How do you pay a specific $ if you aren't holding Bitcoin

[BittBurger]

My recipient is in Europe.  I'm in the USA.  I owe him $5880 USD right now. He wants to be paid in Bitcoin.

He said to make the payment based on Bitstamp price.
But I am buying them through Coinbase.  
Coinbase wants $594 per coin.  Bitstamp has them at $585.
$5880 has to come out of my bank account.  Not a penny more.  Not a penny less.
If I price it at $585 then $5880 doesn't come out of my account.  Less comes out.

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Coinbase makes me wait until Monday to receive the coins.  
By that time, the $5880 coming out of my account may only buy 7 bitcoins.
So what he receives next week may only be worth $4,000 and he won't be happy.

If I don't already have the Bitcoins on-hand, how the heck do I pay this guy exactly $5880 USD right now?

[Massimo80]

This is exactly the reason why Bitcoin can't be really used as a currency at its present status.

Just think about the early adopters which bought pizzas for tens or hundreds of BTCs...

[BittBurger]

Technically BitPay enables instant payments, therefore Bitcoin can be used as a currency.

But for those who don't use a merchant payment system (instead doing peer-to-peer), and need to acquire the coins as part of the payment process ... ?
 
If I had the coins on-hand, I would just calculate based on Bitstamps price and hit send.  Done.

I wanted to initiate a purchase through coinbase, then send to him.   

Coinbase lowered their "instant available" too much.  Now I only get $1000 instantly available.  So I have to wait 5 days instead (insane). 

-B-

[tysat]

My recipient is in Europe.  I'm in the USA.  I owe him $5880 USD right now. He wants to be paid in Bitcoin.

He said to make the payment based on Bitstamp price.
But I am buying them through Coinbase.  
Coinbase wants $594 per coin.  Bitstamp has them at $585.
$5880 has to come out of my bank account.  Not a penny more.  Not a penny less.
If I price it at $585 then $5880 doesn't come out of my account.  Less comes out.

---------------------------------------------------

Coinbase makes me wait until Monday to receive the coins.  
By that time, the $5880 coming out of my account may only buy 7 bitcoins.
So what he receives next week may only be worth $4,000 and he won't be happy.

If I don't already have the Bitcoins on-hand, how the heck do I pay this guy exactly $5880 USD right now?

You don't?  There's really no easy way to instantly get bitcoins in a situation like this.

[Gopher09]

Use winkdex obviously.
And it doesn't matter with the volatility right now it's just as likely tongi up as down in the next 5 minutes.
Just go by winkdex and call it a day, or be a vag and use bit pay to covert to fiat. Although your a sellout if you do that.

[BittBurger]

Well, I have bitcoins.

But this is a business expense.  So it needs to follow a very specific path.  There must be a withdrawal out of my business account, on this date (or thereabouts) for exactly $5880.  This will reflect inventory purchase of exactly $5880.  He wants to be paid in Bitcoin.  So it needs to get to him as $5880 as well. 

So i guess you're right.  This isn't possible.  The closest thing available I think is Coinbases's "Instant Available" option.  

Due to volatility, payments must be instant.  

-B-

[cp1]

Purchase $5880 from coinbase, you'll probably have to eat the fees just like you'd eat wire transfer fees.  Tell him however much that got you, 9.83 BTC or whatever and have him invoice you in BTC 30 day term.

[odolvlobo]

My recipient is in Europe.  I'm in the USA.  I owe him $5880 USD right now. He wants to be paid in Bitcoin.

If he wants to be paid in bitcoin, then the two of you just need to negotiate the amount of bitcoins. Then the dollar amount is no longer relevant and you can buy and send the exact number of bitcoins.

[cottoneyeJoe]

The same would be true for ANY currency you weren't already holding. You'd face the issue of conversion and the timing of transfers/wires not meeting your "penny more / penny less" test.

For example, my US bank wont send rubles to my account in Russia. When I want to send funds, they send USD to the Russian bank, which can take a day or so to happen, then the Russian bank converts the dollars to rubles at whatever the exchange rate is at that time and credits my ruble account.

Granted the delays in getting larger sums from Coinbase and the volatility in btc are higher in the btc case, but the basic problem is the same. The key difference with btc is that the actual transfer happens MUCH faster than with legacy banking system.

