Extremely poor experience with Trustee Plus – I strongly advise caution

[Etranger]

Original post (written in Russian) with screenshots of messaging with support team (in Ukrainian language): Re: Crypto Debit Cards, paбoтaющиe чepeз oднo мecтo

Given the very limited number of crypto debit cards that actually work in Ukraine, it's worth paying close attention to how exactly these services operate.
When I was researching options, I came across two platforms: Trustee and Weld. This post is specifically about Trustee Plus.

I encourage everyone using it (this service is not only for Ukrainian audience) to read about my experience carefully and learn from it to avoid facing the same issues.
I had previously used a Bitcoin wallet on Trustee with no issues, mainly to transfer small amounts via their P2P service that supports UAH — something I often need. But 4 days ago, I received a USDC transfer from a casino site, and that transaction was frozen.

The funds did not appear in my wallet, and I was denied access to them.
I reached out to support, which only works via an in-app chatbot, and they did not reply for hours.
Once I finally reached them, all I got was the generic response:
"The verification process takes 3–7 business days."

No mention of these timeframes exists in their Terms of Use — meaning they have no obligations and could potentially take even longer.

They also provided no clear reason for freezing the transaction. All they referred to was:

Section 2.4: "We reserve the right to suspend your access to any or all services based on a reasonable suspicion of money laundering, terrorist financing, fraud, or any other financial crime." (Translated from Ukrainian from their message to me)
Section 4.2: "The Company may request additional documents or information at its sole discretion. Failure to comply may result in temporary or permanent suspension of services or the account itself." (Translated from Ukrainian from their message to me)

When I asked for clarification on what exactly "reasonable suspicion" meant and how long the review would take, I was met with the standard:
“It is up to the company’s discretion.”

They also failed to explain what happens if they ultimately refuse to credit the transaction. Will it be returned to the sender? What happens next?

🔴 Support is an absolute disaster.
First, their contact info is practically impossible to find.
The only way to communicate with them is via the in-app chat — but here's the kicker:
if you had a previous conversation, you can't start a new one for some reason. And in the existing chat, I saw that the last manager was online more than 24 hours ago.
They also list a single email (which I contacted — no reply (update: I got a reply the next day), and a British phone number you can’t actually reach from Ukraine. So the only chance of contact is the app — and even then, you may be alone in that chat for hours.

🔶 Regarding the documents they asked for:
I had already completed KYC when creating the account, so they already had my verification data. But they asked for it again — including a selfie with my ID. Then they asked for documents proving who sent the funds, why they were sent, and what for.

Here's where it becomes surreal:
they demanded a screenshot of the transaction from the sender's platform (not just a blockchain hash, which they apparently don’t understand).
I told them that I don’t have that kind of relationship with the sender, nor should I be required to investigate where the sender’s money came from.
They then asked for screenshots of our conversation discussing the transaction.
Even banks don’t ask for this.
The only reason I haven't completely lost it and walked away is that I’m still waiting for my transaction to be unblocked.

DO NOT USE TRUSTEE PLUS. EVER.

It’s worse than traditional banks. Crypto exists to prevent this exact kind of intrusion.
According to Ukrainian law, I am under no obligation to explain who sent me crypto, what for, or why.
Blocking user funds like this is a guaranteed way to lose trust and clients.
Their Terms of Use are deliberately extremely vague, allowing them to interpret anything however they want.

And they have zero actual obligations to the client.

By the way, their jurisdiction is not Ukraine, but Lithuania, Poland and Seychelles.

I kindly ask moderators — if it's technically possible — to make this post appear in search results related to Trustee Plus.

[Amphenomenon]

Sorry for how you are being treated, I do quite get all of these. A friend of mine received Usdt or maybe another stable coin of such one time to his Kucoin account and then his entire funds were frozen. Man contacted their support service, they did asked for some stressful/annoying verification like you said and even way more before finally unfrozen his funds which took a while, likely more than a month.

Anyway, I didn't go Kucoin TOS so I don't want to judge them entirely. These are just issues people faced with kyc services of such, where we are not really having full control of our funds.

Also going through TrustPilot review, I would literally avoid that platform especially as a  Ukrainian. I think major issues are coming from there,: https://www.trustpilot.com/review/trusteeglobal.eu.

Others has similar complain of blocked transfer and in their recent positive rating, this is the comment added by the user:

Edit:
I intentionally left the old comment so that other users experiencing a similar problem would know how to proceed.
Finally, a higher level of support got involved and resolved my card activation issue.
The app is great and the card works, so I will change my rating from 1 to 5 stars.

[Etranger]

Also going through TrustPilot review, I would literally avoid that platform especially as a  Ukrainian. I think major issues are coming from there,: https://www.trustpilot.com/review/trusteeglobal.eu.

Others has similar complain of blocked transfer and in their recent positive rating, this is the comment added by the user:

Edit:
I intentionally left the old comment so that other users experiencing a similar problem would know how to proceed.
Finally, a higher level of support got involved and resolved my card activation issue.
The app is great and the card works, so I will change my rating from 1 to 5 stars.

