If you are trying to find out how to buy Litecoin instantly online with Debit Card or Credit Card then you are in the right place.
This tutorial and run through is going to focus on the easiest way to purchase your first Litecoin at the time of writing and go into some of the benefits and reasons why you might want to buy Litecoin over Bitcoin.
In the past, the only way to buy Litecoin was by first buying Bitcoin and then transferring it using an exchange. These days some exchanges and providers have made it easier allowing you to buy Litecoin with USD, Euros and GBP directly. The main vendor and the easiest to use is CoinBase so we will use them as our example.
What is Litecoin?
Litecoin is a clone of Bitcoin that was created in October 2011 by Charlie Lee, a former Google & CoinBase employee with plenty of experience in the cryptocurrency and tech worlds. As such Litecoin is one of the cryptocurrencies with the longest track record.
Litecoin has been modified to contain some improvements that make it faster and cheaper to use for transferring small amounts. The block time is two and half minutes rather than the ten minutes Bitcoin takes, one quarter the size. Litecoin is commonly considered the Silver to Bitcoin, if Bitcoin were digital gold.
The total max supply is 84 million compared with Bitcoins 21 million max supply meaning it can be used for microtransactions with greater ease and affordability.
In fact, one of Litecoins main aims is to be more practical for smaller payments than Bitcoin.
Like Bitcoin, Litecoin is now Segwit Soft Fork activated meaning it has adopted these improvements. Other Segwit coins include Bitcoin, Vertcoin & DeCred.
It also uses an s-crypt algorithm, which for a time was ASIC resistant but this is no longer the case as Litecoin specific ASICs were eventually released.
How to Buy Litecoin
We will break down a few ways to buy Litecoin but will focus mostly on the easiest method. You can buy Litecoin with USD using Debit Card, Credit Card, Wire Transfer or Paypal through the difficulty, practicality and cost varies quite a bit.
Best Litecoin Wallets
Before we begin, let's make sure you have a Litecoin wallet. If buying through CoinBase you will automatically be using their web wallet within your account but this is not safe permanent storage and you should still get yourself an alternative wallet that is more secure. The wallets we recommend are:
Litecoin Core - The original Litecoin wallet, not the most functional.
Electrum LTC - A clone of the Electrum wallet adapted for Litecoin.
Exodus - The best multi-asset wallet for Windows, Mac & Linux computers with the ShapeShift Exchange built in.
Jaxx - A great multi-asset cryptocurrency wallet for all popular smartphones, iOS, Android & Windows.
or use a Hardware wallet like a Ledger Nano or Trezor for maximum security and cold storage
Buy Litecoin with Debit Card / Credit Card / Wire Transfer
Our recommendation method for buying Litecoin using wire transfer, credit or debit card is to use CoinBase where you can buy Litecoin directly with USD, GBP or EUR from an exchange you can trust that's also based in San Francisco, California.
Coinbase allows you to buy up to $500 worth of Litecoin on your first purchase however your limit can be raised once you have been a member for a month or more and have invested your weekly limits. Coinbase also accepts customers from 33 countries.
Step 1 - Sign up for a Coinbase account here. You will receive $10 for free if you create a new account and use this link.
Step 2 - Verify your account and go through the KYC procedure (know your customer) then add your credit card, debit card or bank account details.
Step 3 - Wait for approval, this may take a couple of days for a debit card but may take longer if you intend to fund your account using a wire transfer.
Step 4 - Once you have been approved and your payment methods are connected and verified you can now buy your Litecoin safely and securely by going to "Buy" and selecting the Litecoin tab. Add the amount you wish to purchase and select your payment method being mindful of the current limits on a new account and not to exceed them else the transaction will either fail or not let you proceed beyond this step.
Step 5 - Click confirm when requested and wait for the Litecoin to be deposited into your Coinbase web wallet for Litecoin.
Step 6 - Optional but advised, you can now send your Litecoin to a more secure wallet for safekeeping or send them to Bittrex or another exchange if your intention is to buy other altcoins and cryptocurrencies.
That's all there is to it. Now you know how to buy Litecoin with Debit Card or Credit Card using Coinbase, the easiest and safest method currently for those trying to buy with USD, GBP or Euros.
Buy Litecoin with Paypal
You might find some users on LitecoinLocal are willing to sell their Litecoin and allow you to use PayPal much like you can use LocalBitcoins to buy Bitcoin using Paypal, however, this is at the seller's discretion. LitecoinLocal also offers an Escrow exchange for additional protection.
An alternative to using LitecoinLocal, if you are willing to first buy Bitcoin and then exchange them to Litecoin you could use LocalBitcoins(UK/US) and find a seller selling BTC and accepting Paypal, then once you have the Bitcoin you can send it to an exchange like Bittrex and exchange them for Litecoin.
Another option is signing up for a Wirex Card and then connecting your Wirex card to your PayPal account. You will need to fund your card with a few dollars to ensure you can do the confirmation transaction that proves you own the card before you can use it. This method can mean a 10 day delay period while waiting for everything to go through so isn't for everyone.
The positive is that this is a pretty useful card to have since you can fund it with Crypto and use it in any shops or on any websites that accept debit card payments, which in this age includes most places.
Benefits of using Litecoin
One great use of Litecoin is to get between exchanges at lower costs. For example, if I want to trade on Bittrex it's technically cheaper to buy Litecoin from Coinbase, then send that over to your Bittrex wallet and then convert it into Bitcoin ready to trade with other altcoins. This is because the cost of sending Litecoin from Coinbase to another wallet is significantly cheaper than sending Bitcoin.
Litecoin also transfers from one wallet to another much faster. There is less of a bottleneck on Litecoins Blockchain than on Bitcoins.
As a speculative asset, Litecoin has a much lower market cap than Bitcoin. Those accumulating Litecoin expect this market cap to raise thus pushing up the value of the currency.
Much better for sending small transactions than Bitcoin is, Bitcoin is ineffective for this since the fees can end up swallowing more than 10% of the total value when sending amounts less than $20.
Litecoin Prices & Charts
[currencygraph currency1="ltc" currency2="usd"]
You can see more Litecoin information, charts, official website and announcements over at CoinMarketCap.
