Observations of a neophyte cryptocurrency investor

Hi Steemit - first time poster here. TL;DR - I have been having a heck of a time actually funding an account at a fiat-enabled cryptocurrency exchange with USD. Any tips are welcome. I share my experiences with Kraken and Coinbase (no luck so far).

Regrettably, I am just now getting into investing in cryptocurrencies. I say regrettably because I saw the promise in bitcoin back in 2010, talked to my wife about investing in it, we decided I should do it... and I never followed through. I did install the Bitcoin client and mining software on a couple of my PCs in 2010 and played around with mining, but never actually succeeded in mining a block. While I have been kicking myself over the years for not investing, there is still no time like the present and I am TRYING to invest some money in a few cryptocurrencies I find promising like Ethereum, NEM/XEM, Ripple and Iota.

I say trying because I have been running into all kinds of difficulties actually funding an account at an exchange with USD. I did some research on exchanges and decided to try out Gemini and Kraken - Gemini doesn't operate in my state, so that left Kraken. It took about a week of some back and forth with Kraken customer service before I was able to get my account verified to tier 3, but I did finally achieve this level of verification. At tier 3, according to the Kraken FAQ, I should be able to wire transfer USD from my bank account. First I was running into an error message saying this service was temporarily disabled, now I am getting an error message saying "Error: Insufficient documentation" when I attempt to set up a wire transfer. A quick Google search reveals that many users are experiencing this. I am not alone, but somehow that doesn't comfort me.

After increasing frustration with Kraken I finally set up an account with Coinbase. In marked contrast I was able to set up my account, verify a debit card through confirmation of two microdeposits, and make my initial buy all in the space of about a half hour. I bought $100 USD worth of Ethereum on 7/10 on Coinbase when one ether was trading for $189. I intended this to be just a test transaction and intended to make several other buys in the coming week. However, since that first successful transaction, Coinbase has cancelled all of my subsequent buy requests. Their security algorithm is less than transparent for obvious reasons, but I am guessing that multiple smaller purchases by a new account on debit/credit without verified ID triggered the cancellation. I have been trying to verify my ID with Coinbase to increase my funding limits and hopefully eliminate the cancelled transactions but the website keeps giving me an error message that it cannot find my webcam device. I don't have a webcam and have attempted to verify my ID by uploading files (which still gives me the webcam error message) and by mobile phone camera (the code was never sent to my phone when I attempted this).

Long story short, I am back at square one and still cannot invest my USD in any cryptocurrencies. I do appreciate Steem and Steemit for the innovative steem powered social media network - I am looking forward to posting some of my music, art and photos here and with a little luck I may just pick up some steem here. I am researching other fiat-enabled exchanges today and if I have any luck I will post about it here - maybe my experiences will help some other neophyte cryptocurrency investors navigate what is turning out to be a difficult process. If anyone has any helpful suggestions I am all ears! What is the best way for a new investor to actually get USD into an exchange and start purchasing cryptocurrencies?

Cheers - Carl