I guess the rates might be a little high, but in my case I can't use a bank so I use localbitcoins to sell my BTC and I exchange Steem to BTC using blocktrades, I find the exchange rate doesn't really matter that much if your options are limited and so far I have had no problems receiving my money using these two exchanges.
Thank you, at least you know where I am coming from...
Unfortunately for you, you are stuck with have to go for btc ... others can use other coins instead of btc
Anyway, cheers for that