Bitcoin Forum

Hi, my bank account was suspended for sending a large sum over £500 to a person. i called my bank and said i was sending it to my friend but then i was asked where i got the money from and i said from my brother (because i was buying bitcoins for my brother). Now I have to go into my bank and show them my brothers bank statement saying that he send xxx amount of money to my paypal and from my paypal it went into my bank account. (btw my brother sent it from his paypal to my paypal because he doesn't have online banking and the banks were closed at the time for a cash deposit to my account). Has this happened to anyone else? thanks

 :o Since when bank will suspending bank account for selling bitcoins thats hard  >:(

Same in the United States.  The Big Four banks are not happy seeing large ACH withdrawls to Coinbase.

· JPMorgan Chase
· Bank of America
· Citigroup
· Wells Fargo

In Germany its "Postbank" that suspends (or has been) accounts if you deposit to big exchanges. Its allways best to exchange bitcoin with cash.

Do you know which banks are good in the US to use for bitcoins? TD bank and HSBC should be good? Any suggestions?

Credit Unions are mentioned in this reddit thread (http://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/1yjkn0/psa_chase_closed_my_account_due_to_activity_with/).   I use a credit union for my ACH withdrawals to Coinbase, so far so good for the past 4 months.

What about regular ACH deposit? Are they going to suspend and close the account?

Maybe you should just use mainly a FIAT exchange like plus500 or other, like where It is Online Forex exchange platform which accepts Bitcoins also. So the banks would have no idea what you are trading.

What UK bank was this ?

It is not so much that they don't want to see large withdrawals to coinbase it is that they do not like to see a lot of withdrawals to coinbase and then a large deposit from coinbase. This makes it look like you are conducting business out of your personal account (which you are) and it looks like you are potentially check kiting via ACH transfers.

Generally I think European banks are easier and will probably would not worry much if you are sending funds to a bitcoin exchange. To use a forex broker is also a good idea. You can usually use other payment methods besides bank transfers and effectively buy/sell bitcoins the same way you would do at any exchange.

This is probably right. Having a lot of money move in and out of your bank account will look very suspicious to a compliance officer regardless why you are doing it.

Which European bank is friendly to bitcoin? Can a foreigner set up an account with them?

I don't know if they are exactly "friendly" but they have not been openly hostile so far - I live in the UK and use HSBC and Santander, have bought and sold BTC using both accounts and not had problems so far.

This is why we love bitcoin there is no suspension there.

I don't know if this is the trend in UK, but in the US, majority of the banks are rather hostile towards bitcoin. If they do close your account, they're not obligated to give a reason, other than "it's best that we end business relations with you (something along those lines). I had my bank account closed with Chase when they found out it was bitcoin-related transactions. Not only did they close my account, they will not allow me to ever open one with them again. This happened sometimes last year, when these incidents were not as common yet. Now, it's pretty well known that banks (generally speaking) does not like you using them for btc transactions.

Credit unions are less stringent on this, however I have confirmed that a few credit unions will in fact close accounts if bitcoin was ever mentioned.

It is harsh to see that bank accounts are making suspensions to accounts when sending large amounts for bitcoins. Usually bank accounts will suspend accounts if they feel something fishy is going on with the account especially if large amounts of money are being sent out. I would explain to your bank account exactly what you are sending the money for and hopefully they will understand. I hope you get this sorted soon :)

That is why we are onto bitcoin and encouraging the use of cryptos,these so called financial monsters doesn't like us moving our own money freely and the way it want it.

It's just a shame how banks are handling transactions where just the silly word 'Bitcoin' is given as reference.

My old bank account got suspended just because of that shit...

I try to avoid bitcoin transfers as much as possible into bank accounts
Especially if there are other ways to move it say debit cards or credit cards.
When they do occur maybe a safe way is to make sure they are not too large and done over a slow period of time.
Aka consistently as a monthly payment or something.

