What is Bitcoin IRA – A Scam or a Legit Investing Platform
John
Today we take a closer look at Bitcoin IRA for you. What is Bitcoin IRA? A scam or a legit platform? Is it a good idea to have bitcoins in your IRA? Is it for you? Are there better alternatives out there? These are some of the questions this review will answer. Let´s go!
Product: Bitcoin IRA
Website: www.bitcoinira.com
Owner: Camilo Concha (CEO)
Price: Depends on your investment
Who is it for: People looking to hold cryptocurrency inside of their IRA.
Bitcoin IRA (BIRA) is a very new company, it was founded in 2015 and is, just like the name suggest an IRA custodian that allows you to put Bitcoins but also other cryptocurrencies, inside of your IRA (Individual RetirementAccount). It was the first company to offer this kind of service to investors when they started to offer Bitcoins in 2015, now they offer more cryptos aswell.
The physical address of the company is: 15303 Ventura Blvd #1060, Sherman Oaks, CA 91403, USA
There is no info to be found on their website about who the owner (or CEO) of the company is. Also, not even on Wikipedia, there is no such info to be found.
Update (Feb 25 2018): There is no an owner listed on their website, his name is Camilo Concha.
How does it work?
It is not a hard process to get your account setup, it works in 4 simple steps (see below):
First, you fill out and complete your IRA application
Transfer your existing IRA or 401k funds into your new IRA
Buy your bitcoins (a phone call will be scheduled so you can perform a live trade during the call)
You get access to your new Bitcoin wallet (storage)
The products and services
Here are the cryptocurrencies that are available for you to purchase through bitcoinira.com:
Bitcoin
Bitcoin Cash
Ethereum
Ethereum Classic
Ripple
Litecoin
What retirement accounts are eligible to be rolled over to a Bitcoin IRA?
You can roll over funds from an existing IRA, Roth IRA, SEP IRA, SIMPLE IRA, 403b, or 401k into a self-directed Bitcoin IRA account.
What about the fees?
The fees associated with setting up an IRA account, storing, etc, is something you ALWAYS want to know before making a decision.
On the Bitcoin IRA website in the FAQ section you can find this exact text (See excerpt below):
Always review and compare
Bitcoin IRA charges a one-time fee for our complete services of setting up your account, rolling over funds, executing the exchange, and securing your funds. We ensure the safety of your transaction and complete IRS compliance. There is an annual custodian fee of $240 and small management fees in addition to this. Cryptocurrency is a unique product that requires special security and management
We have reviewed around 80 precious metals IRA custodians during last year on this website and I can tell you that they tend to differ A LOT in fees. The fee subject is also where pretty much all scams and ripoffs take place as there are many “questionable” custodians out there.
Transparency is what you should be looking for, you do not want to be “surprised” later on with so-called “hidden fees”, that you had not expected and taken into consideration when your investment already has been made.
As cryptocurrency IRAs is a new phenomenon and also not offered by that many companies (at least yet) it is also easier to make a decision on the best as there aren´t that many to go through before you find the best one, right?
It is pretty much this one “BIRA” or the more well-known and established RA/RW, where you can feel in safe hands as they have been the best rated precious metals company in the USA for 7 years in a row now.
As they recently moved over to also offer cryptocurrency as an investment opportunity to its clients, there is no way to believe that they won´t deliver the exact same superior quality of service as a crypto dealer.
Continue reading the review on BIRA (bitcoinira.com) below:
Their support system?
One thing that I always put a lot of weight on when it comes to the quality of a company’s support system is if they got a live chat function or not.
The Bitcoin IRA website does not have this, that is a small minus (at least in my book).
They do offer a phone nr as the only way to reach out to them on the website. Not even an e-mail support address and have to say I find that very odd.
What´s going on here?
Update (Feb 25 2018):
They have now included a live chat function on their website.
How secure is their storage?
The storage method being used by BIRA is BitGo, a good alternative as it uses so-called cold storage for a very high level of security. It has been called the absolute safest storage option for some time now so the fact that BIRA is using it for its clients is of course good.