Thank you for recommendation to check out TrustPilot. I saw lots of negative reviews left about this service. I have also shared my experience with them and now I am waiting for my review to be published. I have received another template reply from the support team - since 5 hours. They just keep repeating themselves, telling me nothing new. Moreover, when I asked to inform me on what stage of review my documents are, they told me, they are not allowed to share this information with the client for security purposes. I wonder, whose security they have in mind? Apparently, not the client`s.

[lovesmayfamilis]

Thanks for the warning. I had a couple of transactions using their wallet, probably a couple of years ago or less. Then everything went well. They attract people with small fees, but if they are so dishonest, I would not trust them in the future. They are obliged to return your funds; do not give up and demand justice. If you read the reviews about them, they have been blocking a lot of people lately.

[Accardo]

But 4 days ago, I received a USDC transfer from a casino site, and that transaction was frozen.

Another user shared similar experience on reddit 4 days ago, he deposited 6k EUR to trustee plus and is yet to receive the funds. The platform may be planning a rugpull or basically going through some technical problems it's best avoided for now, while further confirmation is made if they've completely decided to be a scam project.

[Rikafip]

It’s worse than traditional banks.

Centralized crypto platforms are generally much worse that traditional banks as they take the worst things from both worlds and you get almost nohing in return. ustee

I had a problem similar to yours when I was using Binance debit card and only after a month and a lottle of hassle I managed to remove withdrawal ban from my account. After that experience I returned to what I was doing before-selling crypto for cash, depositing on my bank card and spending it that way. 

[The Cryptovator]

The same thing happened with me on Binance. The transactions went from a mixer, though the sender was my client. After further investigation, though it took a long time, they released my funds and closed the account. I actually didn't give up; every day I try to contact them. Reached through other public social media that would be noticed by other users as well. Constantly I tried to push them from all ends. I am lucky they at least released my funds. So you can do the same as me. Don't give up anyway, and don't lose your hope.

Centralised platforms often make the same excuses and ask more questions. I know this is a mistake; like me, you shouldn't withdraw funds directly from the gambling sites there. My mistake was by my client. From your end, you can first receive funds at your own address and then transfer them anywhere you want.

[satscraper]

~

Could you share the name of the casino that sent you USDC?

It's clear that it is on their alert list, and I suspect it may also appear in the records of other services offering crypto cards. ^{With that in mind} I’d recommend transferring funds from casinos directly to your own wallet. After receiving the funds it’s a good practice to make several intermediary transactions over time to different addresses that under your control.

After a while one can transfer the funds to the particular crypto-cards-service. It's believed that after performing at least 10 transactions the history of the initially relevant input gets sufficiently diluted and the service is less likely to investigate the origin of the funds.

[Etranger]

The platform may be planning a rugpull or basically going through some technical problems it's best avoided for now, while further confirmation is made if they've completely decided to be a scam project.

I am sure they are not facing any technical problems. They just freeze transactions to avoid problems, which may appear with regulators, who oblige them to check money transfers. And it just becomes the same as with fiat money. Every transaction which may seem suspicious for the platform can be stopped and the client doesn't have access to to his funds.

The problem is that their rules are so vague and not obvious, that the client cannot adjust his plans in advance. I had no idea they see all the transactions from casinos as those with "high risk score". They don't even mention this anywhere.

Could you share the name of the casino that sent you USDC?

It was Stake.com

[lovesmayfamilis]

Do they have a warning somewhere about checking transactions on AML? This has become very vulnerable lately. I have tried checking my transactions on several sites with this check several times. The results always vary, and it seems to me that all checks have been entrusted to AI robots, and in case of any problems, they automatically trigger a block, and support is not always ready to figure out how to solve the problems.

[Etranger]

Do they have a warning somewhere about checking transactions on AML?

I don't. Same as the other users. I found out all this staff only post factum. They don't war about any of their possible actions and blocking.


Briefly about fair reviews they have on Trust Pilot. After my review which I have published the day before yesterday, they hired an army of bots, who wrote positive feedback about their service. All the reviewers had only 1 review on their history of reviews, and they have published their posts only 4-5 hours ago. And of course, everyone had their incredibly positive experience precisely today, April 27.

I don't believe any of these reviews and I don't recommend anyone to buy it.

[Etranger]

I write to support team every day in their chat. Their responses are standard and completely uninformative. I asked to be connected directly with a security representative or at least be informed of my position in the queue. I am met with the standard set of phrases like "we can't do that, we don't have access to security department." I don't understand why they can't keep the client informed about the stage of his case.

All of this makes the service extremely intransparent and leaves the user in a state of uncertainty. Today is already the 5th business day I've been waiting for information and access to my funds. And before that, there were 2 days of weekends during which they were not working and not dealing with my case.

