Post
Topic
Board Bitcoin Discussion
Re: extinguishing Western union
by
gentlemand
on 18/07/2015, 10:59:36 UTC

Hmmm I worked out the amount to receiver figure as a % of the exchange rate figure taken from xe.com.

7056.82 - 6951.13 = 105.69 / 7056.82 * 100 = 1.4977%

You are right though, there is a £3.90 charge and a poorer exchange rate.
So I think I understand now that the sender receives a 3.9% fee and the receiver suffers a 1.5% fee on top.

Looking at the localbitcoins options I don't think that it is currently competitive for someone looking to remit money to their homeland from a developed nation. I have never seen a bitcoin ATM, but from what I have seen online, they don't typically have very flattering buy/sell margins either.

So, if this is something that we are going to do..... what's the plan Andreas?

This is an interesting breakdown of remittance costs

http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/ng-interactive/2014/aug/19/-sp-remittances-countries-highest-fees-interactive

I think it varies vastly between source and destination. Those WU costs you posted are probably cheaper and faster than a conventional bank transfer.

Weirdly, Iceland costs 10% to transfer £100 to and the Central African Republic costs 5%.

I used a have a local friend go broke who refused to have a bank account so I'd have to bail them out via WU when they starved. They lived 50 miles down the road and the cost was 5-10%.