That's about 829.98 US Dollars, It's not a huge amount but if your bank acc doesn't have a lot of big transactions like this prior to this it might have gotten them suspicious, and which is why they have asked you to provide valid details about where the money came from and why you sent it to the other account. You'll be ok if you provide all the details and they'll establish your acc again.

That's why I never mention 'bitcoin' when dealing through bank.

wow I wonder if the employees got a message from the CEO and said anything related to bitcoin suspend there accounts because this threatens your job and the way of our business message, what ya think about everyone receiving this message.

In another thread there was talks of banks receiving internal memos about Bitcoin a while ago
Not sure how many banks have policies on it at this stage in the game but they are likely more than aware of it.

Example of Raiffesien Bank International in April
https://www.bitcoinregime.com/2014/04/08/raiffeisen-bank-international-internal-memo/

Internal Finance Memo Canada in May 2013 as examples
http://www.ctvnews.ca/business/internal-finance-memo-warns-of-potential-for-bitcoin-related-crime-1.1935898

That said initial reactions tend to change over time as more information is given so they will likely change their policies soon as well.
Can tell from how Canada handles its approach to Bitcoin in May 2013 vs now in 2014.

Go to a small bank ... they will be happy to take a fee when you withdraw the money


Also HSBC is a good idea since they allowed Mexican drug lords to have accounts with then and they knew that they were transferring drug money with their help :)

I don't think the size of the bank will affect the chances of your account getting suspended/closed. If your account is considered to be risky then it will be closed, regardless of the bank. Big banks will get more reports of this because they have more customers.

This is correct. I think your chances of getting your account closed are actually higher at a small bank because they generally have less resources to weed out the "false positives" of AML violations so they will need to have a lower threshold to close an account. 

I had the same problems with regular checks and wires in from online poker sites a couple years ago. I had a bank account closed. From what I can tell, having lots of movement in/out of your bank account -- as would be the case if one were "trading" on Coinbase, for instance -- you may have problems. The reality is that banks are fickle, and sometimes you just have bad luck with them. Pick up and move on.

The big 4 in Australia are the same: if they see you trying to transfer to any BTC exchange on their lists (Bitstamp was the one I tried), they present the transaction and (I think) put you on a watch list.

Basically, even though it is my money and I am doing nothing illegal or even immoral, they think it is OK to stop me doing it. Pretty outrageous behavior if you ask me.

I would think it would be a bigger problem if you were constantly depositing and withdrawing money from exchanges then simply depositing money into an exchange.

I would personally be very surprised if a bank ever closed or even watched an account because of just one transaction.

Currently, I do not think there is a problem like this for Canadian banks.

Went to the bank and it took 2 hours but the account was un-suspended!  ;D

So are you able to make constant transactions now without getting suspended?

Anybody knows an incident where paypal suspend an account for dealing with bitcoin?

Hey that's good for you and your sister. Did you just tell them the full truth? Here in the US, if you just tell them the full truth, it'll guarantee an account closure if you're dealing with the larger banks.

here in Spain,  Citibank cancelled my a/c and bounced all my bills because I bought bitcoin with my savings.

I went to the office and they told this to my face, said they were instructed by the US office to do this.

Who wants to have any relationship with coroporations like this.  They have no interest in serving their customers only themselves.

They are scum.

What should someone do when we experience this kind of scenario?

Go to your bank and ask to talk to the Head of Deposit Department (each bank has a variety of names).



I work in the banking world and purchase BTC myself and have zero issues ever with it.

Go in try to work it out, if you cant get them to see the light.. well, its time to pull you fiat and move to another bank.. It may be a pain, but its something we must do until it gets more accepted..

This has already been said, but I'll clarify:

Just don't mention bitcoin. Some people are stupid. Some banks just don't have an intelligent system. Many people only focus on bad news simply because they're bad people and they're attracted to bad news, so all they hear and read on headlines is basically: "bitcoin = scary, bitcoin = scam, bitcoin = fraud, bitcoin = money laundering". You cannot blame them, because we are all guilty of being ignorant on some topic or another.

