You likely paid more than you needed to, but as safe as any third party. Except that they hold so much they're the biggest target for hackers...

Swan (swanbitcoin.com) is giving users NO FEES for their first/next $10,000 in purchases. And don't charge network fee to send it to your cold storage, so I've been using them lately.

Till they I heard about that I was using Strike to buy...

Either way I want any money I do pay to go to bitcoin companies, not coionbase.