Crypto For Beginners: Putting It Into Practice

Part 3 of 4 in our Crypto For Beginners series.

Have your crypto account ready and want to make a purchase? No problem — we’ll walk you through it step by step. Throughout our examples, we’ll be using “USDC Base” — it’s the combination we recommend: fees are tiny and it’s the smoothest option if you ever need a refund from us.

At a glance — you’ll need: your crypto account, the payment amount, and the payment address. Always copy and paste; never type addresses or amounts by hand.

Making a purchase

First step: pick your items! If you’ve made a card purchase from us before, everything is the same until the final step of checkout. Before you click “Place Order”, select “NOWPayments (Cryptocurrency)” as the payment method. Once you place the order, a NOWPayments payment page opens automatically — that’s where this walkthrough begins.

Getting the address

Scroll to the bottom of the payment page and open the “More Details” drop-down to find your Order ID. Save it somewhere handy.
- Why: if anything goes wrong with the payment, the Order ID helps us find your order much faster.
Scroll back to the top, where it says “Choose asset“. This is where you select your coin and network — the type of crypto you’ll send and how. Click the drop-down and type the coin you’d like to use (in our example, USDC).
- The coin is written plainly, and the network appears in a small colored box next to it. When you see USDC with the Base box, select it and hit Next step. Don’t see Base on your platform? Any USDC network works for a payment — just be sure to select that same network on both sides.
The next screen shows the two things you need: how much of the coin to send, and the address to send it to. Copy and paste both — never type them by hand. Leave this tab open so you can monitor progress, then head to your crypto platform.

⚠ The one thing to get right: the coin and network you send with must match the ones you chose on the payment page. If the wrong network or coin is used, there is a risk we won’t be able to recover the funds. A ten-second double-check prevents this — the steps below show you exactly where to look.

Sending the crypto

Open your crypto platform and find where you send and receive crypto. You’ll see two options — one like “Receive/Deposit” and one like “Send/Withdraw“. Choose the send option.
- Some platforms combine cash withdrawals into this menu. Make sure you pick the one that says something like “Withdraw crypto” or “Send to a crypto wallet“.
Select the coin that matches the one you chose on the payment page.
Select the network. It must be the same one you chose at checkout — you can double-check it on the NOWPayments tab you left open.
Copy the address from the NOWPayments tab and paste it into the address field. Pasting prevents a typo that could send your payment to the wrong address.
Copy the amount from the NOWPayments tab and paste it into the amount field, then click the next button (usually labeled “Preview“).
- Do one final check: coin, network, amount, and address should all match the NOWPayments tab.
If everything matches, send the payment. Congratulations — you’ve just made your first purchase with crypto!

Send the exact amount

One common pitfall: some platforms subtract their sending fee from the amount you enter, which means we’d receive slightly less than the payment page asked for — and the order would show as only partially paid. If your platform offers the choice, select the option where the fee is added on top, so the full amount arrives. If your order shows “partially paid”, don’t worry — contact us with your Order ID and we’ll sort it out.

What happens next

Different coin and network combinations process at different speeds. Your order usually updates within about 30 minutes, though it can take longer. We recommend allowing 24–48 hours before reaching out, in case it completes on its own.

Also note the payment page has a time window. If it expires before you’ve sent anything, don’t send to the expired page — contact us with your Order ID and we’ll set you up with a fresh one.