You will be provided with 3 different unique keys for your security + there will be both id and voice verification before your trade can be performed.
Have to say that it sounds very good, and it should of course, however, important to mention here is that there has just recently been an even more secure storage option available where cold storage is being combined with physical storage and also allowing you to fully insure your investment in case of any event, like natural disasters for example.
Is Bitcoin IRA a scam? Well, I really hope not and also do not think it is.
In this part I usually use the fact that a company has been around for a long time as something that supports the particular company´s legacy, another thing I like to refer to is that the company got a respected and well-known owner… However, in this case, I can not refer to any of those 2.
The company is very new (founded 2015) and that might be a concern.
To get a deeper understanding let´s look at what score the biggest and most well-known online review and rating sites have given bitcoinira.com in the short time period it has been around up until now (Jan 15, 2018)?
The Online Review/Ratings/Ripoffreports
BBB
Overal rating: N/A
BCA
Overal rating: AA (out of 0 reviews and 0 complaints??)
Trustpilot
Overall rating: N/A
Trustlink
Overall rating: N/A
Yelp
Overall rating: N/A
Pissed Consumer
Nr of complaints: N/A
Ripoff Report
Nr of complaints: N/A
As you can clearly see above there are not many reviews at all to be found on this company, that is also a bit odd. Sure one simple explanation could, of course, be that it has only been around for 3 years. But 0 reviews is still a bit strange (in my personal opinion).
The only place you can find some reviews is on Facebook where they got an overall score of 4,5/5 (out of 107 reviews)
Any red flags?
As mentioned above, they got some reviews on Facebook, and it is absolutely important to mention that not all of them are very positive, take a look at the one below for an example of a “not so happy” client (see screenshot below):
Important to mention:
But the negative reviews that can be found there is not what I see as the biggest red flag.
The biggest red flag I would say is;
Absolutely zero reviews from real users online and that alone is strange, then a whole 107 on Facebook…
On their own Facebook page…
That actually started to ring some alarm bells, right?
Also, there are some more red flags I would say, like for example:
Who is the owner and why is he nowhere to be found?
How secure is the storage really?
Where is their support?
Update (Feb 25 – 2018):
There is now an owner listed on their website and also a live chat function has been added to their homepage.
Is it for you?
Well, as there are not that many Crypto IRA custodians out there offering this kind of services, this one (BIRA) is actually one of your best alternatives. However, I wouldn´t recommend it.
Instead, you might want to, at least read about, Regal Wallet before making a decision as there is a big chance you might feel much more secure investing with them instead.
Not many reviews from real users (only on their own page)
Bad support
Might be some lack of transparency regarding fees
Are there better alternatives out there?
As mentioned above, there are both safer, more trusted and established alternatives out there where the superior one (at least in the precious metals IRA business) is RA.
Ok, I think that sums up this review and the overall picture of this company pretty good for now. I have to call it legit for now, however, this can of course change as we make sure to update our reviews as soon as any news comes up on any of the companies reviewed on this website (startmakestopwaste.com).
For now, the rating 3,9 stars out of 5 seems like a very fair one as it feels like we don´t really know where we have bitcoinira.com yet. This rating was actually set lower (3,5) but that was when their website didn´t display either an owner or a live chat function. Now you can find that and that is also why I have put a better score.
However, the company is still very new, they lack in reviews everywhere except on their own page, what are those “small fees associated with maintaining your account, etc.
I simply cannot recommend a company with those “flaws”, have seen too many scams and ripoffs online that got those exact characteristics. With that being said I am absolutely not saying that it is a scam, just saying that I wouldn´t risk it, especially not when there is a more trusted and more importantly, also proven to be a much more secure alternative.
Click the link below to see one you might want to consider instead:
I hope you found this review on Bitcoin IRA to be helpful and now you should have a better understanding of what it is and if it will be the one you prefer. Please, if you have used any of its services please share your experience with us in the comment section below as it can help others make the best decision for them. Also, if you got any other question about this review I will be more than happy to answer them below.
