I am looking for recommedations on bitcoin exchanges. I have tried a number of exchanges. Lot's of them in fact. The two main ones where I carried out the most fiat-to-bitcoin trades were Bitstamp, and Kraken. I also tried GDAX, but found they had a rather complicated way of accepting fiat, and from memory couldn't accept dollars. Poloniex didn't seem to accept fiat at all. Other services I used just converted what you sent to bitcoin automatically, but you had no control over the timing and price of the conversion.
The main problem with all the exchanges was the time delay between sending cash, and seeing it credited. There was no norm, but I never got same-day value date or even next-day value date credit. The best was 4 working days, the worst 13 working days, nearly 3 weeks. Putting to one side the fact that the delays never worked in my favour, from a bitcoin price perspective, the bigger worry was that my money was gone for good. I never got replies to emails enclosing the evidence of payment except once, when it was to inform me that they will not investigate because the email address used was different from their records. They didn't reply to subsequent emails sent from the correct address but I was eventually credited after 13 working days.
Whilst all this was happening, I checked social media. I wasn't the only one to have delays. Many people had not been credited for months, and like me, couldn't get replies from the support departments. One guy said he had sent $100'000 three months ago and was preparing to sue. Several said that their accounts had been frozen for no reason. One said he was instructing attorneys to sue in Luxembourg.
Some exchanges went offline for hours. Poloniex was an example which scared the hell out of me. One joker on Twitter, displayed a "This site has been seized by the FBI" banner while it was out of service. When the bitcoin price was close to the bottom, below $3000, it became impossible to trade on Kraken. Every order was rejected or failed, whether limit or market. After many hours of trying, I finally got my first buy-order in, but paid nearly $3'300, well above the price when I first tried to place the order (below $3'000).
You can imagine all these failures leave me with the feeling that in the best case, the exchanges are struggling to cope with the increase in demand, and just don't have enough staff. In the worst case, they are bust, and are playing games to try and stay afloat.
So, dear Steemians, I would like your recommendation on two topics:
Can you recommend any exchange where I can send FIAT (GBP, USD, EUR, CHF, JPY), and get rapid credit for the purpose of buying bitcoin? I am more than willing to go through the due diligence procedures, of passport proof of address and so on to get fully approved first.
Can anybody recommend an exchange where it would be safe to leave assets long term and to trade them, preferably as a "maker" for little or no fee?