Ethereum (ETH) is the second-largest cryptocurrency network. It supports loads of ERC-20 tokens on its blockchain, and it’s traded on most crypto exchanges.
But if you’re not careful?
You’ll get ripped off. You might end up unnecessarily paying high fees when buying Ethereum (ETH) with GBP in the UK.
In this post, I’ll show you the cheapest way to buy Ethereum (ETH) in the UK with GBP.
Intro: Cheapest Way to Buy Ethereum with Each Payment Method
Buying Ethereum (ETH) as a UK resident used to be difficult and expensive.
Here are the cheapest ways to buy Ethereum (ETH) with the most popular payment options in the UK.
- Provider
- Binance
- Coinbase Pro
- Wirex
- Vimba
- LocalCryptos
Buying Ethereum (ETH) with Bitcoin (BTC) in the UK
1. Coinbase Pro
Coinbase Pro (previously GDAX) is the cheapest way to buy Ethereum (ETH) in the UK with a UK bank transfer.
Coinbase Pro was the first major cryptocurrency exchange to accept GBP deposits through the UK Faster Payments Service (FPS). This means deposits to Coinbase Pro will usually be credited in less than an hour!
On Coinbase Pro, you’re able to buy Ethereum (ETH) at the REAL market rate while paying barely any fees with GBP (max. 0.25%).
You can withdraw your Ethereum (ETH) from Coinbase Pro for free too. Numerous other options force you to pay high withdrawal fees.
2. Wirex
Wirex is a crypto-friendly currency account. With Wirex, you can effortlessly buy Ethereum (ETH) and other cryptocurrencies with a debit or credit at market-leading rates.
From my research, Wirex looks like the cheapest way to buy Ethereum (ETH) with a debit or credit card in the UK. Wirex is also the cheapest way to buy Bitcoin (BTC) in the UK with a debit or credit card and the best place to buy Ripple (XRP) too.
Here’s how Wirex compares to their closest competition.
- Wirex
fees : 1% - Coinbase
fees : 4% - Cryptopay
fees : 4% - Uphold
fees : 4.5% - Bitpanda
fees : 5% - Coinmama
fees : 14%
Wirex’s have Ethereum (ETH) rates which are at least 3% lower than their closest competition (Coinbase). To put that into perspective, you’ll (needlessly) lose an extra £30 in fees for every £1000 of Ethereum (ETH) you buy from Coinbase with a debit card.
Wirex also issues GBP, EUR, and USD debit cards. In my recent roundup, I ranked Wirex as the #1 best crypto debit card which is currently available. The only other decent crypto debit card available is the Coinbase Card, which has higher transactions fees every time you use it.
3. LocalCryptos
LocalCryptos is a peer-to-peer (P2P) marketplace where you can buy and sell Ethereum (ETH) and Bitcoin (BTC) with other people. It’s available worldwide and supports all traditional (i.e. fiat) currencies. When I checked, there were over 6000 active offers (across the world). It was previously known as LocalEthereum.
Like other P2P crypto marketplaces, it supports all payment methods – as long as you can find someone willing to accept that payment method.
In the UK, these are the most popular payment methods on LocalCryptos:
UK Bank Transfer (via Faster Payments)
Cash (in-person)
PayPal (+ other similar services)
Unfortunately, there were only about 30 sellers with open offers in the UK when I checked. The lowest rate I found was approximately 1% above the real ETH/GBP exchange rate.
When buying Ethereum (ETH) through LocalCryptos, the seller will need to place the Ethereum (ETH) you’re buying into an escrow smart contract on the Ethereum blockchain.
This is pretty cool! Here’s how they explain it:
“Escrows are decentralised using the Ethereum blockchain, which means that the seller is not sending ether to a trusted third-party (although it works similarly) but instead a ‘smart contract’… in short, this makes localethereum trustless; there’s no way for staff to access this ETH — we can only intervene and send it to one of you if either party opens a dispute”
Communications between buyers and sellers are also end-to-end encrypted so that you can communicate privately with one another.
4. Vimba
Vimba.co is a platform which allows you to setup automatic regular purchases (i.e. cost-average) of Ethereum (ETH) from your UK bank account.
It’s really simple to get started with Vimba:
Create an account (+ verify your identity).
Setup a standing order (every week, every half-month, or every month) to leave your account on Monday morning. It needs to have a minimum value of £10.
You’ll receive Ethereum (ETH) direct to your wallet every Friday (after receiving the payment).
Vimba charges a fixed fee of 3.5%. That’s not great, but it’s not terrible either.
If you want to setup smaller (less than £100 per week) automatic purchases of Ethereum (ETH), then Vimba is a great choice. There’s no cheaper way to setup automatic cryptocurrency purchases than this.