It's getting easier and easier to pay your day-to-day expenses in cryptocurrency.
Now you can add to the list gas, electric, cable, and cell phone bills. And it's probably faster to use one of the services below than it is to mail a check, enter credit card information, or go through PayPal, anyway. Fees for the services mentioned below range from 0.5 % - 3 %.
Take a world tour with these bill pay providers:
Canada
Bylls – Residents of Canada can pay essentially any bill using Bylls – users need not limit themselves to utilities. "Unverified" users – those who choose not to submit government papers – can use Bylls to pay up to CAN$1,000 worth of bills per month. "Verified" users can pay up to CAN$5,000 per month.
Mexico
Volabit or Pademobile – Volabit recently integrated a digital assistant from Whatsapp named Jaime. Using Jaime, users can pay both utility and phone bills in Mexico with Bitcoin.
Pademobile offers services to both Mexico and the U.S., but its utility and phone bill pay services are more geared to Mexico. It behaves much like Kenya's mPesa, allowing users to send anyone money via a simple text message. But unlike mPesa, Pademobile uses Bitcoin, not fiat.
Pakistan or Malaysia
PayBill – Residents of either of these regions can use PayBill to pay gas, electricity, cell phone, landline or Internet bills. No account creation or document submission is needed.
PayBill accepts bitcoin, litecoin, and dogecoin and hopes to expand its services to more regions soon.
Australia
Living Room of Satoshi or Noghi – Living Room of Satoshi was among the first Bitcoin-to-bill-pay services to emerge. After temporarily shutting down while deciding whether or not a Bitcoin tax applied to them, Living Room of Satoshi re-opened for business last year.
Like Living Room of Satoshi, the company Noghi uses the BPay network (the organization that centralizes utility billing in Australia) to offer users the ability to pay all BPay bills with crypto instead.
Argentina
enBitcoins – During the last few months as the Argentinian peso has undergone rapid inflation, enBitcoins has been offering bill payments with the more stable bitcoin. No government papers are needed to use the service.
Thailand
Coins.co.th – This company functions similarly to Mexico's Pademobile – it's a wallet that offers utility and phone bill pay services.
Coins also acts as an exchange for both buying and selling bitcoins, making it far easier for Thai residents new to Bitcoin to get their hands on some.
Philippines
The Bills Ninja will pay your Filipino bills while kicking and punching. No government papers are needed to use the service, and users can create an account for personal recording-keeping, or just go account-less.
Coins.ph is the Filipino branch of Coins.co.th. They offer the same services as their Thai counterpart -- phone top-up, money transfer, and bill pay.
Italy
NordOvest Energie is an Italian gas and electric company. They began accepting bitcoins for payment only this month, using payment processor Tinkl.it. This made them the second utility company in Europe to add cryptocurrency to their list of accepted currencies.
Netherlands
Bas Nederland was the first European utility company to accept bitcoins directly, beginning in early 2014. They provide an interesting option to customers called “path to zero,” which apparently provides residents with self-run, power-generating tools in exchange for the long-term cost savings they provide.
Don't Live There?
Live somewhere other than the regions listed above, but still want to pay your bills with Bitcoin? Never fear.
The company Bitwala is a crypto-to-SEPA service, which means they'll make a bank transfer on your behalf in exchange for bitcoins. This service, of course, can be used to pay bills.
Bankymoon, on the other hand, will enable you not only to pay your South-African utility bills, but to top off the meters of anyone else in the world.
Lastly, the company 12Charge processes cell phone top-ups and utility payments for over 110 countries – essentially globally. The company is based in Hong Kong and requires no account creation or government document submission.
Did we miss your favorite bill pay service? Let us know in the comments below.