Electrum Sending Fee

[viking02]

I have sent $500 worth of bitcoin a few times.  Those times i sent the bitcoin, the fees were $0.17 and $0.28.  Is this normal?  The person who i sent the bitcoins to received it in about 5 mintues or so... maybe a little bit more.


Back then i recalled each time i sent bitcoin, the fee was like $0.06 or $0.12 max.  Is this the normal sending fee now for electrum?  I know there has been lot of electrum upgrades to new versions etc. 


So wouldn't that mean if i send a bigger amount, the fee is $0.50 or even $1?  Back not too long ago, I had to send bitcoin and had to send $2000 or $3000 worth of btc each time.  I notice the fee in my electrum wallet was like $0.50 or $0.80 etc.  I was doing some trial and error and noticed if i sent 6 bitcoin... then the fee would be like $0.50, but if i sent 6.2 bitcoin, it would be like $0.80.  Is that normal?  Like the electrum sending fee is different depending on how much btc you send.


Do you guys just set whatever the bitcoin fee is for electrum and not change it?  I know last time when i made no fee, transfer took very long time.  However, i don't mind sending bitcoin and it taking say 30 minutes etc assuming i don't need to send the funds there immediately. 


Now i know bitcoin is great since you send btc and it gets there fast.  But if you dont need the btc there immediately, im curious if making it very low fees is ever a good idea.  Also is electrum similar with the other wallets like blockchain etc?

[viking02]

Okay so i guess i can also add to this.


If you send a small amount of bitcoin... say under $100... wouldn't that mean making the dynamic fee lower than the standard 0.0005 btc/kb be fine?


So what numbers can you even put in replace of 0.0005?  I assume 0.0004, 0.0003, etc?


What if you send a medium size amount?  Like $500 or around there?  I assume lowering the fee for that is still okay?


But if its bigger like $1000 worth of bitcoin or more, don't change the fee ever?


Now i like to know this.  Has anyone ever had their bitcoin transaction stuck where the bitcoin shows unconfirmed on their electrum wallet and never showed up in the other site they bitcoin was sent to due to either a low sending fee or no sending fee?  I recalled i had an issue like this and after that, i just made sure to send with a fee.


But has anyone had their transaction unconfirmed for very long time?  And if so, how long was it? 

[kolloh]

I recommend using the Dynamic Fees option within Electrum that can estimate the fees for you. The size of the fees are based on a multitude of factors such as transaction size, number of inputs, network congestion, etc.

To enable Dynamic Fees in Electrum, go to Tools->Preferences->Use dynamic fees

Then you can use the slider depending on how fast you wish for the transaction to confirm. If you want it to confirm quickly, use the slider all the way to the right. I have found that it is good at estimating the proper fees which works better than specifying a flat per KB fee.

[shorena]

The fee has nothing to do with the amount you transfer, but with the size in byte the transaction needs in the blockchain. Electrum usually does a good job at giving you an estimate that will result in a timely confirmation. You can also double check with e.g. cointape[1] (old name). If your fee was unusually high, it might be because the transaction was bigger than normal. This might be because it required more inputs[2] for the amount you wanted to send.

[1] https://bitcoinfees.21.co/
[2] Chunks of bitcoin you have received in the past. The bigger the chunks the cheaper (in terms of fee) you can send large (in terms of BTC) amounts.

[Cereberus]

If you don't mind waiting 30 minutes than use the dynamic fee as recommended from other users and keep the slider just about a bit right from the middle. Personally I want my transactions to confirm extremely fast and I keep the slider to the maximum right side (max fee). Yes this has it's downsides which are, I have paid 0.37 USD fee for a transaction paying about 6.5 USD but I am happy with it. I want my work to be done at the earliest.

[viking02]

Hey there.  I don't mind waiting just a bit.  But when you transfer $500 and it cost $0.55 and say you do this say 10 times a day for example, that surely would add up.  I only do a few transfers a week etc but i definitely dont mind it taking a bit of time if i dont need the btc sent there immediately etc.


But why was it back then when i sent a bigger amount of bitcoin, my fees were only like under 15 cents etc? 


Also i heard Viabtc txaccelorator.  Does that work for electrum etc?

[kolloh]

Hey there.  I don't mind waiting just a bit.  But when you transfer $500 and it cost $0.55 and say you do this say 10 times a day for example, that surely would add up.  I only do a few transfers a week etc but i definitely dont mind it taking a bit of time if i dont need the btc sent there immediately etc.


But why was it back then when i sent a bigger amount of bitcoin, my fees were only like under 15 cents etc? 


Also i heard Viabtc txaccelorator.  Does that work for electrum etc?

Lately the network has been fairly congested and higher fees have been needed for confirms to happen in a timely manner. The fees will grow based on the number of inputs and size of the transaction, but the actual value doesn't matter.

ViaBTC accelerator will work for any transaction and it can help speed up transactions with lower fees. I wouldn't rely on it though as using correct fees is definitely a better approach.

[dodgecharger]

Hey there.  I don't mind waiting just a bit.  But when you transfer $500 and it cost $0.55 and say you do this say 10 times a day for example, that surely would add up.  I only do a few transfers a week etc but i definitely dont mind it taking a bit of time if i dont need the btc sent there immediately etc.


But why was it back then when i sent a bigger amount of bitcoin, my fees were only like under 15 cents etc? 


Also i heard Viabtc txaccelorator.  Does that work for electrum etc?

Lately the network has been fairly congested and higher fees have been needed for confirms to happen in a timely manner. The fees will grow based on the number of inputs and size of the transaction, but the actual value doesn't matter.

ViaBTC accelerator will work for any transaction and it can help speed up transactions with lower fees. I wouldn't rely on it though as using correct fees is definitely a better approach.

ViaBTC has 100 tx submission limit in one hour. Even you submit it successfully and have to wait the next mined block by ViaBTC pool, which will take dozens of mins to hours. So there is no guarantee when your tx will be confirmed.