Bitwala lost the mind wtf

[bvg96634]

I would like to share my experience with Bitwala.
A the very beginning I was very excited to find a crypto bank, with a debit card and actually Made In Germany.
I registered, verified myself, got a debit card. Everything was smooth. A fair bitcoin wallet with keys made me feel confident.
I loaded some coins into my (MY OWN, in my name) Bitstamp account and made 2500 EUR  SEPA withdrawal to the Bitwala IBAN. It came the same day. Perfect! After that I made a local  1000 EUR SEPA to pay a kindergarten. It went through but 2 days later they sent me a questionnaire asking for fund source and proofs. I provided all the documents including blockchain tx when I purchased crypto and Kindergarten invoice. And what do you think?

We regret to inform you that we can no longer continue our banking journey, following a review of your account with us.

We have recently undertaken a review of your banking journey and reached this conclusion in line with Section 19 paragraph 3 of our partners solarisBank's General Terms and Conditions (GTC) and will no longer provide these facilities. You will, therefore, need to make alternative banking arrangements.

All of your other banking arrangements, including your account and cryptocurrency wallet, will be cancelled and closed with immediate effect.

wtf? Just one payment, absolutely transparent. No VPN, no proxies, all in my name, I just wanted to live crypto!

This was a great disappointment.
But another disappointment was waiting for me.

I decided to know what kind of data and for how long will be kept in Bitwala. I made a proper request referring to GDPR and sent it to Bitwala support. It's been along journey, kicking me from one manager to another who were giving me general answers like "some data" "for 5 years" "for 10 years" "do not worry". It ended up by adding me in their Jira an assigning me someone competent from the legal team and at the end I received a letter in german with an excuse and a zip file attached. There was a table with data and time mark it will be kept for. As I said I was dissapointed, all my personal data, my address, phone, IP, timestamps and photos of all the documents that were used during verification and after. My passport was captured in different positions and angels.

So wtf??
They kicked me out after the first legal payment but but they are going to keep all the data for 5-10 years? Is it OK guys?

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[LeGaulois]

Is it OK (for the data)?

Honestly, Yes it is despite that you think it's not something right.
Like all neobank/fintech, they have to abide by the laws, even if you're no longer a customer. That's how accounting works for a company. Even if it was a traditional bank the data would be stored for the same period of time. The same is true if you buy shoes on an e-commerce platform they keep personal information for a long time (not the same type of information, yeah I know, but you get my point).

Is it OK (for the account)?

It sucks yep
2 500€ is maybe not a lot for you but as you (should) know, in Europe, it can be enough to raise a flag for any automated bank system. It varies from country to country but they have some kind of (unofficial) thresholds.

For example, in my country, if you receive a total of 5 000€ in transactions within a 30 day period, the system rings the bells and the banker has to report you to the TracFin (a service of the ministry of finances to fight money laundering). Then the service investigates you, tracks your bank history, transactions, etc (90% of the time it's just a false positive).
If the banker doesn't report you the bank may receive a huge fine or even be accused to launder money.

2 500€ for the first payment with this kind of fintech company, no wonder if you got a problem. It's like asking for trouble. They are mo strict than traditional services

[joniboini]

Does your transaction come from a mixer or something? Why do they believe it violates their rules? I don't think just making a 2500 EUR transaction violates their rules.

Can't say much about the KYC thing unless there is a legal change in how companies handle those data. At the time of writing, customers have little to no control over it. So yeah it sucks. Nearly all companies act like them.

[NeuroticFish]

So wtf??

Your expectations were too big.

You are just something small that can bring them some revenue. But they care much more about obeying the rules (as they understand them) and their public image. Hence they will do all they can to avoid the banking system see them as a black sheep.

I mean that yeah, blockchain looks great in the ads, but at the end of the day, they are still a bank. And banks + Bitcoin = anything but love.

[Lucius]

I don't understand why the OP is suspicious if he did everything according to the rules and if his money has no illegal activity? Then what is a service like Bitwala for? After such news, everyone should ask themselves whether it is worth trying to use such a service at all - especially from the perspective of endangering privacy and misuse of personal data that they may keep for the next 10 years.

As I said I was dissapointed, all my personal data, my address, phone, IP, timestamps and photos of all the documents that were used during verification and after. My passport was captured in different positions and angels.

If it's feasible and not too expensive, you might sleep more peacefully if you make new documents and change phone number.

