Coinmama Review

Coinmama Review: Overview

The Coinmama exchange has been around since 2013. As a result it is considered a veteran cryptocurrency exchange. It provides the most popular cryptocurrencies available on the platform to purchase.

The exchange is very straight forward to use. It is ideal for people that have never used or seen a trading platform.

To clarify you can either use a trading platform or exchange to buy and sell cryptocurrency. However trading platforms are much more complex to use than exchanges.

Trading platforms have a lot of tools and it is an information overload for anyone new. So it is best to stick to an easy exchange instead like Coinmama.

The drawback is that Coinmama’s fees are not very competitive, especially when you consider the fees charged by some of the crypto trading platforms.

However, you could be eligible to join the loyalty program and pay lower fess. All this is covered in the fees section further down in this Coinmama review.

Coinmama does not have a mobile app available for download. Additionally only fiat (ex: USD/EUR/GBP) to crypto or crypto to fiat transactions are allowed on the platform. In other words you are not able to execute any crypto to crypto transactions.

Coinmama works a little differently from standard exchanges in that it does not hold customer cryptocurrency. So you will need to supply a wallet address for your chosen cryptocurrency you are purchasing.

This is a good thing as it is recommend that you do not leave cryptocurrency on an exchange anyway. In fact it is standard practice within crypto. This is because of the amount of exchanges that have been hacked over the years. The list of hacked exchanges is long!

Coinmama Cryptocurrencies List

• Bitcoin BTC
• Ethereum ETH
• Aave AAVE
• Bitcoin Cash BCH
• Chainlink LINK
• Compound COMP
• Dogecoin DOGE
• Ethereum Classic ETC
• Litecoin LTC
• OMG Network OMG
• Polygon MATIC
• Uniswap UNI
• Yearn Finance YFI

Supported Fiat Currencies

• Euro EUR
• British pound GBP
• US dollar USD
• Canadian dollar CAD
• Australian dollar AUD

Coinmama Supported Countries

Coinmama supports 188 countries. That includes all the countries in Europe, Canada and Australia. However certain US states and territories are restricted.

The restricted US states are Hawaii and New York. There are also US restricted territories. These include American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, United States Minor Outlying Islands and the Virgin Islands.

The full list of countries not being serviced by Coinmama can be accessed here. You can navigate to the help centre and look up ‘restricted countries and states’.  

Coinmama Review: Customer Service

No review is complete without covering customer service. Hence why we are covering it in this Coinmama review.

Quite a lot of cryptocurrency related businesses do not have good customer support. However we are happy to say that Coinmama customer service are on the ball and have great support.

Coinmama themselves pride themselves on this and it shows. In fact they have a great overall rating on Trustpilot. Next to the abysmal ratings we have seen for exchanges Coinmama is doing very well for itself.

Additionally Coinmama also follow up with client complaints that are public. This is a very good sign of their overall service. They also are very polite with clients no matter what the complaint is.

Some other companies don’t even bother following up at all in the public sphere. As a result of Coinmama’s diligence they are perceived as a good company. This is mainly because they resolve customer complaints.

The most complaints they get are mainly because at times they block customers from signing up or close their accounts. This is because of regulation more than anything.

It is unfortunately frustrating for clients. However there is nothing they can do as a regulated exchange. They have to comply with government regulations as otherwise they can lose their business licence.

Coinmama Review: Deposit Methods

You have a choice of various deposit methods to buy cryptocurrency. Additionally Coinmama are constantly working to include new payment methods on their platform. Like this they can give their clients more options.

Coinmama process transactions at different rates depending on which payment method you use. Moreover you should know that there are different fees associated with the different methods.

Bank transfers are the most secure payment method. You can also transfer larger sums of money by using bank transfer.

Deposit Method Transfer Time

There are minimum required deposit amounts depending on the payment method you use. Mostly the minimum deposit amount is $30. However both SWIFT Global and SWIFT UK have a minimum amount of $250. Additionally Fedwire has a minimum deposit amount of $500.

Coinmama Review: Fees

One of the drawback of Coinmama is that the fees are high. Higher than most other platforms. However it is the easiest exchange to use for beginners and customer service agents are helpful. For some this might be worth the cost.

For beginners it might be good to have help from customer service. Since they are not familiar with exchanges and need a helping hand. You can of course offset the cost if you are eligible for their loyalty program. We will cover the loyalty program further down this Coinmama review.

On the other hand if you want to save on fees then we suggest using a trading platform. We suggest to go for trading platforms that are less complicated than others. Like for example Kraken, CEX.io or Bitfinex.

As mentioned trading platforms can be overwhelming and rather confusing especially for newbies. If you do decide to sign up with them, make sure you do some research. Hence you will know how to use the platform beforehand.

Buying

When buying cryptocurrency you will need to pay:

1. Standard blockchain fee which can be looked up here on TradeBlockXBX + 2%
2. 3.9% commission fees

If you purchase using credit or debit cards an additional 5% express fee is added. This additional charge is quite hefty so we suggest you use bank transfers. Bank transfers have no fees associated with them.

Selling

When selling cryptocurrency you will need to pay:

1. standard blockchain fee which can be looked up here on TradeBlockXBX + 2%
2. 0.9-1.9% commission fees

The commission fee will depend on your designated loyalty level.

Deposit Method Fees

Apart from the fees charged to buy, there are additional fees depending on the deposit method you use. Bank transfers do not incur any fees. However credit or debit cards, Apple Pay and Google Pay all have a 5% fee. On the other hand Skrill has a 2.5% fee.

