MtGox withdrawal delays [Gathering]

[manfred]

How can there still be a 'queue' now, in recent times was very low volume. No action at all.
BitMarket.eu managed to run on empty for half a year before collapsing simply by processing payouts from the new deposits.

[CompNsci]

What part of they don't control the entire transfer process don't people understand? Mt.Gox must work with other banks to transfer fiat. The old legacy banking system is lethargic, inefficient, cumbersome and over regulated. That's a reason Bitcoin is so valuable.

Well, the fact that Mt. Gox is running a business and engaged in a large number of transfers with reasonable delays on withdrawing funds may form an implicit contract to do the same in the future. Particularly since they do not warn potential BTC sellers on their site that there will now be _much_ longer delays in withdrawals.

That means Mt. Gox is responsible for the delay and damages due to the delay, regardless of the underlying cause.

[CompNsci]

A few other interesting pieces of information:
The international transfer queue is actually progressing, and has reached mid June.  If anyone have an international transfer issued before June 20th which has been in pending for more than five days, you should contact support.  There is probably something wrong with it.  A misspelling, mistyped account number, your bank holding back the payment (there are a few examples of Citibank doing this), etc.

Do we know the last time point on these? In other words, how long did it take to reach mid-June from the last known time point?

This would allow us to calculate how long it is likely to be before they process the ones from mid-July.

Hasn't it taken over a month to progress from beginning June to mid June? If so, that means it could be a long time for requests made in August.

Mt. Gox should really be posting this information periodically on their site.

[sturle]

How is it possible to ask for an Express withdrawal (with fee at 5%)?
Is it available for SEPA?

Ask support.  SEPA takes less than a week (unless you make frequent withdrawals), so why bother?

[sturle]

Have you withdrawn in the past several weeks? Do you believe in their service? Any advice or light you can shine on this would be tremendously appreciated.

I withdrew about 7k EUR almost four days ago.  If the information I have is correct, it should get to pending state (i.e. sent to their bank) on Monday, and received by me on Tuesday.  One aspect makes me a bit worried – I have the letter ø in my address.  This is not an allowed character in the bank systems, which are largely built to be compatible with really old stuff written in Cobol in the 1970ies on IBM mainframes using EBCDIC character set.  I hope MtGox transcribes it before sending the transaction to the bank.  Didn't think of that until after I made the withdrawal.

Really bad idea to withdraw anything the way the price is going.  Should have kept the BTC instead of doing arbitrage.  What's the use of fiat anyway?

[sturle]

"It is probably going to take at least two or three weeks." - 5 withdrawals, last was 2013-06-18.
None was completed at this moment.
Who will pay MtGox price if there is no options to convert that BTC to flat?

2013-06-18 is the oldest I've seen from someone who haven't got a single withdrawal processed since then.  What state is the oldest in?  Confirmed or pending?

[sturle]

Even MtGox offer express manual withdrawal at a 5% bank fee. (This is a bank fee, not a MtGox fee.)

Hmm, a discount to only a 5% writedown fee. I'll take that. Can you document this? (As you've stated this as a fact)

I quoted MagicalTux somewhere in this thread.  The exact terms are "under a light NDA" (quoting MagicalTux).

[sturle]

How can there still be a 'queue' now, in recent times was very low volume. No action at all.

There is no queue for domestic JPY transfer.

For SEPA there has been a queue for as long as I can remember.  It is shorter now than in years.  MtGox are limited to 120k EUR / day.

International withdrawal had a collapse after all other popular withdrawal methods were removed.  First redeemable codes (on request from US regulators), then LR (US again) and AurumExchange which carried several popular e-currencies, then OKPay, then Dwolla (the usual suspect).  Thousands of SWIFT transfers of a few hundred USD each then overloaded MtGox's bank.  This doesn't surprise me at all if what I read about Japanese banking in this forum is true.  (And I believe it is, knowing Japanese bureaucracy.)  Now MtGox are limited to 10 international withdrawals per day, and due to the investigation in the USSA (them again) they have trouble finding new deals with other large banks.

Fortunately the problems mostly affect USD withdrawals.  They brought this upon themselves, and should go kick their government's ass.  Or the DHS.  I'm not sure who rules who.

[joesmoe2012]

I have EUR SEPA transfer pending from Aug 1st still....So SEPA is not working very well either.

Also didn't you say before that SEPA > 30K was not being processed right now?

[sturle]

I have EUR SEPA transfer pending from Aug 1st still....So SEPA is not working very well either.

