EVERYTHING BELOW WAS WRITTEN IN 2017, it hasn’t changed much, but there are more and maybe better wallets and exchanges available now!
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1. Get Yourself a Wallet
You need to get yourself a coin wallet or a trading account, because what you will do is go to a service that allows you to put in fiat cash and you get out bitcoins, you need to put those bitcoins somewhere.
Here are some wallet options (let us know if you have some others you like, have had suggested or have heard about) :
Blockchain.info (an online wallet, has a webpage and an app)
Jaxx (probably my favourite as it allows you to hold a few other alt coins)
Mycelium (a phone app wallet, supposedly very secure and developing tech to trade coin in and out of fiat direct from the wallet)
update:
The most famous wallet and trading app on the app stores at the moment is probably coinbase, but there are many more good ones to try now also.
Here are some trading platform options (again, let us know of any others in the comments):
Poloniex (the one I’ve been using for the last month or more and it has a nice app you can use too).
Kraken (one of the early trading platforms, has been around a while.)
These two seem to cover most of the coins on the market, there are other coins that are not available on trading platforms and these you will need to download their own wallet to buy them.
2. Buy your bitcoins
This is how I did it (besides visiting the HK bitcoin ATM).
I registered an account here: https://www.coinmama.
Once your account is confirmed, login and then go to https://www.coinmama.com/
Choose if you buy with EUR or USD
Scroll down and choose the amount you want to buy (easier to work it out in euros or dollars, rather than Bitcoins)
Then click “Buy Bitcoins”
It will take you to the next page that will ask you your method of payment.
I think it will be “Credit/Debit card via simplex”.
It will then ask you for a bitcoin wallet address, you will find this in your chosen bitcoin wallet or in your Poloneix trading account you’ll find it under balances > Deposits and withdrawals you then go down the list, find bitcoin, click “Deposit” and it will show you your bitcoin deposit address (here in yellow) eg:
Note !!!!!! This address is ONLY for depositing BITCOINS!
You then click complete payment and follow the instructions through to the end.
You will get an email from them, asking you to confirm the Wallet address, go to your email and click confirm.
Payment should be 5 minutes and you’ll have bitcoins. (or they may send you an email asking you for more information about you, which is normal the first time.)
Let me know how you get on.