Bitcoin may be a fast and cheap means to receive funds especially from overseas, yet it isn't usually the safest or even cheapest for all.
You're right with this.
There are fees which depends on the network at that particular time, and the price is volatile too.
To enjoy the use of bitcoin with an affordable fee, we can try to use the mempool in other for us to know how congested it is or not before sending our transaction and we also can make use of a non custodial wallet in other to customize the fee to our taste.
As for safety, it protects when you have knowledge on how to store properly, yet when careless, you may lose all your money. Therefore it is good but won't be said to be the best choice for all situation.
Its security lie in our hands, if we understand how to maintain a perfect safety with the use of bitcoin, we are not going to compromise on things, because once anything that may be vulnerable to us shows up, we quickly detect for that and avoid it.