Bank accounts

[JackBravo]

Hi All,
 I hope you are doing fine in these strange times.
My question is about these pesky bank accounts in UK high street banks.

They implemented these new "security" measures that prevent you from topping up the exchange e.g. Binance, Kraken or Coinbase.
They warn about scam and all that shit but then either lock your account like Nationwide does or like Lloyds in a similar fashion the transfer does not go through and then they ask to phone them up otherwise they suspend the account within 24h.
People this is ridiculous. It is clearly their money not mine. Of course they cover their asses with terms and conditions blablabla

Are there any UK banks that don't do this shit?
I am seriously considering moving somewhere else or cashing out completely.

Thanks for advise.

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[Upgrade00]

People this is ridiculous. It is clearly their money not mine. Of course they cover their asses with terms and conditions blablabla

Just as with a centralized exchange, money kept at the bank, is owned by the bank, they just allow you use it, when you make a request. And, over the previous weeks, many U.K. banks have resolved not to let their citizens use it in what they consider a high risk market.
Starling bank, Santander bank and most recently, U.K. high Street banks have implemented some sort of restrictions on crypto related transactions. See more

Are there any UK banks that don't do this shit?
I am seriously considering moving somewhere else or cashing out completely.

If there are, there is a big chance they would be joining the list soon. Have you considered trading P2P?
Here you don't need to directly fund an exchange account, which the bank has to approve of. You only make a random transaction to an individual, who sends you the crypto you want to your wallet.

[_act_]

The problem people have is that they do not have to use any central platform like using bank directly to buy bitcoin or using centralized exchanges, there are decentralized exchanges that you can use to avoid restrictions, but most people prefer those centralized platforms but complaining about their money not being their money because of central control which makes their money not to be completely theirs, the freedom you need with money can not be provided by fiat.

[Poker Player]

People this is ridiculous. It is clearly their money not mine.

I guess you mean the opposite: that it's your money and not theirs. Although theoretically it would be like that, it is not, because the money when you deposit it becomes just another accounting entry, which allows them to give credits for x times the amount. There are people who believe that when they deposit their money in the bank, it is as if it were kept in a box in their name, and it is not so.

The problem people have is that they do not have to use any central platform like using bank directly to buy bitcoin or using centralized exchanges, there are decentralized exchanges that you can use to avoid restrictions, but most people prefer those centralized platforms but complaining about their money not being their money because of central control which makes their money not to be completely theirs, the freedom you need with money can not be provided by fiat.

You mean they don't detect it because it is P2P? I was going to say that I have never used decentralized exchanges but I would say that I have once.

[sunsilk]

If they're asking questions upon your deposit to an exchange to verify that you're really the one using the account, I see no problem with that. But if they start to intercede with your decision and tells that you're not allowed to do that with your money, it shouldn't be what they're doing.

Banks are just for storing of our deposits and if the client wants to take it out from them, they should do it lightly. This is the problem with most banks, you want to open an account and they're quick to assist you but slow in dealing issues like this.

[RockBell]

When it comes to banks, I always have issues with them because of the excessive fees associated with doing business with them. In fact, everything you do is accompanied by fees, such as the card maintenance fees levied by my country's local banks. At one point, the CBN in Nigeria blocked accounts associated with cryptocurrencies, and since that time, only peer-to-peer (p2p) transactions have been used to maintain the industry. Your money is just there no increase but rather a deduction of all kinds.

[Aanuoluwatofunmi]

Are there any UK banks that don't do this shit?
I am seriously considering moving somewhere else or cashing out completely

These are part of the experience to expect when you're opted in for fiat and centralized authorities like government and banks, these financial institutions has nothing to do with your own considerations when it comes to implementing their own policy, why not avoid such occurrence in the future by choosing bitcoin as your choicest digital decentralized currency and be free, if you keep asking this same question the response will always be an uncertainty answer to your search regardless of the country you find yourself into.

[jrrsparkles]

Hi All,
 I hope you are doing fine in these strange times.
My question is about these pesky bank accounts in UK high street banks.