Also didn't you say before that SEPA > 30K was not being processed right now?

SEPA > 30k is more than two weeks delayed, and it will usually be faster to split up, yes.  Did you receive any other withdrawals the last two weeks which means you have been pushed back in the queue?

[giszmo]

/subscribe

[Pale Phoenix]

Fortunately the problems mostly affect USD withdrawals.  They brought this upon themselves, and should go kick their government's ass.  Or the DHS.  I'm not sure who rules who.

USD customers of Mt Gox brought this on themselves? Are you *$&%* kidding?

[int]

If domestic (JPY) withdrawal takes a day or two, while USD takes a few weeks or more, why can't someone in Japan set up a business which for a % fee will withdraw your money in JPY, exchange into USD at forex rate, and paypal/send cash by mail/or find some other way of getting the money to you?

[zeroblock]

If domestic (JPY) withdrawal takes a day or two, while USD takes a few weeks or more, why can't someone in Japan set up a business which for a % fee will withdraw your money in JPY, exchange into USD at forex rate, and paypal/send cash by mail/or find some other way of getting the money to you?

Now someone finally asks the obvious question. 

[cedivad]

If domestic (JPY) withdrawal takes a day or two, while USD takes a few weeks or more, why can't someone in Japan set up a business which for a % fee will withdraw your money in JPY, exchange into USD at forex rate, and paypal/send cash by mail/or find some other way of getting the money to you?

Also, why can't the same business do million or so of arbitrage per day? This spread is so stable that it has to be exploited... By someone that wants to risk on mtgox.

[johnyj]

If domestic (JPY) withdrawal takes a day or two, while USD takes a few weeks or more, why can't someone in Japan set up a business which for a % fee will withdraw your money in JPY, exchange into USD at forex rate, and paypal/send cash by mail/or find some other way of getting the money to you?

It is possible that MTGOX does not have enough JPY either, since most of their deposit came in as USD. They have to purchase JPY with their USD in order to satisfy JPY withdraw, but their USD were frozen by the banks

Maybe exchange is a bad idea, people should really trade bitcoin for goods/services, just need more supermarket accepting bitcoin

[solex]

It is possible that MTGOX does not have enough JPY either, since most of their deposit came in as USD. They have to purchase JPY with their USD in order to satisfy JPY withdraw, but their USD were frozen by the banks

MtGox has net JPY outflows as that is what they are paying rent, salaries, utility bills, taxes with. So revenue in foreign currency needs to be regularly exchanged into JPY for their own business as usual requirements. Presumably that absorbs some of their allowed transfers.

[joesmoe2012]

On mtgox, currency is auto-enchanges to match orders in different currencies order books to USD (well really any currency against any currency, but in this case JPY/USD).

JPY customers are ramping up their arbitrage efforts, take a look at the volume JPY over the past month.

Japanese banks are slow and difficult to deal with. And while others claim differently, I have not had any luck establishing a japanese account.

[calian]

On mtgox, currency is auto-enchanges to match orders in different currencies order books to USD (well really any currency against any currency, but in this case JPY/USD).

JPY customers are ramping up their arbitrage efforts, take a look at the volume JPY over the past month.

Japanese banks are slow and difficult to deal with. And while others claim differently, I have not had any luck establishing a japanese account.

I wouldn't worry too much about it. Looks like you might have to have it open 6 months before you could even use it anyway. http://forum.gaijinpot.com/showthread.php?114192-Full-banking-privileges-for-foreigners-Making-transfers-having-a-Visa-debit-card

[sturle]

If domestic (JPY) withdrawal takes a day or two, while USD takes a few weeks or more, why can't someone in Japan set up a business which for a % fee will withdraw your money in JPY, exchange into USD at forex rate, and paypal/send cash by mail/or find some other way of getting the money to you?

It is possible that MTGOX does not have enough JPY either, since most of their deposit came in as USD. They have to purchase JPY with their USD in order to satisfy JPY withdraw, but their USD were frozen by the banks

Only two accounts in the USSA containing a small part of their USD got frozen.  It only amounts to a part of their profit this year.  There are no reports of delayed JPY withdrawals indicating lack of funds.  Currency exchange takes place in their Japanese bank.  MtGox takes a 2.5% currency exchange fee, and I suspect this contributes a lot to their profit on low volume days when cross currency trades constitutes as much as a third of their total volume.  Selling volume in JPY indicates that at least 200000 USD worth of JPY is withdrawn on an average day, sometimes more.