You might consider buying a small surplus of coins from coinbase and holding them in your own wallet, then once you posses them, contact the party you want to pay and agree on a USD/BTC price, and hit send.  For a little more effort, you gain much more control and faster transfers.

[Singlebyte]

Sometimes you will find competitive listings on localbitcoins.com where you deposit the money at someone's bank and they send the coins to you within an hour.  I have seen listings for as low as a few points over stamps buy prices.  May be worth a look but it just depends on your area/market.

[acoindr]

My recipient is in Europe.  I'm in the USA.  I owe him $5880 USD right now. He wants to be paid in US gold eagle coins.

He said to make the payment based on kitco.com price.
But I am buying them through Apmex.com.  
Apmex.com wants $594 per coin.  kitco.com has them at $585.
$5880 has to come out of my bank account.  Not a penny more.  Not a penny less.
If I price it at $585 then $5880 doesn't come out of my account.  Less comes out.

---------------------------------------------------

Apmex.com makes me wait 2 weeks to receive the coins.  
By that time, the $5880 coming out of my account may only buy 7 US gold eagle coins.
So what he receives next week may only be worth $4,000 and he won't be happy.

If I don't already have the US gold eagle coins on-hand, how the heck do I pay this guy exactly $5880 USD right now?

Answer: tell him any fluctuations in delivering to him the form of payment he wants is not your problem. You're not his Forex broker. Or pay him in USD as is owed and deal with the USD system. (or for the advantages of using Bitcoin keep some on hand...)

[ivroer]

My recipient is in Europe.  I'm in the USA.  I owe him $5880 USD right now. He wants to be paid in Bitcoin.

If he wants to be paid in bitcoin, then the two of you just need to negotiate the amount of bitcoins. Then the dollar amount is no longer relevant and you can buy and send the exact number of bitcoins.

This

Answer: tell him any fluctuations in delivering to him the form of payment he wants is not your problem. You're not his Forex broker. Or pay him in USD as is owed and deal with the USD system. (or for the advantages of using Bitcoin keep some on hand...)

And this.

If the contract was originally arranged in USD, settle in USD. If you both agree to change the contract, renegotiate on a final BTC amount. If you can't reach agreement, settle with the original contract terms.

[benjamindees]

This isn't any different from any other currency.  If someone wants payments in Euros, you agree to a price in Euros, exchange your money for Euros and eat the fees.

[BittBurger]

Thanks everyone.   Great ideas from all of you.

-B-

[keithers]

My recipient is in Europe.  I'm in the USA.  I owe him $5880 USD right now. He wants to be paid in Bitcoin.

He said to make the payment based on Bitstamp price.
But I am buying them through Coinbase.  
Coinbase wants $594 per coin.  Bitstamp has them at $585.
$5880 has to come out of my bank account.  Not a penny more.  Not a penny less.
If I price it at $585 then $5880 doesn't come out of my account.  Less comes out.

---------------------------------------------------

Coinbase makes me wait until Monday to receive the coins.  
By that time, the $5880 coming out of my account may only buy 7 bitcoins.
So what he receives next week may only be worth $4,000 and he won't be happy.

If I don't already have the Bitcoins on-hand, how the heck do I pay this guy exactly $5880 USD right now?

I always used to use bitstamp value when selling items or sending money because it used to always be the one in the middle (gox being the highest, btc-e being the lowest). This situation is easy. If you are using coinbase just send that amount that owe him in coinbase priced btc and send him transaction history showing the exact amount. If he wants to withdraw, he can do so using coinbase as well.

[Sheldor333]

Sorry but that problem is unsolvable at the moment. You can't buy them at that price unless you wait for it to come to the same price in both exchanges, which might be never.

[FelixOliver]

Do this...

If he wants to be paid in bitcoin, then the two of you just need to negotiate the amount of bitcoins. Then the dollar amount is no longer relevant and you can buy and send the exact number of bitcoins.

... Or this

Sometimes you will find competitive listings on localbitcoins.com where you deposit the money at someone's bank and they send the coins to you within an hour.  I have seen listings for as low as a few points over stamps buy prices.  May be worth a look but it just depends on your area/market.

Then, call it day