Bitcoin Forum

It's a nice setup, but I'm afraid your rates are exorbitant.

Any chance for Australia by phone call instead of sms?

Nearly $15 AUD/btc which is very high, especially with the low adoption. I like the concept, but the pricing is way to high.

+1

This is not a new concept btw, it's new when someone figures out a way to do this in a cheaper way. I like the name "DialCoin" though, I hope you can find a way to lower the prices.

Yes, others have tried this. I almost set this up. But unfortunately the prices charged by the companies make it a non sustaining business model.
They are used to taking 50% because it is usually someone texting to get their horoscope/love rating or some other complete bullshit.

And they deserve to spend as much as possible  :D

I was wondering if an in app purchase in an android app (30% fee) would work. Could be a cheaper way to do something like this.
See my post here:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=48326.msg576451#msg576451 (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=48326.msg576451#msg576451)

Year ago I ordered my first bitcoins (well, 0.20 BTC) using similar service; it was my first experience with Bitcoins at all. I agree that prices are high, but it's the easiest way how to start playing with Bitcoins for many people. So I wish you a success, because it's always good to have yet another way how to purchase the best coins on the world :).

Just tried to buy 0.141 BTC via sms, works nice. If you want bitcoins _now_, I can recommend it.

Perhaps you could be up front about the charges. "We rape you 1% on the spread while the telecom rapes us both 50%"

Looking forward to roll-out in the U.S.  I'll give a try, would be a great way to use up my prepaid phone $$ at the end of the billing cycle.

 There a place for everybody, so welcome on this market !  ;)

I hope you can have as much success as Btc-direct.fr (http://www.btc-direct.fr)

Around $20 per bitcoin for us Swedes...

Any reason in particular why you don't got Brazil there or you just haven't got around talking with the local carriers just yet?

Outrageous!!!

I had words with Selly and he promised that this will be much less outrageous when you check it again next time.

Selly is having trouble doing paperwork in Portuguese. We've just sent him to some language school, with a bit of luck Brazil coverage is coming up shortly.

If you need translation to Portuguese (from Portugal) I will gladly help.
Just PM me so we can arrange the details.

So what is slowing down US coverage?

Just tried Dialcoin from Norway. Great service!!    put the price....  it's more than 2x the price of local eu exchange ( non mtgox)

I think 20-30% markup is the limit for most people.  Hopefully you'll get it down as you grow and can get less screwed by the mobile phone companies?

Good luck! :)

I would think in many places using the mobile would be the easiest way for many people by far.

for everyday people the % that the telco + shortcode provider takes is 25%. Well if you have sorted out a average deal. so for me they look like they are personally taking a little 2 much. But they are a new co so the prices may come down over time if they manage to sort out a better deal with there short code provider.

Personally I will not use it at that cost. But everyone to there own.

Could you provide a reference to this claim? What country are you in? Are you taking into account the potential VAT attached to the customer's fees?

SMS is typically in the area of 50% (Africa is 90%!). I can understand why you would think it's over priced if you thought it was 25%.

As for prices coming down, SMS can't "come down", but we've got more in store for our prospective clients this fall.

Yes sure for example https://www.impulsepay.com/signup    . I am in the UK.

And that's just for one of the first providers I know about there are plenty others. various fee's. But its all a volume game as a higher volume you can normally talk this down a little depending on your short code provider.

Like say fantastic for the people who want to use the service. For now for me its a bit expensive. I do however wish you luck with it as the more services for Bitcoin out there the better.

I read a document on my carrier's website and it reads
Any possibility that I could/would send to a US based number or "short code" once implemented? I'm not sure if this is already in place for the countries already covered.

International billing doesn't work so well for SMS yet for legal reasons. You might be charged for an international SMS alright, but it's not so simple on our side to convert it to a 'value' (if that makes any sense to you). All of our access numbers are carrier based so they will at least be in the same country chosen during purchase.

I would encourage you to double check on your own if a number is local to you but it should be pretty obvious just by the country code+area code. We are working on more alternatives for clients other than SMS to help reduce cost, increase privacy and usability.

As long as i wouldn't have to send an text message outside of the US, there wouldn't be a problem. Hopefully once US is supported, everything will go well with the transaction and my carrier. I do have a card connected to a monthly plan that adds minutes, but for the most part my carrier is prepaid. Given the small transaction sizes you offer, I shouldn't have to worry about some ridiculous charge.

Glad to hear you're moving beyond SMS.

re: impusepay - lots of marketing BS, they use every trick in the book to make it appear to be a great deal. It is not in reality any good. Take in account VAT, fees, hidden fees etc.. and you back to square one.

we are working on improving UK pricing (except some particularly dumb and greedy carrier) and rolling out major countries/markets soon as far as SMS is concerned. And there are a few more tricks up our sleeve, which will be revealed shortly.

Also when you compare this service to exchange prices maybe you should not looks at it from point of view of buying 1000 BTC but from point of view of buying 1 BTC. For example, what is real cost of buying 1 BTC from MtGox? Like sending all the passport scans, wiring money in, waiting for paperwork to be done, waiting for money to arrive and be credited to your account, paying all the hidden currency conversion fees, praying not to be goxed etc... Meanwhile with dialcoin buying 1 BTC takes 30 seconds and we do not even ask your email address let alone passport scans.

I would claim that in terms of costs buying 1 BTC from dialcoin is one or maybe even two orders of magnitude less expensive than with mtgox. If you want to buy 1000 BTC https://dialcoin.com is not for you. As simple as that.

Not to mention that mtgox does not allow you to dump soon to expire phone credit.

Oba!!!

Well, the cost with my bank to transfer money into  bitcoin-central is zero regardless of the amount. (standard swift transfer)
Sure their EUR -> BTC price is usually higher than mtgox but not by that much.

I can understand the crazy price when buying just 1BTC but from say 10BTC or more it should be possible to make money with 25% markup.
If not then the mobile carrier companies are much worse bastards than I belived possible.

Hi Selly,


I intended to to use your service today,

and I would have, if only my heart hadn't stopped cold,

at the mere sight of your most excessive pricing.

Whereas a 20% premium is fine, a 300% premium is not.


Sincerely,

A non-customer.

Any news on US Rollout? I would love to use your service to burn the $5 credit i get each month, but I see you guys still dont have the us.

Wondering if there's any news on solving the UK "technical difficulties" so far? I have some phone credit to dump, lol

Working on upgrading to dialcoin 2.0 to function better with the android app and allow for merchant API. Taking some time because we all own multiple businesses. We're on it though!

Thanks for the update

Any chance of fixing UK availability? I'm from UK and I wish to use your service.Says its not available (it's been that way for quite sometime,already.). Is there any chance I can also get up to 2BTC via sms/phone call without the rates being too high?

"Server not found"

Is this service dead?

yes, too much fraud.