The Best Poloniex Alternative for Crypto Purchases
In this article, we offer you all the information you need to know in order to choose a Poloniex alternative for your future trades. Read on to find out more.
One of the early birds in the cryptocurrency sphere, Poloniex, was established in 2014 and has been operating successfully ever since. Based in San Francisco, it has become one of the world’s leading exchanges, offering its services around the globe.
It is a true crypto-to-crypto exchange that accepts deposits only in supported cryptocurrencies and has only started fiat purchases and deposits as of July 2019.
What we like about Poloniex is that its popularity and good daily volumes allow for good liquidity. The exchange also offers margin trading, a feature that is not often seen on cryptocurrency exchanges. The trading fees that they charge are fairly low and decrease as the trading volume increases.
But how do its services compare to the competition? We’re here to find out if there could be good alternatives to Poloniex when purchasing and selling cryptocurrencies.
After thorough research and combing through a multitude of reviews online, we would like to share the following findings with our users.
Table of contents
Why choose a Poloniex alternative?
If you are looking for an exchange that offers diversified payment methods for purchasing cryptocurrencies, you might want to look for an alternative.
Even though Poloniex is still a very popular exchange, there are certain disadvantages to be pointed out:
- Limited fiat payment options
- Centralized on-platform wallet
- Very slow withdrawals
- Often problematic customer support
- KYC barriers when looking to withdraw larger amounts of crypto
Having enumerated these shortcomings, let’s see in more detail why they might hinder your experience when purchasing cryptocurrencies:
1. Limited fiat payment options
As stated in our introduction, Poloniex has mostly been a crypto-to-crypto exchange. They added credit card payments and bank transfers only as recent as July 2019 through Simplex.
This feature is fairly new on their platform and user feedback is non-existent at the moment.
What we can see, however, is that some countries are restricted from using this service and if you are situated in one of these, you might be greeted by this message:
2. Centralized on-platform wallet
In order to trade cryptocurrencies on Poloniex, you must deposit one of the supported cryptocurrencies to the wallet that is hosted on the exchange itself.
This means that the company has access to your funds and you are never in full control of your coins at any time. You are probably already familiar with the phrase “Not your keys, Not your Coins”.
And while you may never imagine it happening to you, throughout the years, customers have been continuously complaining about Poloniex suspending access to their wallets for undisclosed reasons.
3. Slow withdrawals
Officially, Poloniex states that the process of depositing and withdrawing can take between 30 minutes and 1 hour to complete. But in reality, even though this might be true for deposits, withdrawal of funds have been an entirely different story.
There have been hundreds of cases where users have waited weeks for their funds to arrive at their personal wallets.
Some even say that coins were sent to correct addresses but then never arrived, whilst the issues were often ignored by the customer support service. Which brings us to one of the biggest shortcomings of the exchange;
4. Often problematic customer support
It can be clearly stated that Poloniex has one of the worst customer services out there. Feedback on its support team has been largely negative on cryptocurrency forums and discussion groups.
The main complaints are that the answers are usually canned and automated and there’s no hotline or phone number to contact in case of a major issue. Some simple problems like changing passwords have been known to take days because of their ineffective system.
5. KYC barriers when looking to withdraw larger amounts of crypto
Even before you want to start trading, you will have to go through a KYC process and provide Poloniex with your ID, address and telephone number. However, you’ll be submitting a lot of information to get the maximum withdrawal limit, including photo ID, address and even a picture of yourself holding the ID.
Apparently, there’s also a third level of verification that can provide limits in excess of US$25,000. However, the details aren’t published online, which means you’ll need to contact customer support for more information.
Choosing a Poloniex alternative for your cryptocurrency purchases with Paybis
Having explored the disadvantages of Poloniex, we can safely say that a Poloniex alternative would be a great idea for many. Paybis solves many of these issues. Here is why we love Paybis:
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Provides numerous payment options
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Sending your coins instantly
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24/7 customer support
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Simple and user-friendly customer verification system
Below, you will find the reasons explained in further detail:
1. Provides numerous payment methods
Throughout a simple interface, Paybis offers a wide array of payment methods like credit cards, digital wallets and bank transfers. They enable users to buy cryptocurrencies with different fiat currencies like US dollars, Euro and British Pounds.
2. Sending your coins instantly
Instead of storing your cryptocurrencies on Paybis’ servers, your coins are sent to your personal cryptocurrency wallet as soon as the payment is confirmed. Hence, you remain in control of your funds at all times. This also negates the withdrawal problem as you own your coins as soon as you buy them.
3. 24/7 Customer support
Our multilingual support team works around the clock to resolve any issue our customers might have when purchasing or selling their cryptocurrencies. The Trustpilot reviews speak for themselves, giving us a 9.2 score and putting us way above the competition.
4. Simple and user-friendly customer verification system
When trying to make a purchase that requires ID verification, Paybis users will go through KYC. This process takes less than 5 minutes to complete.
For users that may have questions or doubts, the live chat is there to assist them in real-time.
Once users go through ID verification, or they want to use payment methods that do not require ID verification, transactions will usually take less than 5 minutes to complete. For more information about the verifications for different payment methods, consult this page.
Your coins, your choice
The cryptocurrency market has evolved throughout the years and, while Poloniex might have been one of the pioneers in the space, they haven’t really kept up with progress.
Their slow withdrawals and substandard customer service single out Paybis as a great Poloniex alternative for your cryptocurrency purchases.
| FEATURES | POLONIEX | PAYBIS |
|---|---|---|
| Verification process | 1-3 days | 5-15 minutes |
| Customer support | Bad | Excellent |
| Supported countries | 100+ | 180+ |
| Supported Payment Methods | 0 | 10 |
| Beginner friendly | No | Yes |
| Bitcoin buy methods | None | Bank transfer, wire transfer, credit card, Perfect Money, Payeer, Neteller, Skrill, Advanced cash |
| Bitcoin sell methods | None | Bank transfer, wire transfer, Perfect Money, Payeer, Neteller, Skrill, Advanced cash, Amazon gift card |
| Company launch | 2014 | 2014 |
Disclaimer: Don’t invest unless you’re prepared to lose all the money you invest. This is a high‑risk investment and you should not expect to be protected if something goes wrong. Take 2 mins to learn more at: https://go.payb.is/FCA-Info
