This is a repost from my LeoFiance Blog.  All content is mine and is original aside from the sourced image.

It would seem that the crypto gods are not pleased with me lately. First there was the huge debacle I had with getting my Hive off of Bittrex and now this morning I tried to purchase some crypto on Crypto.com and I was hit with the all to familiar transaction declined message.

After 3+ years, why is it still so hard for people in the United States to purchase crypto when they want to?

I tried to make the transaction at around 7 AM this morning which of course is before any of the banks are open. I called the number on the back of my card only to be directed to a totally different bank than the issuing one in North Dakota or something like that.

I finally got connected to the correct bank, only to find out that they don't open until 7:00 CST. Since I am in Eastern Standard Time, that means I have to wait an hour before I can call in at 7 Central Standard Time.

In an time where the big banks are pumping billions of dollars into the crypto markets, you wouldn't think it would be that hard for an individual to purchase $50 worth of ETH.

To be fair, I am guessing the biggest reason why the transaction failed is because the fraud department is trying to look out for my best interests. I would imagine they want to make sure my card wasn't stolen and being used to purchase crypto.

That suspicion should have been answered when I got the text message asking if I approved the transaction and I responded with YES. It also should have been a no-brainer for them when they requested a security code be texted to me and I quickly and accurately input that code.

Sadly, that wasn't enough. The transaction was still denied and here I sit with no new crypto in my wallet.

Lucky for me, the prices are continuing to drop, so by the time I get this all sorted out, I will likely get a better deal than I would have an hour ago. That doesn't make it any less frustrating.

For the longest time crypto was not very accessible to people in the US. Where over in Europe they would sell the stuff through vending machines, in the US Coinbase was really your only option unless you had a VPN or wanted to make some cash deal in a back alley.

Now, with more and more conduits to the crypto world available to us in America, it is disappointing that we yet again have another barrier to entry. I know for a while after the big boom in 2017 many credit card companies were refusing to process transactions that consisted of crypto purchases.

I thought that stigma was well behind us, but part of me is a little worried that even after I call in they are going to tell me that I am "now allowed" to purchase crypto with this particular card.

Hopefully by the time you folks start commenting on this I will have gotten through and I will have this resolved.