Bitcoin Forum

So I received a very vague email from Coinbase a couple days ago that they have closed my account.  They gave me no reason, but I suspect it has to do with sending funds to a certain vendor.  This vendor does not offer anything illegal, so it was especially frustrating when getting the email.  I am a US citizen and from what I have researched Coinbase is the best "all in one" company with a good IPhone app to buy/sell and store Bitcoin.  So now I'm curious of the best "all in one" companies that also hopefully have a good iphone app, not named Coinbase.  Also curious if anyone know if I would be able to open another coinbase account in the future at some point, or am I banned for life?  Thanks to any and all for your advice!

You're not the only one having this issue. Coinbase is known for closing accounts when their clients send funds to some service that isn't legitimate in their jurisdiction.

You need to view their terms of service: https://www.coinbase.com/legal/user_agreement?locale=en.

If you didn't do anything against it, I would suggest you to explain to them.

If their policy is to close user accounts for some activities or transactions to certain vendors or websites this should be clearly stated and users informed about it. Then it's ok and legitimate and you are breaking this rules at your own responsibility. What about if there are any funds left on the closed account, do they return them to the user?

I am aware that they do not approve of the vendor I sent the coins to, sorry but really Nazi Germany?! I've been a member for at least a year and a half and have given them plenty of business.  Zero desire to ever illegally use it.  Truth is just like any company/website/app the rules are always going to be there, somewhere, and normally in fine print and quite lengthy.  I am working on getting my money that was left out now.  I thankfully just sold a large portion of my holdings (who knows maybe this got me banned?) and have little left. 

Here is there response upon logging in to a closed account:

Unfortunately we have had to close your Coinbase account. Before your account can be closed, you will need to withdraw your funds to an external wallet and any other funds to an attached bank account. Please be sure to delete any references to digital currency addresses generated by Coinbase, as funds sent to those addresses will not be retrievable once the account is closed. If you have any questions you may contact us at support@coinbase.com.

If you are NOT in New York, then give Airbitz a try. You can buy and sell through our integration with Kraken/Glidera right from within the iOS app in 49 states. And unlike Coinbase you fully control your bitcoin and get full privacy as well. Your wallet account can't be closed.

Sorry for your story but it bear in your mind that before joining any service need to take a look there TOS.Everyone need to compulsary like a everyday practice.Coinbase reviews his all members a systemetic way as by chance if they suspect you sometimes using your account against there rule then surely ready to return.

nothing people can help you
only sending ticket in support helping coinbase can help you
i think you false about rule and FAQ coinbase until youre account closed

Thanks @Paullinator!  I will check it out.  To everyone else, did I ask for a lecture? I didn't do anything wrong, so If Coinbase doesnt want my business that's fine..that is their own dumb fault they want to ban members for their own moral code then enjoy having less and less business in a business that by no means has solidified itself with staying power (Yet..love Bitcoin and hope it's here to stay).  If I was trying to buy army grade weapons from Iraq then maybe I would deserve to be suspended and have several "mom and dad" lecturing replies. 

You can try blockchain.info they don't have easy to buy/sell bitcoin feature but you can buy bitcoin with coinbase and transfer it to blockchain web wallet's bitcoin address or if you are looking to store those bitcoin for long time, make paper wallet or buy hardware wallet and transfer bitcoin out of coinbase immediately after you purchase bitcoin.

Blockchain.info have nice app for both android and iphone.

Coinbase is stupid. Why are they dealing with BTC if they mean to limit the places where you spend them on? Their business would be better if they dealt with USD or EUR. Why dont they run a regular ewallet like Neteller. Thats what all Coinbase really is. I also heard the owner is one of the stupidest people in Bitcoin.

The are an exchange not a wallet. People who uses coinbase without reading their TOS and complaining about it are the ones stupid. They give users a complete set of rules to abide yet tey can't and oce their account are closed they complain. Coinbase are kind enough to allow users to withdraw their money first.
 I people are using their wallet in gambling and tradin with others, they would've used a proper wallet like blockchain, electrum, etc that doesn't have any rules against it.

well, blockchain is a famous wallet, even I can say it is the most famous bitcoin wallet, but in security bases it is not a safest wallet, you can use blockchain to send and receive funds, but for storing purpose better do not use blockchain,

Coinbase have a lot  of restrictions,

Coinbase is not an exchange like BTCe is an exchange. It is also a quasi wallet because they encourage the ease of use of BTC if you use their site. They are like a combination of an exchange and an ewallet.

you need to send a support ticket to them. But I doubt that they would recover your account since I have seen many people who lose their Coinbase account forever. Anyhow, it is a great chance for you to learn using other forms of the Bitcoin wallet such as desktop wallets which are more secure than online wallets. However, you have to pay for the fee per transaction

This is the best advice regarding on this matter because coinbase wont ban or close an account if theres nothing wrong with it and you are properly following their rules.
Seeing the terms of service would really be helpful so that you could able to avoid future problems.

Coinbase don't give you private key of the bitcoin address where your bitcoin will be held so saving any bitcoin in coinbase wallet is just like using centralized payment processor where they will have full control over your funds. Don't use coinbase better to use hardware wallet or light wallets like electrum and save your private key in safe place.

Use a US VPN in order to open a new account. Also new email address and bank account cause as far as I know they do keep logs of your activity. Why do you want to open a new account there in the first place ? For ease of buying/selling bitcoin ? If it is so and you live in US you can give a try to coinmamma website, they have higher fees but are as trusted as coinbase and you can buy with credit card there, not with bank account like in Coinbase.

