I am an American, living here in Cebu City for over 5 years now. Luckily, after verifying my identification, I was able to link my Bank of America account to Coinbase, and buy at market price +fees.
A lot of my money is here in the Philippines, and recently when I wanted to buy bitcoin, I was contemplating exchanging Pesos to USD, then wiring the USD to my US account... From there, to Coinbase to buy bitcoin. All said and done, with the exchange rates, wire transfer fees, and then paying Coinbase' fees; What a hassle.
So after some research, I decided to give Localbitcoins a shot. Did you know, that if you buy online through their site, they hold the sellers bitcoins in escrow, until both parties are satisfied with the transaction?
__Step 1.) Create an account on https://localbitcoins.com/
__Step 2.) Find an online seller in your country
__Step 3.) Choose the amount of bitcoin you want to buy
__Step 4.) Read sellers Terms of Trade
__Step 5.) Open trade request (For the entire trade, only communicate through here. Never, text the person offline even when they have their phone number listed). All communication done on this site is recorded and saved for your protection.
__Step 6.) Make sure you take a photo of the deposit slip and upload this, in your trade communication window.
__Step 7.) After you send the money according to the sellers directions, click on 'Payment Complete'.
__Step 8.) Wait for your bitcoins to show up in your localbitcoins wallet. From here, you can send the bitcoins anywhere.
If there is ever a discrepancy, and you followed through with your end of the bargain, localbitcoins will still send you the bitcoins, as they are held in escrow for you.
If you are satisfied with the service you received, please always leave a positive comment on the sellers account. This helps the seller maintain his integrity, and provides him more business in the future.!
I appreciate any comments or questions you may have about this process.
_Rob