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Right, I have to convert USD to Bitcoin and then Bitcoin to USD. I haven't worked out the cost of what this would be compared to my current options. In my case,
by gexla 12y ago
Right, I have to convert USD to Bitcoin and then Bitcoin to USD. I haven't worked out the cost of what this would be compared to my current options. In my case, it's still cheaper, but that may not be the case for others.
Coinbase charges a fee to convert on their end, but the exchange has a much small fee on their end. Getting the money sent from the exchange to me can be free depending on the option.
Otherwise I have the currency exchange rate and the a mess of options. I simply pull money from my bank via the local ATM's and that costs me around $5 / pop plus the exchange costs. On top of that I'm usually getting paid via Paypal, which is another fee to get paid.
Other people use Western Union or Xoom, which is expensive.
Bank to bank transfers are tricky. The most direct route is a wire transfer, which is spendy. The other option is an e-transfer, but that's not straightforward since the U.S. isn't on the same system that the Philippines is on. There are certain banks here which can pull it off I believe, but you need for these banks to be located close to you. And that's if you can even get a bank account here. It's not a huge barrier, but not everyone can get one.
There are tons of options but most involve fees on top of the conversion costs. Then there is speed, which is also important for me.
Right now, Bitcoin is looking to be the best option available for a lot of people here.
Edit: Whoops, forgot to mention that I wouldn't be holding Bitcoin. I would be using it as a transfer medium.
- foobarqux 12y agoI seriously doubt Bitcoin is your best option if you are dealing with any significant amount of money. What are you trying to do, how much money are you trying to move and how often?
- gexla 12y agoI have lived here for 6 years. We have a large expat community here who regularly shares information on the best way to send money. I have spent many hours researching options to move money and I regularly spend time updating myself on latest options. I don't think I need to get into my personal money habits here. If you haven't been an expat, then you probably don't know all the funky quirks of moving money here. Let's just put it this way. The Philippines is one of the most active countries in the world for receiving remittances and Western Union is huge here. Can you imagine that Bitcoin could be cheaper than Western Union? There are certain cases where you can get pretty cheap if you live in certain areas and your recipient lives in certain areas. For example, in L.A. there is a large Filipino community and remittance services in the Philippines have setup offices there, but these aren't services you can access over the internet. You have to live there. You brought up a good point about conversion rates though. I will have to see what the conversion rates actually come out to. It's different because you aren't converting a currency. You are cutting out some of the processes that converting one currency to another goes through. But I may still lose some money in the conversion though. I would get hit with the Coinbase fee, but apparently Circle is looking to do conversions for free. So, that might be even cheaper whenever they hook me up with an invite.