They implemented these new "security" measures that prevent you from topping up the exchange e.g. Binance, Kraken or Coinbase.
They warn about scam and all that shit but then either lock your account like Nationwide does or like Lloyds in a similar fashion the transfer does not go through and then they ask to phone them up otherwise they suspend the account within 24h.
People this is ridiculous. It is clearly their money not mine. Of course they cover their asses with terms and conditions blablabla

Are there any UK banks that don't do this shit?
I am seriously considering moving somewhere else or cashing out completely.

Thanks for advise.

Is there any ban on place about crypto trading in UK banking system? As far as I know there isn't so its bank making changes in their terms which really depends on their own terms and conditions. But you can bypass this using converting your fiat into BTC or any other crypto using p2p then top up the exchange wallet and consider keeping them as crypto currency itself if you're a long term investor.

[stompix]

People this is ridiculous. It is clearly their money not mine.

So pull your money out of your bank and search for one that doesn't do this.

The whole narrative that the money is yours so the bank must accept everything you want to do with your money is simply too true, they have rules, if you don't like them don't use that bank, nobody is forcing you to keep your money there nobody is forcing you to use their service. The simple comparison would be with exchanges that don't allow you to buy some shitcoins, it's your BTC in that exchange that they don't allow you to buy craptoken69, why don't they allow you to withdraw funds to a different bank and name, it's your money, right?

Just ditch that bank and find another one, or stop using them altogether, wasn't that the whole thing about bitcoin?

They implemented these new "security" measures that prevent you from topping up the exchange e.g. Binance, Kraken or Coinbase.

Because Binance has managed to get itself in trouble with the FCA, so right now it's banned to conduct any financial activities in the UK.
Stick to RBS and Coinbase and use bank deposit, not credit/debit top-up.

If there are, there is a big chance they would be joining the list soon. Have you considered trading P2P?
Here you don't need to directly fund an exchange account, which the bank has to approve of. You only make a random transaction to an individual, who sends you the crypto you want to your wallet.

And if that individual is picked up by the police for some different reason like money laundering guess whose name will be on the list of the people he has exchanged money with?  

[JackBravo]

Hi guys,
  Thanks for coming back to me.
I have even tried to top up Coinbase account but they still blocked me.
It looks like Coinbase in UK has changed. Before I sent money to the account on their name but now I send money to Coinbase under my name so they provide you a sub account (it looks like a SWIFT account)

I think these new measures are because the economy is bad, people lost their jobs and "the street" is incentivized to gamble on the crypto markets to be able to pay rent and bills.
I am not sure if the number of crypto scams have increased probably yes because since a lot of businesses went down you can assume there is more people self-employ themselves as scammers.

In any case in my opinion from Internet-banking point of view the level of "protection" is an overkill but I reckon these security facilities are not immune to scammers who are in direct contact (over the phone) with the victim and instruct them to follow steps.
So in this case it make sense - you can think some elders and/or pretty stupid people would fall for this.

From the bank I know that they treat these transfers as cash transfers so no protection (I don't think this has changed in any way).
Apparently the system is learning how much money usually enters and leaves the account so if there is "an anomaly" then they block it.

I don't know what is the limit that helps to trigger these blocks. Perhaps I should send it in smaller amounts.

A foreign bank account seems like a viable alternative to all the hassle but I would not be surprised that many EU banks are rolling in similar restrictions as we speak.

The problem is they said all high street banks have the same facilities in place (believe me it didn't happened on its own but was rolled out in accord).
If I don't use a high street bank but some small bank if any bigger problem I would have to drive like miles to get to their nearest branch.
One bank didn't want to unlock my account over the phone and asked me to go to their branch and from there they called the fraud line.

In any case it's from 30-1h process even over the phone it's like a proper 30min interview.

Now they block the money leaving the account then they can put some restrictions on how much you can pay in to the account or at some point they block these exchanges from sending money altogether so P2P is going to be the only option.

Is there any ban on place about crypto trading in UK banking system? As far as I know there isn't so its bank making changes in their terms which really depends on their own terms and conditions. But you can bypass this using converting your fiat into BTC or any other crypto using p2p then top up the exchange wallet and consider keeping them as crypto currency itself if you're a long term investor.