Next time, if someone asks what a deposit for, here's a simple explanation from a recent issue that happened with me. The teller asked, and I paused for a moment, and calmly replied:
"Well ... I would use my paypal to pay them. But I'm having problems. You use PayPal right?"

Bam. Turn their question into a question. They won't just stare at you: they will continue their work. This teller did ask more questions being concerned about my security, which is good, but my reply was simple:

"Ya they've already performed the service so I'm safe to deposit cash into their account. Thank you."

If she would've continued with the questions, I would've politely said, "I'm sorry but I really can't chat .. I may be relaxed but I am really busy right now. Have a nice day!"

You're pretty good at that point. I could talk more about this, but give it a try. As long as you're positive, things will work out fine. If you have something to hide, you're going to have a harder time hiding it with your body language and tone of voice.

ive had trouble with jscfcu authorizing my coinbase withdrawls

Yeah, is there truth in this issue? Anyone knows whats the deal with paypal or if they have released an "official" statement about this one. Ive been reading all about this issue all over btctalk.

I just read that Braintree is embracing paypal. It was on cointelegraph last day. Check it out.

I work in banking. Your bank SHOULD NOT close accounts for selling Bitcoin. The US Government classifies them similarly to stocks/property. They are not illegal and myself have bought and sold through my account no problems.

If they make a big deal out of it, go in, sit down and lay out the governments view on it.

Unless your that moron from reddit who wants to sell bitcoin internationally in the marijuana trade, then you're an idiot. Wait til its legal and remove that from your business website.

Bank of america CLOSED my account for selling bitcoin. My account was 11 years old!

The issue is not that you are selling bitcoin and depositing the proceeds in your bank account, the issue is that you have a lot of deposits into your account in relation to your overall balance. This makes it looks like that you would be considered to be a MSB which is extremely risky on the bank's side, especially when the account holder is not reporting as such.

I don't think that should warrant them closing the account and not explaining why they chose to do so.  If I open an account I'd expect their to be some kind of clause in the contract that wouldn't allow them from doing such things.  I'll bet what there doing is illegal in one way or another but nobody really complains, they probably feel it is not worth the hassle and worry about it affecting their future accounts. 

You would expect wrong because account agreements almost uniformly have clauses that either the bank or the customer can close the account for any reason without cause.

You should remember that a checking account gives banks very little profit. If it looks like you are using your bank account to facilitate being a MSB then you would be causing the bank to take on a lot of risk while have very little potential reward. It simply would not make business sense to keep your account open

This happens all the time. Its likely not because of Bitcoin exclusively but because your transactions stand out.

Not being like everybody else = high risk = account closure.

Last kicks before their deaths.

Got a problem with your transaction maybe but not because you are transacting bitcoin

bc banks are typically run by stupid individuals

I have a smiliar issue... i am afraid now of collecting to much funds on one single platform...
And since i am not in my country where i live at the moment... it seems like impossible to solve it in person and in the moment.
I was not aware of this issue. Even sending out a big amount of BTC could get you forced to contact the support for further investigations...
My conclusion i learned from it: Do not trust banks... and not exchanges... rely on as much as you can handle... bots can save you time.
Then use prepaid credit cards (skrill/virwox) or podex card / bitplastic. Those don´t require id and you can add them to your paypal account or whatever you wish
There are some more high profile cards from malaysia giving you the abilities to pay in with western union, bitcoin and traditional methods... but it´s pricey...
I was shocked when my bank account got frozen and me beeing outside for extended holidays... had calls from the bank on daily basis until the problem was solved...

WAIT UNTIL ALL THESE BITCOIN-ERS TRY TO WITHDRAW $$$

Maybe they are bending the rules.

Good luck to all who try to take their money out of bitcoin exchanges... banks always give problems!

