bank account suspended, 4500 miles from home !

[coinmaster222]

The US has the worst banking system in the world along with a few other things as well like medical treatment.Here in the UK I can use my debit card free of charge anywhere in the world and get the spot rate of conversion.If I forget to tell my bank I am going outside europe and my card wont work its a quick call to them and away we go.

[coinmaster222]

One other point my wife is an American and banks with Fifth Third we often transferred money to this country via her paypal to mine,not huge amounts but several hundred dollars.After having the paypal account for years they closed it with no reason another shit company.

[BitCoinPokerBro]

I thought UK banks were more accepting towards bitcoin than other parts of the world?

[coinmaster222]

Hell no if you mention btc to them they shut your account straight away and put you on a world wide banking blacklist

[bitbunnny]

Are UK banks so strict to BTC??

[coinmaster222]

yes i know a couple of people on the Local Bitcoin scheme wanting to open a business account for it,were refused and had there personal account closed on the spot.Reading UK forums I find out this is the norm and they put you on a worldwide ban for opening an account

[murraypaul]

Lesson: ...

Don't use a personal account to conduct business.
Don't be surprised if your account gets closed as a result.

[haploid23]

cash deposit?

how would they know it was bitcoin related and not a family gift or simply depositing £100 from junk change you had laying around your house?

Even if you have a single cash deposit, if the guy that makes the deposit tries to reverse or report it, that's enough to lock up your account for investigation. Banks would know it's not friend or family because these group of people wouldn't report their own transaction as fraudulent.

[haploid23]

...However, I am not acting fraudulently or otherwise illegally in any way.

It is about time that the banks were forced to accept a perfectly legal activity and stop persecuting those who trade bitcoin for "fun and profit".

It doesn't matter if it's legal or not. If banks don't like the type of activity they see on your account, they can choose not to do business with you and close the account. There's no law that says they're forced to do business with you.

Take for example, banks generally will not open a small business account for people that have business central to check-cashing, alcohol, cash-for-gold, or other money service business, even though non of these things are illegal. So it's not a matter of what's legal or not, it's their choice.

[haploid23]

Thanks for your support. I am composing a message to submit to a newspaper in the hope that something will get done about this.

I don't want to try to sound like I'm discouraging you or anything, but this stuff happens all the time. World-wide, banks suspend or close accounts for suspicious activity or simply too many cash deposits. I'm pretty sure your story won't make it anywhere near breaking-news headlines. You can still go ahead and try to make a news story out of it, but just don't be too disappointed of nothing comes out of it.

[Flashman]

Yah, it's one of those things, like wrongful police shootings or civil forfeitures, that happens every day, so of course if you make a fuss, it's "an isolated incident" rather than a systemic problem. See this dot here, it's a dot all on its own, not like the other dots, no siree.

[coinmaster222]

I think the moral of the story is be like me carry a credit card you rarely use for emergencies only and watch what you say when your in your bank.Please remember when something like btc is about to change the banking world, banks will strike back.

[BitAddict]

Are UK banks so strict to BTC??

I also tried to open a bitcoin business bank account in some banks in UK, and their answer was a stunning NO.