RE: How I turn my STEEM into spendable cash (USA)
Once I trade my Steem for Bitcoin (BTC) on Bittrex, I transfer it to a wallet on my home computer. The sooner I get the BTC in my own wallet on my own computer the better, as I don't think any BTC is safe until it is in your own wallet. As far as wallets go, I stick with Bitcoin Core, the tried and true daddy of them all.
https://bitcoin.org/en/bitcoin-core/
Then once I have the bitcoin, I buy bullion. I did a post about buying bullion with bitcoin:
https://steemit.com/bitcoin/@roomerkind/three-places-to-buy-precious-metals-with-bitcoin
I no longer am a fan of Veldt. I like Provident Metals now, wide selection and good price.
Once you have bullion you can cash it at any coin shop (this is preferable to those "We buy gold" places and pawn shops).
My method seems preferable if for no other reason than the more exchanges you go through, the more fees you are going to pay and the more likely there will be a problem along the way. I would think that Coinbase and Shift are not free. I trust Bittrex but Coinbase and Shift? If I can avoid those steps I am good with that.
You pay $10 (btc) for the card and the rest is very much free. Outside the poloinex withdraw fee there wasn't any fees in the transaction chain. Instead of trusting Provident Metals, you can trust someone else, and again you can keep your BTC in the wallet or use the coinbase wallet, or transfer back and forth as you see fit, works online and ATMS, so kinda beats gold/silver.
I would not trust ANY online wallet. They have a long history of disappearing. I would really advise people to have a wallet on their computer. If you don't want to download the entire blockchain there is the Electrum wallet. In particular Coinbase has a bad reputation. Do a search on them and you will see.
There is a fee off the top of every transfer from bittrex to coinbase. Might not be a fee for selling steem on bittrex, but there is for transferring off the exchange. The fee is small - large than any other bank, but still reasonable if I want my cryptocash. OX
Jerry - I would advice you use your time wisely. If you can make more $ elsewhere do it. XO