Below is a quick copy/paste I wrote awhile back for some friends on how to buy the 3 "main" cryptos - BTC, ETH, and LTC in the united states with their USD. There are plenty of sources out there which highlight what these three are, so I won't go on about that here.
All of the below options should have some form of delay in transferring USD to their exchange, and credit cards have an additional fee on top. Linking your checking account should be completely fine for the options below, as they're some of the most trusted places to buy this stuff.
COINBASE - Using my referral link to sign up will give us both a bonus $10 after $100 in purchases of any of the coins - Coinbase Referral Link
GDAX- lower fees, owned by coinbase, but is an exchange with a tougher UI/UX
GEMINI - lower fees than coinbase, but similar exchange UI to GDAX
"Coinbase stores all customer fiat currency (government-issued currency) in segregated, custodial bank accounts. The funds held in those accounts belong to Coinbase’s customers - not to Coinbase.
If you are a United States resident, your Coinbase USD Wallet is covered by FDIC insurance, up to a maximum of $250,000.
Coinbase holds less than 2% of customer funds online. The rest is held in offline storage.
Even if Coinbase were to become insolvent, the funds held in the custodial bank accounts could not be claimed by Coinbase or its creditors. The funds held in those accounts would be returnable to Coinbase’s customers."
IT'S IMPORTANT TO NOTE - This simply means your USD is FDIC insured... I'm not completely sold on the crypto/private keys. So, your USD sitting there waiting to purchase crypto within Coinbase is "completely safe".
While I recommend you never store your coins/private keys on exchanges, if you're just getting into this, I think you'll be fine having some on Coinbase for now. I'll write something about wallets at some point.
If you're familiar with Bloomberg terminals, or market/limit/stop terminology, then GDAX is probably the way to go, since you can essentially circumvent fees altogether. Personally, I use GDAX, but I migrated from Coinbase, which is super easy, and you can even set up recurring buys at whatever rate you want - helps to "set it and forget it".
Wherever you choose to go, before you put any of your bank information in, MAKE SURE TO SET UP 2FA with Google Authenticator (I recommend this to everyone, even on their gmail!).
You already know this is a very volatile space, so make sure you're only putting in what you can afford to lose altogether!
If you like this content, feel free to buy me a beer or something!
ETH: 0x22672e914f5e5db24578318d8617306958d9e3dd
BTC: 16cBApd4rh9tgACPD8hFjNHLV1KJzxesFK
LTC: LVySAYrpQuEEQW8jctDXhZ2wzxDmkadcaB