I wonder if -- now that paypal + coinbase have some kind of agreement, it will make it better or simply exasperate the issue being that most individual paypal accounts are bank funded/backed.


ie: bank > paypal > coinbase (as opposed to simply linking your coinbase acct to your bank)

banks.......this is the problem

A had a similar issue with BoA, and was sorted out once I spoke to the branch manager. He said, my account was under investigation, but things got fixed themselves a week later.

Unicredit group, no problems at all...

you are very lucky. I am not sure what you told them because  they usually don't unlock the account.

:O this is nuts ive never had no trouble here in the uk

You had too many bitcoin wallet transfers this month! We're shutting down your bitcoin accounts! /s :)

theres limitations on transfers? wtf??

Well this seems to be back. I just received a letter from BOA asking about a single Coinbase transaction, sending $300 to them from my bank account. My account is frozen until I fill out the form. Reading these threads it seems they have 0 tolerance for BTC transactions.

Well this is not something new. I know a friend had the same problem.
It's really sad that banks can be so childish blocking their biggest competitor.

Yeah, this has me a bit bummed really, I thought this type of stuff was behind us. Now I am hesitant to link up another bank account, as they are a hassle to setup and get going and I need at least one open to pay my regular bills, lol.

I did a local bitcoin trade that used to accept bank deposits into his
bank of america and he had about 10,000 in deposits from random
people because he bought and sold but it set off a red flag and the bank
closed his account to investigate. He ended up getting it back and they said
he had to open a business account and state his business but to be safe he
closed the account opened one elsewhere and now just meets up with people
and avoids using the bank

I was wondering who brought this topic back but it looks like it is still relevant so good necro, it sucks that you got frozen because of it BOA probally only lets old accounts get away with it but its sad to hear its still an issue for some users in 2016.
Perhaps Kraken would work out better Coinbase is strict on the KYC/AML.

(Say Kraken cause my cavirtex account got nommed (merger) and I got converted to the Kraken legion recently which seems to do American accounts, I'll need to test deposits there but cavirtex never gave me an issue so i'm off to investigate myself)

Well that's the thing, I didn't mind the strict KTC/AML things Coinbase asked for, in fact I thought dealing with them versus some of the looser non-regulated exchanges would prevent this type of thing. I am not one of these guys trying to hide everything I do and thought dealing with the most legitimate exchange would be fine.

The forms BoA sent are asking for a ton of questions on if I am a Money Services Business (MSB), which 99% of the form isn't even remotely connected to my situation. There is one spot asking if my business engages in virtual/digital cryptocurrency, which I assume is what they are targeting.

I will call them again to see what all this entails, but I really don't feel like filling out a lengthy form asking for a lot of non-relevant information just to buy a few bitcoins a year. So right now I am torn between just letting them close the account, or filling out the paperwork on principle, because the other effect this is having on me is it is like they are making me feel like I am doing something wrong. The only thing I am hesitant of filling out the form, is at the end is explicitly states that submitting the form in no way guarantees that they will re-open the account, so it may all be a waste of time in any event.

In the country I live, a gazette notice has been put up for anyone withdrawing a huge sum of money to declare the source of funds, reason and name of person sensing the money. They require so many details before releasing the transaction.

People who've been ravaged by UK banks will be able to bank with Fidor soon. By the sounds of it they haven't had faster payments set up yet but they've been very vocal about being crypto friendly. Hopefully we'll get some real live exchanges and businesses soon to.

This is worrisome that it is still an issue.  I have BOA and have not had issues yet but "knock on wood".  Anyone else have anything to report and how old is your BOA account.

That is the beauty of owning bitcoin accounts. Nobody can shut you down. You can have many many accounts.

I use Chase and opened a separate account just for it. I told the lady when I opened the account what it was for. Been just over a year now... I use itbit.com and my transactions show up as "ITBIT Trust Comp ITC ACH".

there have been people telling similar stories. MOst probably, the problem was PayPal. Since the deal involved bitcoins, PayPal could have sent an information to your bank making it suspend your account.

This happens, I too met with a related incident. My bank account didn't got blocked. Recently while making a trade with a local guy. I got the amount credited in my bank account. Recently I got to see a reduction of nearly 60$. I just got with them and asked for the reason. They replied its mark up fee as you have crossed a limited transaction.