There isn't any ban but they make it pretty hard to transact with these entities. They have a list of all of them and you can tell they block it because of crypto not because of some other security concerns.
I would call it a semi-ban in UK.
If I knew the limits I would send below the limit. I reckon if they say "the system is learning" these limits change over time.

[moderator's note: consecutive posts merged]

[jrrsparkles]

Is there any ban on place about crypto trading in UK banking system? As far as I know there isn't so its bank making changes in their terms which really depends on their own terms and conditions. But you can bypass this using converting your fiat into BTC or any other crypto using p2p then top up the exchange wallet and consider keeping them as crypto currency itself if you're a long term investor.

There isn't any ban but they make it pretty hard to transact with these entities. They have a list of all of them and you can tell they block it because of crypto not because of some other security concerns.
I would call it a semi-ban in UK.
If I knew the limits I would send below the limit. I reckon if they say "the system is learning" these limits change over time.

If they're blocking only the accounts which surpass certain limits then how about the people of middle class? Banks don't care about them and made any security measures to stop them from scams.

Some countries in the past had similar issues from banks blocking the accounts only because of the funds used for buying and selling cryptocurrencies but later the court revoked their terms and made cryptocurrencies tradeable but implemented high tax rates.

[jackg]

Monzo and atom might be a usable option for this. I think traditional banks are trying to stop old people being scammed out of all of their money while not being shown up for it and younger people might be able to make it back much easier than older people would.

Have you considered trading P2P?
Here you don't need to directly fund an exchange account, which the bank has to approve of. You only make a random transaction to an individual, who sends you the crypto you want to your wallet.

These sorts of transactions have already been made kinda illegal by the regulators though too . Sounds like a nice way to stop people investing in crypto and putting funds in zero interest bank accounts..

[JackBravo]

If they're blocking only the accounts which surpass certain limits then how about the people of middle class? Banks don't care about them and made any security measures to stop them from scams.

Some countries in the past had similar issues from banks blocking the accounts only because of the funds used for buying and selling cryptocurrencies but later the court revoked their terms and made cryptocurrencies tradeable but implemented high tax rates.

That is why I think this whole "protection" is bullshit. Of course these AntiFraud people working at the banks are legit and they want to do their job well but it reality it's more to do with what the so called elite wants.
And such measures were not there last year and the economy was already bad so it looks to me more like an agenda being rolled out.
The cryptos are low now and I reckon the establishment wants to create market for themselves, eventually buy cyptos in large volumes for cheap while discouraging regular people from cryptos and eventually forcing them into CBDC slavery.
Like with the Plandemic they need something to back their measures back then it was the invisible virus now it is the invisible armies of scammers like there were no scammers before. It's all communist tactics: invisible Western spies and saboteurs etc.
We can argue that they implemented this to protect "the naive street" but I think they don't give a shit about these people.

Just so you know in UK around the Plandemic lockdowns they further discouraged cash transaction, cashing out from the bank. Now to take your cash money out you have to answer a set of questions.
Again the motivation was that there is some criminal (or a bad family member, partner) who forced you to go to the bank and take money out. So HSBC (one of the biggest of criminal banks who facilitated opium trade in India in China back in the days) put billboards all over the country to warn people about domestic financial abusers.

So again to me this looks like staged. They started with cash then next year crypto. It all supposed to well coincide with Bankman-Fried scandal but the technology was already in place so they only needed to stage some crypto false flags.

Are there any UK banks that don't do this shit?
I am seriously considering moving somewhere else or cashing out completely.

Probably none, an article[1] mention there's only one bank which accept their customer buying cryptocurrency. But a comment of that article mention that bank is also not cryptocurrency friendly. Your option is either opening bank account on bank outside UK or use another deposit method which supported by exchange you use. For example, Coinbase in UK also support SWIFT account, PayPal (which have history of anti-cryptocurrency) and 3 types of card (debit, credit and 3d secure credit card)[2].

