Bitcoin Forum

Hi guys,

I always thought that one use case of Bitcoin is, to exhange it for fiat in another country e.g. when you are on holidays there.
So far I just used exchanges to move fiat there via SEPA, buy Bitcoins and than withdraw it to my wallet. This use case has pretty low fees, when you use the right exchanges. The big disadvantage there is, that it takes some time before you really get you Bitcoins. ( I guess same if you take the other direction and want your fiat)
Looking into alternatives to exchanges especially where you get you money instantly, I realized that they have pretty high fees.

The use case, I always imagined was, that you travel to another country, go to the right place, send someone BTC and get cash(in the foreign currency) in return. In my mind, that would have less fees than exchanging fiat to (foreign) fiat, since (fiat) Exchanges take there cut.

So, I was wondering, if somebody already have experience with that use case and could tell me, if there are countries, where it is really practical to exchange via BTC and not just a ideological decision.

(I am aware, that all we want, is that you don't have to exchange into foreign fiat, but just pay with BTC directly, but I don't think, we are far enough in adoption for that and that is not really the point of this thread)

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=770526

This guy is travelling around the world. He needed Turkish Lira in Turkey, so we found a user from İstanbul. They met and exchanged BTC/TRY. As you can see, Bitcoin -and especially BitcoinTalk- is a very large community.

Some other countries have Bitcoin ATM's. You can exchange your BTC with national currency easily.

Aren't the fees on Bitcoin ATMs also pretty high compared to exchanges?

You can consider getting a Bitcoin debit card. Fees are not low, but it is accepted anywhere and cash withdraw is instant

You most convenient option will likely be selling on LBC if there are trading offers there. Another option would be to try selling on the currency exchange subforum in the marketplace.

You should also remember that every currency is a "foreign" currency in terms of bitcoin so it should not be terribly difficult to sell bitcoin for the local fiat currency in the country you are on holiday in.

There is no cheaper place than exchanges, generally, the faster the speed, the higher the cost.

I was planning to actual try the different costs to convert Euro in another currency directly(change it in Austria and change it in the foreign country) and the costs of converting Euro into BTC and than converting it into the foreign currency, but I don't know, when I will travel to a non-Euro country, might be in 1 year, might be in 2, might be more. So, I'd like to hear from the experience of others.
The obvious disadvantage here, is that I would need cash, since I wouldn't have a bank account for the foreign currency.

So, to clarify my question:
Could someone give me some numbers from own experience, what the real costs are and also compared to other methods?
So far I didn't see any numbers in the field reports I read.

I am using a card I got from some offshore bank. The balance is loaded in USD, but when withdrawing at the ATM outside the US it gives local currency of course. So, I suppose any debit card would serve the purpose of converting bitcoin to local fiat.