Pinoy Guide: How to save on Bitcoin and altcoin transfer fees

5 min readDec 1, 2017

UPDATE: Note that the peso values indicated here have already changed since this article was written 2017 Dec 01 and Bitcoin price in peso have already risen significantly. | 2017 Dec 12

I will teach you some easy ways to buy cryptocurrencies and, at the same time, avoid BTC and ETH high transfer fees.

But first, here’s a fact:

The average trader loses money by a considerable margin after adjusting for transaction costs.

So if your that trader who tracks all your transactions, including fees, you will see that such fees eat up a huge portion of your profits, if any. For this very reason, a profitable trader seeks to minimize transaction costs as much as possible.

At today’s prices, let me show you a comparison of how much transfer fees you will pay if you buy and withdraw ₱5,000-worth of Bitcoin or other altcoin from the following exchanges:

Abra app

You buy ₱5,000-worth of BTC and you’ll pay -₱75.00 teller fee (or 1.5%) and -₱400.00 network fee (which in my experience ranges from 4% to 13%). You transfer it to your other wallet and you’ll receive only ₱4,525.00 worth of BTC.

Coins.ph

You buy ₱5,000-worth of BTC at 5% higher than market rate. You’ll pay -₱100 cash-in fee to 7-Eleven. You transfer it to another wallet and you incur -₱400 network fee (4 to 13%). You’ll get only ₱4,250.00 worth of BTC.

Bittrex

If you decide to obtain your BTC from Bittrex, you’ll first need to deposit some altcoin to your account. Of course, these require transaction costs too, which varies widely. Exchange it for BTC and pay 0.25% commission. When it comes time to withdraw, you’ll pay a fixed -0.001 BTC (-₱485.00). In the end, you’ll get around ₱4,450 worth of Bitcoin.

Cryptopia

Same steps as Bittrex. Commission is at 0.2%. Watch out! For when it comes time for withdrawal, I’ve seen that the latest transfer fee is at -0.002 BTC (-₱970). In the end, I doubt if your ₱5,000 will even be worth ₱4,000 in Bitcoin.

Bitfinex

You send your USD or some altcoin to Bitfinex platform and you pay transactions costs, which varies widely. Exchange it for BTC and you’ll pay between 0.1% to 0.2%. commission. Withdraw and you’ll pay a fixed -0.0005 BTC (-₱243.00). In the end, you’ll get around ₱4,700 worth of Bitcoin.

UPDATE: I just tried withdrawing BTC from Poloniex platform and it only cost -0.0001 BTC (-₱100.00) in transfer fee — this I think is a better alternative than Bitfinex. | 2017 Dec 18

UPDATE: Bitfinex no longer let you withdraw any amount less than $250. Worse, any deposit less than $1,000 incurs deposit charges. Clearly, they don’t want poor income folks in their platform. This exchange shall die soon. | 2017 Dec 31

Cex.io

You may want to deposit to this platform ₱5,000-worth of USD using your credit card, but account the 3.5% +$0.25 transaction fee (-₱200). Use your USD to buy BTC at 6% higher than market rate. Pay commission at -$0.22 (-₱11). And when it comes time to withdraw, you’ll pay another -0.001 BTC (-₱485.00). There are fees and hidden costs in every step. In the end, you’ll actually spend 20% of your initial money. Clearly, you have nothing to win here.

IQ Option

You may buy BTC using your credit card, but note that trading commission is at 10%! For withdrawal of your BTC, you pay 2% + network fee. And it takes some time before they release your BTC. I’d rather stop here.

Note that these are estimates but clearly, these exchanges don’t have our best interest in mind. It doesn’t matter whether your fund is smaller than ₱5,000 or higher than ₱500,000. We all want the best deal.

So, my first suggestion is stop enriching the exchanges! Just buy from individual sellers at market rate if you can find one who is legit. (Beware of scammers.)

Here’s another alternative:

BTC transfer fees are extremely expensive, but it’s not the case with the other altcoins, like that of LTC and BCH. If you transfer ₱5,000 worth of LTC, the usual transfer fee is only at -0.001 LTC (-₱4). For BCH, it is -0.001 BCH (-₱70). That’s why I stopped patronizing BTC in favor of BCH and LTC, because they make more economic sense to me.

If you still want to buy BTC, however, here’s what you can do.

1. Buy from a trusted individual seller.

Make it part of your deal to split the transfer fee 50–50. The seller also stands to benefit from this transaction, as he/she no longer needs to pay those horrifying transaction and transfer fees if he/she opts to sell it in an exchange.

2. Buy from Bitfinex.

If the deposit fees are acceptable, send your USD to Bitfinex and buy your BTC from there. Withdraw it to your other wallet, and you’ll spend only -0.0005 BTC (-₱243.00) in transfer fee, which is still substantial but better than most other platforms. (Note however that this rate can change, so always check the fee box before hitting that confirm button.)

UPDATE: Bitshares has a cheaper transfer fee of -0.0003 BTC (-₱175.00 at the moment) than Bitfinex. You may also deposit USD to pay for your BTC. Trading commission is at 0.2%. There also added fees in Bitshares (so you need to buy BTS as well) but they are negligible (less than ₱5). | 2017 Dec 04

3. Convert to LTC/BCH and transfer to an exchange with lower transfer fee.

If your BTC is in Cryptopia or Bittrex or any exchange where the cost of transferring BTC to other wallet is -0.001 BTC (-₱485.00) or above, exchange it first for LTC or BCH. Then send the LTC/BCH to an exchange (e.g. Bitfinex) where you can exchange it again for BTC, then withdraw the final amount to your other wallet for a lesser fee (-0.005 BTC or less).

Same goes with the other altcoins. Though Bitfinex is good for BTC withdrawals, it is not the case for ETH withdrawals. It charges -0.01 ETH (-₱221) fixed withdrawal rate, which I still find substantial. So I exchanged my ETH for LTC and sent it to Bittrex, where I then exchanged it back to ETH and withdrew to my offline wallet for a measly -0.002 ETH (-₱22) transfer fee. (I’m a miser :)

(UPDATE: Just make sure that the spread between the prices of the same coin in the 2 exchanges are not so huge. | 2017 Dec 31)

Honestly, if I could buy an ICO with LTC, I wouldn’t even think of using ETH. (And BTC? Forget it!)

UPDATE: Here are other coins with small transfer fees: STEEM=₱0.52, WAVES=₱0.27, XRP=₱0.26, DOGE=₱0.21, XLM=₱0.04, SC=₱0, IOTA=₱0, and NEO=₱0 | 2017 Dec 04

UPDATE: For my latest updates on cheap coins to use when transferring your funds between exchanges and wallets, click here.| 2017 Dec 31

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