This is really a privacy/technology problem and I am guessing there is no better place to ask than here. I am looking to transfer money to my parents (Canada to Australia). My Dad is technically literate so no problems there. I would like to use Bitcoin to do the transfer. Can anyone advise me on what the best wallet/exchange method is. I am sick of Western Credit Union/Banks because they shaft you on fees and the exchange rate. I havent purchased bitcoin before but have a reasonable understanding on how it would work.
Bitcoin exchanges typically use linked bank accounts. There are services for buying Bitcoin with credit and debit cards, but fees tend to be high. If it's not huge amounts of money, you could buy Bitcoin through a Canadian exchange, and then buy gift cards at https://www.gyft.com/ and/or https://www.egifter.com/ There are gift cards for many online and physical retailers. See http://www.buyingbitcoin.ca/exchanges/ for possibilities. Maybe Palancar has suggestions too
The sums will be quite significant so the gift card method may not be as viable. I was hoping that bitcoin would be more viable than a wire transfer but maybe that wont be the case.
Many gift cards have $500 limits. And you can just email lots of gift cards. If you and your parents both use exchanges, there are no limits.
You could also bypass the exchanges in a sense. Example: you hold BTC in a wallet on your end in Canada. Remember a BTC address is not country specific and the private key to access the btc address can be used anywhere in the world, including Australia. So you have options here. Since its your Dad you may decide to simply handle this for him and leave him relaxed/retired in a sense. How? I just checked and today BTC is being bought for about 610 AUD in your Dad's country, while folks in Canada are buying BTC for about 615 CAD today. If you wanted to, you could start a localbitcoins account where buyers of your bitcoins would deposit CASH into your Dad's bank account(s). This is done all the time here where I live. As soon as you verify the cash is deposited you would release the BTC to the buyer and both parties have a trusted secure transaction. You'll want to check Australian law since I don't trade there. I have used several countries but never there yet! Most folks setup bank accounts that are solely used for their BTC activity and don't mingle the activity with "day to day" bills, etc.... The above suggestion may be over the top for what you were thinking since you mentioned your Dad is tech savvy. He may prefer to do all this himself, but I have a feeling that cash being deposited with him doing very little might be the better option. I don't know you or your Dad so I am guessing here. You could be his "backup" in case he gets confused on how to send BTC to this buyer. Its such an easy process. Plus its same day arrival. Just an off hand suggestion because I don't like middlemen taking my money. Yep, I am cheap. ps - not trying to over step my boundry here. Isn't there a banking relationship between a couple of places where you could simply wire funds directly to your Dad? I wire money all the time and the costs are almost nothing. To me 10 bucks for sending a couple thousand would be almost nothing - my perspective.