These fees are called express fees. They are charged for the convenience of being instant. As a result the transaction of buying crypto could become quite expensive.

Especially if you use one of these more expensive payment methods. You will have to factor in the exchange fees and the deposit method fees.

So we recommend you stick with bank transfers. Like this you can reduce the fees you pay. Additionally you can get fees knocked down somewhat with the loyalty program.

Loyalty Program

There are 3 loyalty levels which you can get promoted to. You will need to maintain this status by meeting a minimum purchase amount over a 90 day rolling period. Unless you spend 50,000 USD or more.

You automatically get included into the loyalty program you are eligible to. As a result you can benefit from saving on fees instantly.

Here are the loyalty levels:

1. Crypto curious – you have not made any purchases over 5K USD
2. Crypto enthusiast – you will save 12.5% on fees. You will need to have purchased a minimum of 5K USD worth of crypto over the course of 90 days.
3. Crypto believer – you save 25% on fees. You need to purchase 18K USD over the course of 90 days. Or you would need to spend 50K USD over a lifetime to qualify.

Coinmama Review: Security

Coinmama is a secure platform primarily because it does not hold customer cryptocurrency assets. In other words you will need to supply a wallet address of your chosen cryptocurrency.

As a standard we recommend you place your cryptocurrency in cold storage offline by using a hardware wallet like these. This is because these hardware wallet have an excellent track record. They have never being hacked.

Even though customer cryptos are not kept on the exchange the company still got hacked. Unfortunately in 2019 the company announced that 450,000 email addresses and hash passwords were stolen. This happened as a result of a data breach.

Coinmama and their clients were not the only ones affected. The breach affected another 30 companies from different industries. It resulted in 840 million user records being stolen. The amount of information hackers got from Coinmama was limited. Hackers got email addresses and hash passwords and no other information.

Breaches are never great for any company. Especially for clients who would like your data to be safe. However, it is good to note Coinmama have beefed up their security since the incident. Additionally they take precautions by not storing client credit card details. This is another security plus.

One thing you can do from your end it to always make sure to pick a secure password. One that is unique to Coinmama if you choose to sign up with them. Even if they don’t store much client information. So at least you know you have done your bit to stay secure.

Coinmama Verification of Account

Since they are registered as a financial service, Coinmama have committed to the highest security standards. They verify accounts thoroughly to keep customers safe and combat fraud.

This process is done once you sign up. To clarify it is before you are allowed to buy or sell any cryptocurrency from the platform.

Verification is done manually. However they do have a fast-track verification process. As a result they do the verification process as quickly and as painlessly as possible.

Usually verification can take around half an hour or so. However it could take a little longer than that if there are any issues with the documents you submit.

Here is the process which you will need to go through to verify your account.

4 Steps for Verifying Your Account

Sign up

Sign up and submit your personal details

Level 1

Submit a government issued id and a selfie. Once approved you can buy up to $15K worth of crypto

Level 2

This can be achieved once you approach the top of your level one purchase limit. Once you submit the following documents you will be able to buy up to 50K.

• You will need another government issued ID that is different from the first one you submitted.
• A utility bill to verify your name and address no older than 6 months
• A KYC questionaire that Coinmama will provide for you to fill out and sign

Level 3

Similarly to getting level 2 verification, level 3 will be available once you are close to reaching the 50K amount bought. This will allow you to buy up to 1million worth of crypto. All you will need to do for this is download and fill in a KYC questionnaire supplied to you.

Coinmama Alternatives

The Coinmama exchange is great. However you may want to have a look at some other exchanges before you sign up. Here is a list of other top exchanges you can check out and compare.

One exchange people like to compare Coinmama to is Coinbase. In fact Coinbase is also listed in the top list. Similarly to Coinmama, Coinbase is also is an easy on ramp for cryptocurrency beginners. Hence why people like to compare the two exchanges, but that is where the similarities stop. You can find the full Coinbase review here.

Coinmama vs Coinbase Comparison Table

Coinmama vs Coinbase Clarifications

You should note that although Coinmama and Coinbase fees are expensive Coinmama’s fees are slightly higher. On the other hand Coinbase has its regular exchange called Coinbase and also Coinbase Pro. You can save on fees using Coinbase Pro. The drawback is that you have to know how to use a trading platform.

It is tricky to learn how to use a trading platform when you are starting out. As a result it is something we recommend you learn at a later stage. That is once you gain some experience with crypto.

Moreover Coinbase Pro offers 250+ cryptocurrencies you can trade.

Coinmama Review Conclusion

To sum up this Coinmama review we believe Coinmama is a great exchange platform for newbies. It makes it easy for customers to sign up. Verification takes little time and it is simple to use as an exchange platform.

Additionally their customer support is also great. They attend to their clients and resolve issues within a reasonable time frame.

One of the disadvantages of the platform is the higher fees. However it might be worthwhile seeing as their customer support is so responsive.

There is a solution to cut down on fees. You can do this by using bank transfers as opposed to other payment methods. Moreover, the loyalty program will help you save more on fees.  

Although Coinmama did get hacked in the past and user data got stolen, Coinmama makes security a priority. The information stolen was limited. Plus they do not store your credit card information and cryptocurrencies are not held for customers. This makes it one of the safest crypto exchanges and one we confidently recommend.

Visit Coinmama

Easy to use for newbies
Support 180+ countries
Great customer support

Coinmama FAQ