Since I got started in Bitcoin in early 2014 I have had an account over at Coinbase. They are a US based company and they have been established as one of the most trusted sites out there. While there certainly is a love hate relationship some people have with them, their platform is solid and great for beginners in cryptocurrency. I will show you a quick trick to save on the fees from Coinbase, but still take advantage of the platform.

But The FEES!

While I am a fan of Coinbase as a great place to start off when first getting into crypto, I am not a fan of the very large fees they charge for most of the services on their site. We are talking 4% fees on many transactions… No matter if you love Coinbase or you hate Coinbase, no one likes high fees. While scouring the internet I found an easy peasy trick that will save you a TON of the fees. Enter in GDAX.

GDAX To the Rescue

GDAX.com is Coinbase’s very own exchange. You can only trade BTC, ETH, & LTC for now on GDAX, but there is an instant connection between your Coinbase account and a connected GDAX account. I am going to walk you through the process of turning USD into Bitcoin for super low fees compared to the normal Coinbase fees you would incur.

Buying Bitcoin On Coinbase With No Fees

The first thing you want to do is open your Coinbase account and then go to the Accounts page. Find your “USD Wallet” and click on Deposit. You can fund your USD wallet from your bank account, a wire, or even a credit card and this is free. Different options take a different amount of time, I was not in a hurry so I used my bank account.

Now that your USD Wallet is funded it is time to head over to GDAX.com and sign up for your account. Opening an account should be easy if you were signed into Coinbase still. Now that you have registered you can see that you also have a USD Wallet on GDAX as well.

Hitting Deposit will bring up the Deposit screen and you can see among your options that you also have an option to withdraw from Coinbase! I forgot to take a screenshot when I actually did it, but here is what the screen looks like.

Here you would choose the amount of funds you want to move from Coinbase to GDAX exchange. I moved $200 this time and you can see that the transfer is instant and FREE! My USD is now instantly transferred to Coinbase and I was not charged any fees thus far.

Now that I have transferred my USD to GDAX.com I am ready to buy Bitcoin, Ethereum, or Litecoin directly from GDAX with a fee of only 0.25%! Here is a list of GDAX’s fees and they are pretty standard exchange fees as far as maker/taker fees go. Once I convert my USD to crypto I can then transfer it away from GDAX at a much lower rate as well versus Coinbase. I will say that GDAX’s trading pairs seem to always be on the higher side of the price so be watchful on that.

Victory Is Mine!

So there you have it folks! The ‘Stache has saved you on those hefty Coinbase fees and you can still use Coinbase as a jump off point for converting USD to Bitcoin for a low price.

Viva El ‘Stache!

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