Send cash: bitcoins vs western union: which is cheap?

Bitcoin has been advertised as a very low cost and fast method of sending people money around the world, So if I need to send someone $1000 USD, the cost/fee of using WU is less than $20 USD (Using credit card - UNFORTUNATELY, WU doesn't work. They deny me sending $1000 and give me no reason. I will never use WU again.) but if I use bitcoin, what will be the minimal cost? Since I need to buy the bitcoin in the first place, and that other person need to sell it to get the cash, the conversation fees and the transaction fee would be more than $100 in the end? and if send someone $1000 in bitcoin, there is a chance that when she/he gets the cash next day, my $1000 will be less than $1000? If that is true, how can I trust bitcoin?

Atmega 328

Posted 2017-09-02T11:24:43.380

Reputation: 121

Answers

If you pay enough fee, which is ~ 5 dollars currently (but paying 10 dollars will guarantee fast confirmation), your payment will get confirmed in an hour. Good luck!

Actually it's possible to send with lower fee by using a SegWit address, but don't take the risk if you don't know what you're doing, set its fee 8-10 dollars. Rescuing the low fee transaction is difficult unless you're an expert.

MCCCS

Posted 2017-09-02T11:24:43.380

Reputation: 5 827

There is also a fee for me to buy 1000USD bitcoin in the first place. And I think it's about 4%, or 40 dollars. I don't know about the receiving end, but I guess it's probably the same, so that is another 40 dollars. 40+40+10=90 dollars. – Atmega 328 – 2017-09-02T19:46:08.980

@Atmega328 That's not transaction fee, that's your exchange fee. Different exchanges have different fees. Bitcoin's transaction fees don't depend on the value of Bitcoins you sent. (Fees of a 100k dollar transaction may be equal to a 100 dollar transaction) – MCCCS – 2017-09-03T07:43:40.497

Regardless, if I need to send someone 1000 USD cash using THE "promising" bitcoin system, I still need to pay about $100 out of my pocket to do just that, which is ridiculous and not counting the hassle for me and receiver. I can do that with paypal for less. 2.9% or $29, which is still expensive. SO is there a place where I can buy bitcoin for free? I highly doubted. Or do I really need to pay a fee to sell bitcoin too? I am pretty sure it's the case, so bitcoin is just ridiculous. – Atmega 328 – 2017-09-03T10:13:42.310

1yup, in your understanding and insisting model of paying to get in and out, bitcoin doesn't make sense as a use case. You better let it be, cause there a limiting factors surrounding you. The vast majority of people have better use cases for bitcoin (many are holding), and they find ramps to go in, and even live on bitcoin, and hope with the ongoing develpment (segwit, lighning) to go into a future with even cheaper payment oportunities. Exciting roads ahaead! – pebwindkraft – 2017-09-04T09:42:36.470

have a look here: https://bitcoinfees.21.co/ this tells me currently, that you can pay 120-150Satoshi/Byte, to get confirmation within 6 blocks (on average 1 hour). So if you have a standard tx (less than 500 Bytes), you can go with 500x100 Satoshi= 50.000 Satoshi = 0.0005 Bitcoin = +2 Dollars. If your tx has 2 inputs, and two outputs, then you have like 750 Bytes, so make it +3 Dollars.

pebwindkraft

Posted 2017-09-02T11:24:43.380

Reputation: 4 568

that doesn't make sense... if you choose the most expensive seller for bitcoins, then maybe you are working with the wrong team. That is not bitcoins fault. Take a look at other opportunities, or even bisq. And if US is the problem, cause you can't get "cheaper" access to bitcoin, why not search abroad? I have never had to pay ~40 Dollars to buy bitcoin - wtf!!! I am in Europe though... – pebwindkraft – 2017-09-04T09:39:17.937

3.99% is Coinbase.con fee. – weston – 2017-09-06T00:44:51.630