It hasn't been that long that I have been all in on Crypto. I have still been trying to find the most cost and time efficient way to convert cash/card to BTC. I tried buying bitcoin direct off of Ebay for cash but those premiums are way too high and most listings are miners that will get it to you within 24hrs. I had been hearing bad things about coinbase at the time so I went another route. I had done a web search and found that Mycelium has a card purchase option. This option is not a direct service of Mycelium but by a third party company called Simplex. My first experience with them was a transaction of $250 that cost me $275, which ended up being about $240 by the time I moved it to the market and traded for the crypto I wanted. To complete this first transaction I had to input all my pedigree info, as expected. next I had to upload a valid form of identification. Once I did this, I received an email saying that my ID had to verified by hand so it could take up to 48 hours. My transaction was finalized about twelve hours later, right about the time that the upswing on the bitcoin chart was leveling off. When my transaction was approved I received an email notification. this notification also said that now that my ID had been verified future transactions should be much much quicker. I made another cash/BTC conversion a few days later for about $180. this transaction was processed within about two hours. Last night I initiated a transaction to convert $400 to bitcoin. This time I had to take a selfie with my debit card and the middle eight numbers covered. Twenty three hours later ,the price of bitcoin had gone up over $200 overnight and through the day and the litecoin I wanted to buy had went from $72 to $88 and my transaction still hadn't been approved. The only response to my numerous emails was , "we are working on it". Obviously this wasn't too reassuring. Then it dawned on me that both of the transactions that that took extremely long were at times when bitcoin was on a steady rise. Today (Sept 1) was a banner day across the board for crypto and I cant say for sure that this is what was happening but the math doesn't lie and it tells me that the more bitcoin goes up , the less the give me for my money. I gotta think that they make out on that. it might also just be a coincidence, I had to go back and look once I thought of this but, that the one transaction that was very quick was at a time when Bitcoin was in a slight pullback.
Putting aside possibly very shady business practices, I'm really disappointed that I missed out on having that extra money in for one of the best days crypto has seen in months. I blame myself for not getting involved earlier and finding a better way to convert cash. I also blame Simplex and I now equate how their name, Simplex makes me feel to how I've heard people describe how Herpes simplex feel. I hear or see their name and I get an irritated burning feeling, my bad feelings are in my portfolio not my privates though. I guess things could always be worse. Moral of the story is that I am never using my Mycelium wallet or Simplex again nor could I ever recommend them to anyone, even an enemy. I got verified for instant card purchases on coinbase in about ten minutes. I will let everyone know how that first transaction goes once Simplex releases my funds in as along as forty eight hours.