Quote from: maikohoney on August 20, 2017, 09:12:22 PM

Fees at blockchain.info wallet are INSANELY high after they added Eth... or at least within this past week they implemented some new price gouge... I wanted to send .5 btc or thereabouts, and this is the message I see...

This is an oversized bitcoin transaction!

Your wallet needs to consolidate many smaller payments you've received in the past. This requires a relatively high fee in order to be confirmed quickly.
8.2x
The Normal Size
$41.62
Recommended Fee

So now they want nearly $42 to send a value of .5 btc ... That's a LOT higher than it used to be!

Any thoughts, comments?

It's not the guilty of Blockchain. It is because the Bitcoin network is under a heavy spam of transaction. You have the option to customize the fee in satoshi per byte that I'd rather to use.
I won't go in the detail but it seems you've got plenty of transaction which is also another reason why it suggests an high fee. Please use the site https://bitcoinfees.21.co/ and check out for the right transaction size in sat/Bytes that suits your needs.
For example, if your transaction doesn't need to be confirmed fast (e.g. 3 hours until first confirmation), then go with 85 sat/Byte. Though if you're in hurry, then choose 280 sat/Byte.