same commission with every single purchase:

Coinmama brokerage service fee: 5.9%

A larger than usual fee, Coinmama adds that to the prices automatically so what you see is what you’re paying. On top of that if you pay with a credit card you also need to pay another 5% processing fee. This means that you’ll end up paying over 10% more for crypto.

Out of all brokers that accept credit cards, Coinmama offers some of the highest buying limits. You can purchase up to $5,000 worth of crypto per day and $30,000 per month. Your verification level does not affect your buying limit.

Coinmama Cons

• Lack of US support: Half of the country remains to be unavailable to purchase from Coinmama.
• Bothersome verification process: We dislike any platform that asks you to surrender your identity to purchase in the website so we’re not huge fans of taking a selfie on top of that.
• High fees: A 5.9% fee and another 5% fee for credit cards is quite substantial and well above the industry’s average.
• Not a lot of purchasing options: Coinmama only takes Visa and Mastercard.

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Is Coinmama Good for Bitcoin?

Coinmama’s biggest strength may be its biggest weakness: it’s only great if you absolutely need to purchase crypto using a credit card. If you do, Coinmama may be the way to go since the fees are mostly average (credit card fees tend to be quite high) and you’d be getting your crypto from a reputable source.

However, a 5.9% fee for every purchase may be too large for the average buyer, especially if you’re able to pay with another option. In fact, you can probably find an exchange with local purchasing options that caters to your country.

However, if you must purchase with a credit card, there’s probably not a more reputable source than Coinmama.