"This was my FIRST transaction with BitInstant to test out the mechanics involved with converting cash to Bitcoins. I am not a happy camper. I sent a moneygram and had to pay up front fees between those services of about 8% (ZipZap Fee 3.95%; BitInstant Fee: 3.99%). Then it took over an hour to post to the bitchain network to see it. Then it took 4 HOURS to get confirmed (so much for the time value of money that started of with a cash deposit on my end). But the real shocker was seeing an ADDITIONAL HIDDEN FEE of about 4%+ that they took out of me in going from dollars to BTC! The going rate at the time was around $112-114$ dollars per BTC but the price I got stuck with was way off the radar at $119+ per BTC! Man - not even stock brokers scam that much vig on an open market order!

That's the equivalent combined fees of nearly 13% pay off of all the people with their hands out at every step in the process. Felt like a Banana-Republic sort of transaction just to get from point A to point B in the right currency.

Needless to say I will probably NEVER again use this service. Those that can't be trusted in small things ($100) certainly can't be trusted to be forthright in large things ($10K or more). To add insult to injury when I go to call the company to inquire about the LUDICROUS dollar-to-BTC spread price I get a recorded message from what sounds like a 22 year old telling me I have to interact with their help staff via IRC chat. Sorry - not about to conduct business with rent-a-day-laborer. BS.

PS - just scanned the comments here. They are GAMING the ratings by interjecting MAX 5 STAR ratings between every negative review with BOGUS RATERS to get their ratings off the floor.

DO NOT TRUST THESE PEOPLE."

"Most of the time, delivery IS within an hour or two, max, but today, it has been well over an hour and I have yet to even receive an e-mail confirmation. I have called and verified that the payment is in the system, so I am not worried about it being registered, but the delivery time is lacking in this instance. I was told by a representative to expect a 24 hour turnaround time. Time is money, and I use BitInstant for that reason. I know plenty of other sites that have 3 or 4 hour turnaround times with a bit of a higher rate, or ones with lower rates, but longer turn around times, and can use any of those, but I choose BitInstant because it usually gives me my funds in under an hour. I have dealt with BitInstant at least 100 times, and of those 100, 99 went as scheduled and under 2 hours to get my funds. So I will give appropriate feedback. The only other thing that I don't like is the 4% fee as well as the 4 dollar merchant fee. This may not seem like a lot, but if you are doing transactions that pile up to the thousands, think of how much 4 dollars a transaction and 4% of the overall value adds up to. Food for your brain. Overall-- great site, use it, you can rely on it 99% of the time, and if you don't mind some menial fees, it is an excellent resource. Keep it up. "

"I'm very disappointed!

I used the Bitinstant form and selected Wal-Mart on the left and Bitstamp on the right, entering my Bitstamp account number

Then I changed my mind and went with Bitcoin to Email (Coinapult)

The Coinapult form did NOT show the Bitstamp account number and that's the programmer's fault, not mine

The money got lost, because Bitinstant software doesn't remove the Bitstamp account number when someone changes to another destination

Meanwhile the price went up and I missed the chance

This was entirely Bitinstant's fault and I'm not a happy customer"

"DO NOT USE !!!!! It will take days for you to get your money while it just sits in limbo. STAY AWAY FROM THIS SITE !!!!"

"Quick, reliable, easy solution for getting USD into bitcoin exchanges. "

"It works guys. Just tried it and got my coins within 20 minutes. Now I only sent 500 and not thousands like others but it worked and worked fast. Just a heads up for anyone that was skeptical like me."

"I used the cash transfer method to get some $$ into my new Mt Gox account on a Saturday, about $300. Required using a MoneyGram transfer at a local CVS to make a "bill payment" to a vendor called ZipZap, and dealing with an operator on a special red phone. Really the only problems were at the CVS, where they couldn't seem to tell if their own MoneyGram systems were working or not (they were not at the first two stores I went to, wasting a fair bit of my time). But once the cash payment was made at CVS, I got an email confirmation from ZipZap shortly after and BitInstant had registered the payment within an hour or so (though the status page scared me by saying "serious error occurred"). After three or four hours, the $$ had shown up in my (as yet unverified) Mt Gox account. BitInstant skimmed about $13 off the top as a fee, and ZipZap took $3-plus. I had heard a lot of horror stories and expected all sorts of problems, but in the end it was pretty uneventful. So thanks. But in all likelihood once my Dwolla account is verified I'll transfer $ that way and skip the field trip to CVS."

"I felt uncomfortable with the little confirmation I got after sending my money, and the process was somewhat confusing-I was able to enter an account name (alpha chars) in where the account number should go.

The lack of any way to contact customer service via the website bothered me a lot, but once I found the support forum (was hard to find), support was great... and very fast!"

"Pretty easy first transaction, took about 3 hours to get a verified balance in my Bitcoin Wallet"

"The best service for INSTANT bitcoin orders on the net. period."

"holy cow! This was truly instant. I sent the cash payment, and by the time I reached home, I had the BTC waiting! Try it out"

"This service is faaaaaarrr from instant. I sent a transfer on Friday and they have still not posted the money in the account it was transferred to. The only reason I used the service was because they said it could be completed anywhere from less than 1 hour to up to 24 hours. I am naturally a patient person, but even I have my limits. I wish I would have read these reviews before initiating my transaction, I am at the point where I wish it was just cancelled and have my money returned and forget the whole thing."

"Bitinstant is the worst Company that I ever dealt with in my 40 years of doing biz. 5 days ago I sent them $ 11,500. from Dwolla and it has disappeared and they will not respond even after letting them know I was going to the NY attorney Generals office, No phone # for them , its just an answering machine . you have to write them online and they still do not respond."

"Not happy that I was charged $200. foe $165. worth of bitcoin. I was watching the exchange rate in real time and never went that high. Transaction took hours not 30 minutes making me miss a poker event. Very bad experience and feel ripped off."

"HORRIBLE CUSTOMER SERVICE, THIS SITE IS A SCAM. I HAVE YET TO RECEIVE MY FUNDS EVEN THOUGH MY ORDER SAYS COMPLETED. DO NOT TRUST!!"