Anyone Else Feels Bitrefill is Overpriced? \ stacker news ~bitcoin

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Anyone Else Feels Bitrefill is Overpriced?

361 sats \ 9 comments \ @spiderman 3h bitcoin

Was just checking Bitrefill for Singapore, in particular, an SGD 100 voucher for Fair price (sort of, like, the Walmart of Singapore), and they are charging 74, 628 Sats, which, as per coinbase, is SGD 108.

So an 8% premium for the privilege of spending my Sats!

Or does it depend on the specific product? Do some categories have less markups?

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211 sats \ 1 reply \ @leo 1h

In my experience the exchange rates (USD, EUR, CAD) have always been fair in the past. Their Lightning node is also well-managed, so there are usually no significant routing fees.

But you're right, the card in question has an absurd exchange rate, regardless of what you pay with. I also checked for the Ikea and Grab SGD vouchers, and it seems like they use at least three different exchange rates for SGD/USD, then apply a fair rate for USD/BTC.

I also checked for HKD, and the 7-Eleven vouchers are also marked up by 8%, the Foodpanda cards were marked up 10%.

For CAD or EUR I couldn't find any cards with a markup. Glad you noticed, will look carefully in the future!

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @spiderman OP 1h

Thanks for the clarification, so it seems the markup stems from the relative lack of liquidity in the FX rate, not BTC market itself.

Surprising in the case of HKD though, as I thought they maintain a tight peg of 7.8 and USD is considered almost local in Hong Kong to the extent many shops and banks happily take it for sizeable transactions.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @79c9095526 34m

Maybe you could try cakewallet? I haven't checked their rates, but I believe you can buy giftcards from them as well

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Scoresby 57m

If a merchant doesn't accept bitcoin, it's giftcard or sell your coins for fiat and then use that. As long as gift cards are less cumbersome, I imagine they will be able to charge the premium.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @SimpleStacker 1h

I just checked the price of a $100 amazon gift card on Bitrefill. They were charging 0.00088085 BTC for an implied BTC price of about $113.5k. On coinbase bitcoin was closer to $114k, with should mean a price of 0.000871 BTC. So that's about a 1% markup.

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @TheBTCManual 1h

more demand will drive down margins, just the name of the game! 8% premium isn't that bad when you look at annaulised inflation of fiat countries around the world, if I look at growth of money supply annually in my own country its between 10-12%

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @optimism 1h

Wait... for a gift card, you're still paying the inflated prices on the goods too - so you're paying it twice?

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @OT 2h

Are you using the Bitrefill app or website? I've heard that there can be a large premium when you use Bitrefill in other apps like Strike.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @spiderman OP 1h

The website, was not aware there is an app as well, and could not imagine they will price-discriminate between these platforms.