TD Closed my PERSONAL bank account for bitcoin related activity

[jamal01]

Short story - TD bank knew I used to sell bitcoin via direct deposit of cash into my personal bank account (which I stopped after being told this was against their policy). Now I receive a letter in the mail saying all my accounts new and old are terminated (credit card, mutual funds, rsp, savings, chequings).

Okay so long story...

I am not a software expert by any means. My family is full of programmers, literally..I was just too far of an age gap to be around to get that influence. Despite that I was always into hardware regardless, and when I learned that my graphics card could be used to make "money" I figured why the hell not. I looked up graphics cards that would give me the best hashing power per $$$ and went on kijiji and bought everything I could. I didn't pay for electricity it was included in the rent so I got the parts together and joined up on slush like everyone else and later switching to bitminter,

Anyways I bought bitcoins from whoever I could for cheap. As the price began to rise I sold a lot of coins on localbitcoins.com, and at that time (~18 months or so) the main form of payment that sellers in canada were accepting were interac e-transfer. I went with them and accepted this as well as Interac website clearly said:

"An Interac e-Transfer transaction cannot be reversed once the recipient of the funds has deposited the transfer. You must obtain a refund directly from the recipient. You can ask the recipient to send you an Interac e-Transfer for the refund amount."

However I eventually fell to fraud as someone claimed that their account was "hacked" and they never sent the transfer. E transfers became disabled for me, and TD reversed the transfer saying they would not compensate the loss. I petitioned and they agreed to provide a one time refund and things were all good. I couldn't even send e transfers to friends, so I turned to cavirtex for selling my coins. I then saw that some sellers were now accepting "direct deposit", giving account details for a void cheque to make a in-branch deposit.

I had been doing most of my localbitcoin transactions in person but that was much more time consuming and the client base was much smaller. So I switched to direct deposit. I was unloading coins at 10-40% of what they costed on cavirtex. But next thing I new, after months of multiple third party deposits and large wire transfers to companies in Sweden (KNC miners) I get a call from the bank to come in and explain. I do and inform them the third party deposits are me selling coins. They say I can't do this and I comply, and things seem okay. Until about a month later, today, I get this letter.

"TD periodically conducts a review of all its customer relationships bla bla bla. As a result of this review, we have determined we can no longer continue to support your current accounts and/or services, or offer you any new accounts and/or services."


I am now going to just store my coins I think, send them directly to cold storage and sell them when the price is high on cavirtex. I think selling online on localbitcoins is dead (at least in Canada). Miners selling coins on localbitcoins will have to turn to only local sales - or some other form of payment like okpay, etc.

In the end I assume that the prices on localbitcoins will be the same as exchanges more or less.

Anyway..if you have a bank account and the bank knows you were/are involved in bitcoins be prepared for your account to get shut down.

Sigh.

[seriouscoin]

I'm pretty sure you got flagged for money laundering.

[removebeforeflight]

I would contact Cavirtex and ask them to suggest/recommend a Canadian bitcoin friendly bank. Clearly TD are not.

[phillipsjk]

List of Bitcoin Hostile (and friendly) Banks

I am with RBC. Since they are Bitcoin hostile, I do not mention it to them. I opened a checking account at Canadian Western Bank (which I use for Bitcoin (have not tried Interac e-transfers)).

RBC is starting to strike me as incompetent anyway. I only keep an account open because I have credit history with them; and I told CWB about my Bitcoin activity, so may need a fall-back. The local credit union (Servus) refused to open a checking account for me because I was debt-free for 3 years.

I now have a credit card because I learned you cannot rent a car without one. Bought a Bitcoin miner with it

[seriouscoin]

List of Bitcoin Hostile (and friendly) Banks

I am with RBC. Since they are Bitcoin hostile, I do not mention it to them. I opened a checking account at Canadian Western Bank (which I use for Bitcoin (have not tried Interac e-transfers)).

RBC is starting to strike me as incompetent anyway. I only keep an account open because I have credit history with them; and I told CWB about my Bitcoin activity, so may need a fall-back. The local credit union (Servus) refused to open a checking account for me because I was debt-free for 3 years.

I now have a credit card because I learned you cannot rent a car without one. Bought a Bitcoin miner with it

huh what? care to give us more details?

Why on earth would you be refused because of debt-free?

[phillipsjk]

huh what? care to give us more details?

Why on earth would you be refused because of debt-free?

Because there is no credit history (fear of the unknown?). Maybe they assume all adults without credit cards or regular bill payments declared bankruptcy or something (which is cleared after 7 years).

[seriouscoin]

huh what? care to give us more details?

Why on earth would you be refused because of debt-free?

Because there is no credit history (fear of the unknown?). Maybe they assume all adults without credit cards or regular bill payments declared bankruptcy or something (which is cleared after 7 years).

Gee ofcourse anyone with no credit history is highly because of credit default.

However debt-free is not the same as no credit record. In this case you clearly knows what but choose to mislead us.

[r0ach]

huh what? care to give us more details?

Why on earth would you be refused because of debt-free?

Had same thing happen to me, I got refused for some newegg preferred account due to not having enough borrowing history, even though my credit score was like 750-800.  I had to apply for a credit card, borrow 500, instantly pay it back, now I have enough "credit history" and everything works.

[freedomno1]

That one definitely hit a lot of flags for money movement
KYC/AML procedures are a Beep

Best solution is to make a small business account and switch to another bank
Separate the personal account from the money moving account

Not like the banks are that friendly though lol

[leopard2]

huh what? care to give us more details?

Why on earth would you be refused because of debt-free?

Because there is no credit history (fear of the unknown?). Maybe they assume all adults without credit cards or regular bill payments declared bankruptcy or something (which is cleared after 7 years).

Of course in a debt based system, if you refuse to have debt, you are an outcast.

[leopard2]

Gee ofcourse anyone with no credit history is highly because of credit default.

Or a completely normal person who has not borrowed before

Or a foreigner

Maybe Americans are born with a credit history, it is possible.

[Bit_Happy]

Gee ofcourse anyone with no credit history is highly because of credit default.

Or a completely normal person who has not borrowed before

Or a foreigner

Maybe Americans are born with a credit history, it is possible.

Americans are born with a credit history, original sin(s), and a huge load of Federal debt.
^^^
Only one of the three above items is obviously true.
Americans are NOT born with a credit history.

[phillipsjk]

(which is cleared after 7 years).

However debt-free is not the same as no credit record. In this case you clearly knows what but choose to mislead us.

I have never declared bankruptcy. The credit reports only go back 3 years. Because my student loans were with RBC, they actually considered that when issuing a credit card.

[BitOnyx]

What country do you leave in ? I guess it is US or UK

[jamal01]

What country do you leave in ? I guess it is US or UK

Canada