Withdraw your bitcoin from Coinbase, and move on from there.
Why would you risk opening a new account but again going through it all? Anyway I would certainly insist that I hear that this is exactly the action caused suspension, just to know.

Post a thread about your problem in Coinbase's subreddit:

https://www.reddit.com/r/CoinBase/

Their staff actively monitor that sub and you should get a quicket response than if you opened a ticket.

For your information Coinbase takes a very long time to respond to their customers. They have one of the worst customer services in the market so good luck in getting a quick reply from their staff. Why not avoid using that service?

Thats bad. If I am not mistaken you were verified because of their KyC policy right? and if so there is no way that you could create a new account and verify it again because you were already marked. However coinbase is really something crazy about closing their users account for the reason that they don't like where did you spent your bitcoin

I am assuming Coinbase closed my account for sending 20 btc through Gdax to kraken, even though they gave me no explanation.

That makes no sense. It's very likely something you have done that doesn't fit in their set of strict rules. Coinbase is probably the only exchange with a verification policy being so strict, which in current days is well known.

I personally find them a bit too strict, but if you sign up there, you directly agree to all their terms, so even if you don't like them, it's something you will get effected by, and it seems that for you it already happened.

Just wait for them to come up with a reason as to why they have blocked/closed your account. I am 75% certain that it has to do with your account limitations/verification, and 25% might be them suspecting you of illegal activity.

The email said violating terms of service.

My I'd was already validated. I had 500k wallet limit. 100k daily limit.

Their fees are outrageous

20 btc directly on coinbase would really get their attention regarding on such transaction and as being said they are really very strict when it comes into transactions involving large amounts already.Its quiet odd for them to block you if you do know you aren't doing something illegal that would really violate their ToS which the thing you can do is to comply on what they are requiring on such verification.

No, i deposit 99k into coinbase fiat wire. Then transfer to gdax to buy btc. Then send 20 btc to Kraken to daytrade. 

Have you verified your Coinbase account?
If you do, I'm pretty sure you are banned for good as your data are still inside their server and Coinbase might ban you again when they found out the same data has been submitted by a banned customer.

Have you reached their support regarding your ban?
It's weird as you don't have any suspicious activities based on your story.

A reason why I hate coinbase...
With them, the whole cryptocurrency loses its meaning.
They have some PP people there, correct? I'll stay away.

I am using Coinbase around 1 year and more but I do not find any issue with them but one thing I didn't use it for huge amount usage. Why the fund lose for you alone bro. There is above reported people I found more here in this thread alone.
Will I have swap my wallet to desktop wallet or something else. Can I have suggestions.

Maybe they just dont like me sending my money to a competitor, in this case Kraken.

Maybe this is a good thing because the IRS is on their ass.   idk

I doubt that the term "ban" is correct; however, they seem to have lock that account based on what seems to them to be activities that go beyond their terms of service... Even if bitcoin were $13k, it would be $260k to transfer 20BTC, and doesn't the guy have a $100k daily limit?  Surely,  there may be a way to unlock the account with an explanation which had been done here, in this thread. 

I have had accounts and/or transactions locked when they raised red flags, and sometimes it can be irritating and take a bit of time to resolve, and sometimes it can be resolved quickly.

And, yeah, in the good ole days, 20btc did not add up to very much money, and even 200 btc may have been transferred without problems, but times have changed, both in terms of the value of BTC, but also the seeming scrutiny that Coinbase is receiving and perhaps Coinbase is going a bit above and beyond what they are required to do in order to attempt to stay ahead of the game, to some extent, with the help of algorithms, too.

They suspended my account.  They told me to sell all by eth and btc before they closed it, which it what I did.   Now I dont have account to log in

Fair enough.

Sounds like you were not able to resolve the matter and to provide them with whatever information that they felt necessary to feel comfortable with you as a customer - whether that was KYC or AML issues, or something else.  I am sure that they provided an explanation to you, and you can already see that you went beyond some of their terms of service, no?

I am not any kind of defender of Coinbase because they piss me off in various ways in terms of their seeming involvement in bitcoin politics - yet they have legitimate business reasons to screen out customers who have potential problems and potential holes in their story, whether those holes are with KYC or AML. 

It is best that if you are using these kinds of services, don't engage in behavior that is going to raise those kinds of red flags for them.  Further, they are not stealing your money because they are giving you are reasonable amount of time to withdraw your value from your account and send it wherever you would like.

Four years ago there were less than 10 significant exchanges, but these days there are close to two hundred, so you have many options.  Further, there could be a way that in the future, you either clean up your act or perhaps you are going to be able to open another account with them.

Big exchanges are infamous for closing accounts,  freezing funds and not giving proper explanations. They have millions of clients and dont have time for your questions. Therefore better work with smaller but reliable exchanges

That is a bit too skeptical. 

If you do not have a bunch of weird transactions going on through your account (especially BIG ones), and you have legitimate, plausible or reasonable explanations for your transactions, and your source of cash and/or your identity verification, then sure they should want to keep you as a customer - otherwise you are correct, if you are raising scam and/or illegal red flags, they are going to have little tolerance for that (perhaps approaching zero tolerance, or at least the appearance of zero tolerance) because they do not want to get shut down and have their license taken away or to pay outrageous fines.

It's like some of the behavior of bar and club owners in the USA in the past 20 years or so, they have become very rigid about checking IDs to verify age because they do not want to have their liquor license taken away because they get caught serving liquor to a minor... so they have a zero tolerance policy and they are not very nice about it when they find someone in their establishment who is under aged.  They can lose a lot of money if they lose their license.