[bvg96634]

Guys, I do not mind  provide my personal data but I expect that I get at least a service back.

I sent them the only eur wire  from Bitstamp (I think the most regulated exchange by now) and used that balance to pay kindergarten in my city, I provided them invoice issued in my name. Account was closed. No reasonable explanation provided. I feel like...just exposed, I dont know how to explain in a better way but I think it is some kind of unfair, isn't it 

[buwaytress]

OP, I'm not 100% sure but I'm fairly certain that the data kept by them is illegal under GDPR. Please write to them, and ask that you would like to exercise your right to be forgotten, under Article 17. You:
- withdraw your consent
- believe it is no longer necessary

They should have a specific GDPR email and you can report their refusal to delete your data.
They have one month to comply, otherwise, do your duty as an EU citizen and report the shit out of them. See how they like GDPR fines.

Now I know there are allowances for them to keep your data, in cases where it is necessary (justification for retention of data) but as you are no  longer their customer, there seems to me no justification.

[bvg96634]

OP, I'm not 100% sure but I'm fairly certain that the data kept by them is illegal under GDPR. Please write to them, and ask that you would like to exercise your right to be forgotten, under Article 17. You:
- withdraw your consent
- believe it is no longer necessary

They should have a specific GDPR email and you can report their refusal to delete your data.
They have one month to comply, otherwise, do your duty as an EU citizen and report the shit out of them. See how they like GDPR fines.

Now I know there are allowances for them to keep your data, in cases where it is necessary (justification for retention of data) but as you are no  longer their customer, there seems to me no justification.

Thank you very much
That's interesting. I will definitely do it and write back here.

[buwaytress]

Thank you very much
That's interesting. I will definitely do it and write back here.

If they give you problems, ask to speak to their Data Protection Officer, failing that, their Compliance Officer. In fact I've just checked for you and their privacy policy indeed is GDPR compliant, giving you the right to withdraw your consent at any time.

You may withdraw your consent and also object to their processing of your data (as you are not a customer now), submitting your complaint to: dataprotection@bitwala.com.

Good luck!

[it_head]

I would like to share my experience with Bitwala.
A the very beginning I was very excited to find a crypto bank, with a debit card and actually Made In Germany.
I registered, verified myself, got a debit card. Everything was smooth. A fair bitcoin wallet with keys made me feel confident.
I loaded some coins into my (MY OWN, in my name) Bitstamp account and made 2500 EUR  SEPA withdrawal to the Bitwala IBAN. It came the same day. Perfect! After that I made a local  1000 EUR SEPA to pay a kindergarten. It went through but 2 days later they sent me a questionnaire asking for fund source and proofs. I provided all the documents including blockchain tx when I purchased crypto and Kindergarten invoice. And what do you think?

We regret to inform you that we can no longer continue our banking journey, following a review of your account with us.

We have recently undertaken a review of your banking journey and reached this conclusion in line with Section 19 paragraph 3 of our partners solarisBank's General Terms and Conditions (GTC) and will no longer provide these facilities. You will, therefore, need to make alternative banking arrangements.

All of your other banking arrangements, including your account and cryptocurrency wallet, will be cancelled and closed with immediate effect.

wtf? Just one payment, absolutely transparent. No VPN, no proxies, all in my name, I just wanted to live crypto!

This was a great disappointment.
But another disappointment was waiting for me.

I decided to know what kind of data and for how long will be kept in Bitwala. I made a proper request referring to GDPR and sent it to Bitwala support. It's been along journey, kicking me from one manager to another who were giving me general answers like "some data" "for 5 years" "for 10 years" "do not worry". It ended up by adding me in their Jira an assigning me someone competent from the legal team and at the end I received a letter in german with an excuse and a zip file attached. There was a table with data and time mark it will be kept for. As I said I was dissapointed, all my personal data, my address, phone, IP, timestamps and photos of all the documents that were used during verification and after. My passport was captured in different positions and angels.

So wtf??
They kicked me out after the first legal payment but but they are going to keep all the data for 5-10 years? Is it OK guys?

Bitwala is scam! I bought BTC with 2000  Euro, then a lock appeared on the Bitcoin and I was not able to withdrawal my BTC. I called the costumer support 8 times, but nobody answered, I send email 2 months but nobody replayed.
Localbitcoins.com and Bitwala is scam.