Turning Magic Internet Money into Real Money Part 3: American Express Serve

Monkeys at Keyboards Loves BitcoinIn our continuing series on converting Bitcoin to US Dollars we explore a new method of cash transfer, American Express Serve. Serve cards are available at retail locations all across the United States. I picked my up at the local Walgreens. In order to take advantage of this method of transfer it is necessary to sign up with the Serve service, they will send you a card with your name on it. Therefore this is not an anonymous solution. The trade-off is how quick and easy this becomes.

Once signed up, other AMEX Serve customers can now send you cash using your email address. These transactions, similar to the previously discussed MoneyPak option, are facilitated by the escrow service at localbitcoins.com. I send my Bitcoin to escrow and then a buyer sends cash to my Serve email address. When I receive the cash, I release the Bitcoins immediately.

The amounts that can be transferred are very flexible. Unlike a MoneyPak which has a fixed US dollar value, any amount can be transferred Serve to Serve.

This solution is by far the most flexible and the quickest option available that we have utilized to date. When we tested this, I turned 0.1BTC into $36.70 in 5 minutes, and being an American Express card the cash is of course available instantly for making purchases.

Note that this method requires some trust in the Bitcoin seller, so buyers are likely to require an existing trading history before paying you cash through Serve.

Read part 1.

Read part 2.