<p>This is expected, given the current mempool situation.</p>
<p>There are over 100k transactions pending as of this answer's writing. This has resulted in the fees rising significantly, up to 10x of what you might pay normally.</p>
<p>As your overall transaction value is small, this results in the warning showing up. The warning itself was added to prevent people from paying absurdly large fees. In your case, as the amount is small, the fee is proportionally considered large.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-10-28T06:05:52.327Z
Thanks @RaghavSood. So there's nothing I can do about this?
waldalla
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-10-28T15:59:00.077Z
You could wait until fees drop, but that's about it
Raghav Sood
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-10-28T22:36:33.850Z
Ok, I'm not in a hurry. I will check again. Anywhere public (i.e. not as part of the payment process) where I can see fee estimations?
waldalla
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-10-28T02:15:08.117Z
2020-10-28T02:15:08.117Z
Raghav Sood
<p>I have some bitcoins in a local <a href="https://electrum.org/#home" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Electrum wallet</a> and wanted to do my first shopping with bitcoin from a shop offering payment via <a href="https://bitpay.com" rel="nofollow noreferrer">bitpay</a> for an item costing (in USD) 20 dollar.</p>
<p>So I went through the payment process with bitpay (Bitcoin amount is around 1.8 mBTC), disabled in Electrum as they had suggested Replace-By=Fee and then pasted bitpay's payment url (<code>bitcoin:?r=https://bitpay.com/i/....</code>) into Electrum.</p>
<p>I got to the send screen. But here I received the following warning: &quot;<em>The fee for this transaction seems unusually high. (20%)</em>&quot; as shown in this screenshot:</p>
<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/4KqN7.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/4KqN7.png" alt="Electrum warning" /></a></p>
<p>Why is the fee so high and how can I reduce it to an &quot;normal level&quot; like with credit cards (say 0.5-5%)?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-10-28T06:02:20.187Z
@Prayank The payment gateway is [bitpay](https://bitpay.com) .
waldalla
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-10-28T22:35:06.787Z
@Prayank Thanks heaps for the suggestion! Good info. However in my case it is only credit card and bitcoin via bitpay.
waldalla
<transaction-fees><replace-by-fee>
On my first shopping via bitcoin I get "The fee for this transaction seems unusually high. (20%)" What to do about it?
waldalla
# On my first shopping via bitcoin I get "The fee for this transaction seems unusually high. (20%)" What to do about it?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2020-10-28)

I have some bitcoins in a local [Electrum wallet](https://electrum.org/#home) and wanted to do my first shopping with bitcoin from a shop offering payment via [bitpay](https://bitpay.com) for an item costing (in USD) 20 dollar.

So I went through the payment process with bitpay (Bitcoin amount is around 1.8 mBTC), disabled in Electrum as they had suggested Replace-By=Fee and then pasted bitpay's payment url (`bitcoin:?r=https://bitpay.com/i/....`) into Electrum.

I got to the send screen. But here I received the following warning: "*The fee for this transaction seems unusually high. (20%)*" as shown in this screenshot:

[![Electrum warning](https://i.sstatic.net/4KqN7.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/4KqN7.png)

Why is the fee so high and how can I reduce it to an "normal level" like with credit cards (say 0.5-5%)?

**Tags:** transaction-fees, replace-by-fee

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: @Prayank The payment gateway is [bitpay](https://bitpay.com) .  
> **username_0**: @Prayank Thanks heaps for the suggestion! Good info. However in my case it is only credit card and bitcoin via bitpay.  

---

## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2020-10-28. Score: 0 | Accepted answer

This is expected, given the current mempool situation.

There are over 100k transactions pending as of this answer's writing. This has resulted in the fees rising significantly, up to 10x of what you might pay normally.

As your overall transaction value is small, this results in the warning showing up. The warning itself was added to prevent people from paying absurdly large fees. In your case, as the amount is small, the fee is proportionally considered large.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Thanks @username_1. So there's nothing I can do about this?  
> **username_1**: You could wait until fees drop, but that's about it  
> **username_0**: Ok, I'm not in a hurry. I will check again. Anywhere public (i.e. not as part of the payment process) where I can see fee estimations?  

---