Do you have any proof for that?

banks dont like bitcoin system this is the main reason for it.

How much is a "large" payment that brings a red-flag into wells fargo and bofa? How much of an amount buying and selling btc using circle/coinbase using wells fargo and bofa in the US?

Is there anyone here who invests significant amounts in SD?
I put quite a few BTC there, from time to time, as according to my maths, it's just about one of the best and most secure BTC investments available (not really saying a lot, particularly on the security side).
HOWEVER - the maths doesn't generally seem to work! I understand how the profit share is supposed to work, and on the balance of probability due to the 2% house edge I should make money.
But I never seem to ! My investment always seems to lose a small amount of money, rather than make it. I don't leave my coins there for long (few days max) and generally speaking I end up drawing out a smaller amount than I put it.

So I am interested to hear what sort of returns long term investors generally see from this site, if anyone here invests.

 

I don't get it---did you tell them that your brother transferred it to you? Or did you tell them that your brother withdrew it from his bank account and then you deposited it to your bank account? Either way, maybe this can be a lesson for everyone: tell the bank you had the physical cash saved, and that's where you got it.

...and then whisper under your tongue, "none of your f'n BUSINESS!"

Bitcoin is like online poker winnings, a bank may tolerate it till suddenly they do not.
I know banks are very weary of allowing suspicious deposits into a account. For a well I got vague questions when I would need to go in person to a bank.
Suggest setting up a different bank account then the one that has all other banking options. If something gets held up or closed you still have a account. Not a bad play for anyone actually.

That's too bad. Had no idea that banks were doing things like that. I expect all gets clarified and for banks to not ve pesky about this.

Is there any chance of getting bank account suspended for receiving money from bitcoin exchanges?If account is suspended for buying bitcoin,it can also be suspended for selling bitcoin as well?

Lot of people think transfers of under $3000 are safe but you can be flagged at any time for any fishy looking transfer.
Banks are a bit behind the times when it comes to people getting paid over the internet,imagine what they would think of bitcoin.
Here in Canada the top 4 banks strangle hold and set out similar mandates. You better believe bitcoin is one of those things they do not want to be connected to. Terrorism has made suspicious transfers a big thing for the every day chap.

That is possible. Some banks don't allow Bitcoin related transactions in their TOS. Just make sure you can explain why you sent that much money and you're fine.

You can do it indeed. You should really have a choice.

You can not have it both.

But I would prefer for the bank. I find this still safer.

Wow that is hard when they your bank account and threat you like an criminal. That reason I buy prepaid Credit Cards to buy Bitcoin in the past. You have to pay some extra but your sure they don't kick your ass.

That is a problem, why he need to explain anything to anyone? Are we all marked as crimanals? And we need to explain everythin to everyone cause there are some terrorist, mafia, cartels... That system made all those threats first so they can manipulate with everyone around. Now we need to explain how we borrowed money, from whom, for what, that is a joke. Fuck the bank system, cause of that I like btc.

A lot of banks are not trusting the bitcoin at all, I think they are just hating it.
They love the system, but hate the bitcoin for it, although I never heard they suspend it.

Currently, many banks are associating Bitcoin transactions to money laundering. It is believed that many transactions associated to bitcoins are meant to conceal drug money and financing of terrorism. Therefore, many banks will fear any transaction related to bitcoins for fear of reprisal.

if you stay below 1k there is no money laundering issue, be smart and don't convert high amount, and you're safe from trouble

also it depend if the same money return on the exchange to buy bitcoin again or they are done with trading....

Its a very common issue with buying bitcoins through a bank account. Banks do not like nor understand Bitcoin. All the deposit and withdrawals are costing them manpower and since the banks aren't profiting from it they simply close the account.

i dont think that bank will ask your money come from,is you life in conflict country or similiar?i just think its will happen to me or other people if we never sent any big amount of money,and suddenly we sent it,of course bank will curious.

