What is the cheapest way to deposit money into a Bitstamp account from the US? What is the cheapest way to deposit money into a Bitstamp account? They offer a number of ways, but what is the easiest for someone in the US?
I spent a long time researching this very question a while ago before buying my first bitcoins thinking that Bitstamp is the cheapest way to buy bitcoins (fee wise).  I ended up concluding that the cheapest way to deposit money in a Bitstamp account from the United States is with Ripple, which allows you to bypass the $15 wire transfer fee that it would cost to transfer money the old fashioned way.  However, I ended up going with Coinbase to buy my bitcoins rather than doing this.  I'll explain why:

In order to buy bitcoins this way using Bitstamp, the process is rather convoluted.  That alone is the first reason.  The second reason is that once I added up the fees, it was actually more expensive with bitstamp because you're not just paying Bitstamp's fees, but also the fees to transfer money into Ripple.

If you still want to do buy bitcoins using this method, here's how.

1) Setup a Ripple account.
2) Fund it with SnapSwap.  Fees:0.99% + $0.30.
3) Send the money to Bitstamp using Ripple.  The deposit money page when you're logged into Bitstamp will have the Ripple address to send money to in order to fund your account.
4) Buy bitcoins with the newly funded account.  Fees: 0.5%.

Cumulatively, the fees add up to 1.49%, excluding the $0.30 fee.  The fees that SnapSwap tack on negate the advantage of the relatively low fees that Bitstamp uses.

So if you're looking for a cheap exchange, since you live in the United States and thus cannot use SEPA, Bitstamp unfortunately probably won't work for you.  Here are your other options:


CampBX.  An Atlanta based exchange that has a fee of 0.55%.  As far as cheapest way to buy Bitcoins in the United States, this is probably your best bet.  Their website appears to be down right now, however.
Coinbase.  Not the cheapest option, but it may just be the easiest option.  That's why I choose Coinbase, I got frustrated with the hoops one has to jump through to buy bitcoins on other exchanges.  Coinbase has a 1% fee plus a bank fee of $0.15 when you're buying and selling bitcoins, the real advantage is that as far as I've been able to tell, they're the only ones that let you buy bitcoins with an old fashioned bank transfer.  The price is locked in at the time when you buy bitcoins, and you get them five business days later.


Alternatively, if you live in an area where people are selling bitcoins in person, you can buy bitcoins directly from someone who already owns them.  Localbitcoins.com is the place where you can check to see if anyone near you is selling bitcoins.