It has always been hard to get hold of bitcoin in the UK in the past from exchanges at the USD equivalent exchange rate, due to the lack of liquidity in the GBP markets (GBP exchanges have never really taken off like they have in the USA with Coinbase, Bitfinex etc.). Places like Bitbargain and LocalBitcoins always charge a premium over the USD rate in terms of paying with GBP.

For example as of 20:55 10/11/15 the prices are as follows for one bitcoin…

Bitbargain — £248

LocalBitcoins — £242.18

Coinfloor — £240.45

Bittylicious — £250

Uphold — £229.61

So Uphold is around 5% cheaper than Coinfloor and LocalBitcoins and a massive £20 give or take over Bitbargain and Bittylicious!

Uphold have also recently started accepting fiat transfer in/out of the UK by linking your bank account. It took a couple of working days for my £50 test deposit to reach their site from my bank to buy some bitcoin. On the other hand I also tried the visa debit option to buy 0.1 BTC by linking my bank card and this worked perfectly. The bitcoin was added to my account instantly.

It will be awesome once they bring out their debit card linked to your cloud money account as you will be able to spend your currencies held in the cloud from a debit card.

What’s also good is if you want to convert the bitcoin back to GBP because the market is going wild then you can do this with a 0% exchange rate for verified members.

If you know of any other alternatives then please let me know, but what Uphold has done for the UK market is great even if they didn’t mean to become the cheapest place to buy BTC in the UK, it’s just the way their business model works by holding a basket of currencies and having access to forex markets to make it cheaper for people like me and you :)