I use a credit union for buying through coinbase.  I also, don't buy large amounts at a time.

Just presumed credit unions would be even stricter on bitcoin. Is this wrong, maybe I should phone around. Be interesting to see what these banks would say to potential clients.

This is too harsh. At least the banks need to explain in detail why they have closed your account and demonstrate that if they continued dealing with it will be dangerous to the economy

change your bank account,create other bank account,your bank is too corious to your account,just because you dont have capability to sent so many amount of money,sad story dude.

Yea really unfortunate. Can they really do that? I don't think they are allowed to do that very easily. Doesn't mean they have doubts on your account they can already do that to you. Did you try filing a complaint?

This is very strange. Usualy banks do so when they have some reason.to beleive that money laundering is involved but I don't think that this sum you've mentioned is enough for this.

Barclays tried to do this to me, I called my solicitor and hit them with some legal shit and it all cleared within a few days. no questions asked.

I am also hearing this type of situation for the first time

I would suggest members in those countries who do not have a Bitcoin agreement not to use personal bank account for dealing

I would rather suggest members to use Cash as medium of exchange

Does not take banks long to smoke you out with a few random questions that seem like just normal conversation.
Having set up a bank account recently as a off shoot,I was amazed at how many more questions they asked than 10 years ago. They wanted to know the value of my car,investments,where I worked and I was only wanting a chequing account.
The funny thing was they phoned me to say that they needed a work reference even though I told them I self contract as well. But I guess these are the times and banks want all the details they can get.

I still can't believe that this thread is still open lol.

In the end the bank re-instated the account after showing the paypal transfer documents/emails.

now banks are doing what paypal began? Not good.

That is not strange at all, banks suspend an account with suspected have bitcoin transaction in UK and US frequently happened due to legal issues.
It's just the matter of each banks policies, just find a bank with bitcoin-friendly and you would never get suspended again :)

Everyone keeps saying find a Bitcoin friendly bank but no one really ever seems to suggest one!
I have had a UK HSBC account I've used to buy and sell Bitcoins for several years, fairly regularly, in amounts of around £1,000, never had any problems.

because there are not, any bank is essentially against bitcoin for obvious reason

some of them simply do not know if you're dealing with bitcoin or siply do not care because they are ignoring bitcoin right now

in my case i had no issue with deutesche bank

My friend's bank account already got suspended for trading bitcoins.
Weird thing is i bought also bitcoins at the same bank and got no problems. Bought over 4k of bitcoins.

Was it really suspended for trading in bitcoins or because the account was hacked? I am yet to see any bank in my country banning bitcoin transactions but still I don't accept bank payments from unknown users.

some of the policies of commercial banks did not take sides against bitcoin. we need some time for bitcoin really recognized by all parties. including banks and local authorities.

It is a investment that you must make. But I think that is not so smart as well. You need always a little bit money and that is not good.
I hope later that more people will use also Bitcoin and that you will get some profit. You can invest a little.

I invest some spare money into the mining of the altcoin. Then I sell the altcoin to buy the bitcoin.

Did anybody try Leupay.eu to get IBAN and buy bitcoins from that account?

Even my friend send bitcoin to me. I think you can try the European bank instead of American bank.

If you are afraid that your bank account can be suspended for buying bitcoin,buy from individual traders.You can choose to pay them with various mode of payment including cash if seller is from your place

Yeah, now lot many options were available in buying a bitcoin. As suggested if you're afraid try with a individual trader. Just try to meet the trader personally and make the buying. One of the best service provider is localbitcoins.com

Here in my country bitcoin is accepted once you are fully known costumers (KYC) so but there's a limit to withdraw the high amount of bitcoin i think i can only withdraw 10 btc once a day.. but its ok  because i don't have that large amount 1 btc is enough to withdraw it in any bank in my country..

I have only ever bought a few small amounts, but CIBC, TD and RBC have never risen any issues for me. The most I've ever bought is about $25 though.