[1] https://www.indieinvestor.co.uk/what-uk-banks-are-banning-crypto-buying/
[2] https://www.coinbase.com/places/united-kingdom

Thanks for the links. I would stay away from these so called challenger banks. Monzo so Starling is a total invigilation - a fece-lifted fiat banking.
I can tell you right now that Starling blocks transactions to crypto exchanges. We tried to transfer to Coinbase. It rejected by displaying some message that they don't deal with cryptocurrencies.

In all the instances I talked about so far a bank transfer has been used not some debit or credit card top ups.
So the options:
1. look for some bank that is not on that list.
2. use P2P

[moderator's note: consecutive posts merged]

[BIT-BENDER]

You shouldn’t be surprised by this just like UK many other countries bank like mine has some issues on Crypto-currency transactions. I think some of this banks are controlled by the government just like yours and they are working in accordance to some restrictions placed.

Personally I avoid centralized exchanges, p2p alternative has been working for me both in buying and selling crypto-currency.

[Welsh]

Most banks have fraud protection, and this is especially true when you're talking about multiple thousands. I've experienced this in the past, and I moved banks just out of principle. Although, I've found that pretty much every bank stops payments, and requires additional identification when it's higher amounts.

This is something that will only become more popular when it comes to digital money. So, we could see a lot of people making the switch to Bitcoin simply because of this.

[Upgrade00]

And if that individual is picked up by the police for some different reason like money laundering guess whose name will be on the list of the people he has exchanged money with?  

There is a small risk of that obviously, but with the way exchanges are designed, they indicate the number of trades a P2P seller has made in the past before you decide to trade with him or her, this means they would have exchanged money with a lot of people.
What are the odds that they would all be tracked down?

These sorts of transactions have already been made kinda illegal by the regulators though too . Sounds like a nice way to stop people investing in crypto and putting funds in zero interest bank accounts..

Alright, I was not aware of the entire scope of the regulations.

In Nigeria for example, the ban on bitcoin only covers bank transactions directly funding an exchange wallet or buying from it, but does not make P2P transactions illegal.

[Crypt0Gore]

I'm going to use the same Binance exchange as an example.

If you are trying to buy BTC secretly do not use your credit card to purchase, do not use your bank account either.

Use P2P on Binance exchange, you will send Money from your bank account to someone you are paired with, the receiver will drop their bank details for you and you send them fiat and they will give you BTC in return.

e.g you send 100$ in Fiat you will get 100$ worth of BTC.

Do not write any crypto related words in the Description/ Comment space, this is the only way that your bank will know that you purchased crypto.

[Ultegra134]

I believe that it's a fairly common practice among banking services. At least two major banks here in Greece (including one I regularly use) also block such transactions. The only workaround I've found is using Revolut or N26. Both are free to use, and the fees are minimal to nonexistent. The physical card costs only a few euros to order, if I'm not mistaken. You can charge your Revolut account with your debit card without any fees and then proceed to deposit to Binance through Revolut, which is conducted almost instantly. Another alternative, as others have already suggested, would be to use a P2P exchange in order to stay undercover and avoid centralized exchanges.

[stompix]

I'm going to use the same Binance exchange as an example.

If you are trying to buy BTC secretly do not use your credit card to purchase, do not use your bank account either.
Use P2P on Binance exchange, you will send Money from your bank account to someone you are paired with, the receiver will drop their bank details for you and you send them fiat and they will give you BTC in return.

So, how is he going to do both the things you're advising him to?
Not using his bank account but sending money from his bank account, or not using his bank account but getting money from strangers in his bank account?

I should just give up, some really think that this so-called P2P when you're dealing with a guy that does 100 transactions a  day with people all over the world from his bank account and which in any country with AML laws is clearly under surveillance if it's not an undercover agent is somehow safer than sending your money the same way to the account fo an exchange rather than the account of a strange.

[Cryptmuster]

This is the whole essence of the banking system, do not think that only in the UK everything is so bad, but in other regions or countries everything is fine. I have long decided for myself that I will keep very insignificant funds in the bank, so that I have enough for some small expenses, and so that this does not cause me any inconvenience if they suddenly want to block my card. They should not be trusted, for me the bank is tantamount to CEX, they deserve that level of trust.