Electrum fees - confused

[vladman]

Hi,

Whenever I try to send any amount from my Electrum wallet, it fails, and it's because of the fee.  The question mark button next to the fee field says that a "suggested fee" will be automatically input.  So I leave it alone, and don't try and change it to zero, nor do I try to input a higher fee.  But whenever I try to send, it tells me the fee is too low, and that I can't send because the network won't propagate it.

So how is this "suggested fee" that gets automatically input calculated, and why is it wrong?  How do I know what fee I'm supposed to set?

I read up about fees, and think I understand the basic concept.  If I understand correctly, the fees will be higher if my received transactions (that make up my total balance) were very small, and in particular if any of the receive transactions were under 0.01 BTC.  But none in my wallet were.  They're all between 0.015 and 0.06 or so.  There are many of them though (about one a day, for the last month or so).

Thanks in advance.

Vlad.

[vladman]

Update:

I've managed to send now.  The reason the "suggested fee" was wrong is my own fault, when I first installed Electrum I modified the transaction fee setting under preferences (before I knew anything about it) and set it too low. 

Now I have a further total-noob question.  This was the first time ever I sent any BTC, so far, I only received, from a multipool I mine at.  I just made two transactions.  One was a donation to a guy who runs a cool stats site.  The other one was to myself.  What I did was sent a tiny amount (just over 0.01 BTC) from one address, to another address of mine which contains the bulk of my balance.  I wanted to "consolidate" my balance, which was split between three addresses.  After I did this, the address that I sent from disappeared out of my list of addresses in Electrum (and I think another new address got automatically created to replace it).  This is where I'm confused.  I read on BTC wiki that BTC addresses are one-time-use only, and it literally says: "Unlike postal or email addresses, Bitcoin addresses are single-use. This means that whenever you want to receive a payment, you need to generate a new address.".  I don't understand this, as I'm using one address on this multipool, and I'm receiving payments to that address every day.

So what I'm wondering is, now that the address I transferred the entire balance from has disappeared, what's "happened" to it?  And also, what would happen if anyone ever tried to pay me to that address?  Would the payment "bounce"?  Or just vanish, and neither the payer nor myself would have it?

Sorry for the noobness of these questions...

Thanks.

[Abdussamad]

This means that whenever you want to receive a payment, you need to generate a new address.".  I don't understand this, as I'm using one address on this multipool, and I'm receiving payments to that address every day.

If the wiki says that then there is a mistake in how they've phrased that. It is recommended for privacy reasons to not reuse addresses but there is nothing stopping you from doing so. Addresses don't stop working after the first time you use them.

So what I'm wondering is, now that the address I transferred the entire balance from has disappeared, what's "happened" to it?  And also, what would happen if anyone ever tried to pay me to that address?  Would the payment "bounce"?  Or just vanish, and neither the payer nor myself would have it?

Sorry for the noobness of these questions...

Thanks.

To discourage address reuse electrum hides old addresses under receive tab >main account > receiving > used. Click on used to see them.

[vladman]

Thank you Abdussamad!

So, if anyone ever sent me anything to one of these "used" addresses, I'd still receive it?

[Abdussamad]

Thank you Abdussamad!

So, if anyone ever sent me anything to one of these "used" addresses, I'd still receive it?

yes

[dabura667]

Thank you Abdussamad!

So, if anyone ever sent me anything to one of these "used" addresses, I'd still receive it?

Yes, if you or anyone sends money to an address in the "used" area, it will be moved back into your active addresses.

(One condition to decide what is a "used" address is "It must have a 0 balance")

[vladman]

Thanks Abdussamad and dabura.