[lovesmayfamilis]

They are messing with your head. Create a new wallet and demand a refund. That's what happened to me with the WebMoney service. At some point, they decided to ask me where the funds came from, who sent them to me, and where, etc. You have no violations that the police can respond to, no terrorism, no child pornography. The fact that the funds are displayed as coming from the casino is not a crime. If this were a very serious violation, then neither online nor offline casino sites would exist anywhere.
The support felt impunity, and since they have nothing they could come up with to counter your testimony, they are dragging out time.

[Accardo]

The platform may be planning a rugpull or basically going through some technical problems it's best avoided for now, while further confirmation is made if they've completely decided to be a scam project.

The problem is that their rules are so vague and not obvious, that the client cannot adjust his plans in advance. I had no idea they see all the transactions from casinos as those with "high risk score". They don't even mention this anywhere.

Stake is a licensed casino, coins are only suspicious when it comes from a non licenced online casino, unless they calculate the risk score based on regional sanctions, which I'm not sure how it goes with them. However you said things were fine when you did p2p transactions on the platform which is actually safe and has a low risk. Also this is likely your first time of receiving money from a gambling platform to your trustee plus, then it freezes, they may be accessing the risk score of the coin. However, some articles like the one written on Binance calls them shady, (though they're competitors) yet every sign of it is clear; lots of negative feedback exists on the write up published since March. It's not just safe doing business with them, anymore.

[Etranger]

They are messing with your head. Create a new wallet and demand a refund. That's what happened to me with the WebMoney service. At some point, they decided to ask me where the funds came from, who sent them to me, and where, etc. You have no violations that the police can respond to, no terrorism, no child pornography. The fact that the funds are displayed as coming from the casino is not a crime. If this were a very serious violation, then neither online nor offline casino sites would exist anywhere.
The support felt impunity, and since they have nothing they could come up with to counter your testimony, they are dragging out time.

I’ve been writing to them every day since April 22nd, repeating exactly what you’ve advised me to say. They ignore rational arguments and don’t respond to questions the user has the right to know the answers to. Today, once again, I demanded that they return the amount to the sender’s wallet — just to try to speed up the process somehow. Here’s what they replied: (original Ukrainian text I have translated via ChatGPT so English speaking users could understand)




Yesterday, the situation reached a breaking point. I reminded them — as I’ve done every day — which day of the review process we’re on. In response, they told me that since they requested additional documents (which was just the back side of my ID card) on April 24th, they would start counting the review period from that date. However, I had already submitted all the documents on April 22nd, immediately after they finally got back to me — three hours after my initial messages about the issue.

Yesterday I had a serious argument with support, trying to explain that it’s not my fault that incompetent and inattentive people failed to notice something was missing among the five documents I had submitted — documents that were needed for their own verification process. They promised to submit a request to expedite the process (apparently, if you pressure them for eight days, that actually becomes possible — so communication with the security department does exist, contradicting their earlier claim that my request couldn’t be passed along). But now another day is almost over, and still there’s no result.

I have written 3 reviews on Trust Pilot. There is actually a plot appearing there:

Blocked USDC
Blocked USDC Vol. 2
Still no resolution of the situation with blocked USDC

[dkbit98]

Etranger this is a very informative post.
I am well aware of Trustee card, and so far I didn't hear people complaining about it.
Problem is that any centralized service can freeze your account, even if you have fully verified and send all your personal documents.
As for crypt cards, from my experience, most of them are very risky and they sadly have very bad customer support  

but 4 days ago, I received a USDC transfer from a casino site, and that transaction was frozen.

This can happen to you with other services also, so it's better to first withdraw coins to your own non-custodial wallet, and than to other third party services.
Good address management in your wallet also helps.

[Etranger]

Etranger this is a very informative post.
I am well aware of Trustee card, and so far I didn't hear people complaining about it.
Problem is that any centralized service can freeze your account, even if you have fully verified and send all your personal documents.
As for crypt cards, from my experience, most of them are very risky and they sadly have very bad customer support  

but 4 days ago, I received a USDC transfer from a casino site, and that transaction was frozen.

This can happen to you with other services also, so it's better to first withdraw coins to your own non-custodial wallet, and than to other third party services.
Good address management in your wallet also helps.

Thank you for advice. I have explained earlier, why I chose to use Trustee Plus this time. I just needed fast p2p service with optimal rate to exchange USDC to UAH. I have used Trustee Plus for these purposes before, and I didn't see any reason why they could block my transaction. Again, they didn't mention anywhere that they face transactions from casinos as a priori risky and potentially dangerous.

Yesterday I asked them to confirm in written form that they will give me access to my funds no matter what. They either unblock them and credit to my Trustee Plus account, or they send them to the address I will provide.

[Etranger]

Yesterday Trustee Plus finally credited funds into my account. It was the 7th working day (9th overall). I associate this with the fact that in my last complaint (review on Trust Pilot), I stated that I would contact the institutional authorities of Lithuania, which oversee their company, and file a lawsuit regarding the unlawful seizure of my funds. I believe this was the reason my funds were unblocked, not the expiration of their review period. Despite the fact that I did not violate any rules, fully cooperated with every request, and immediately explained the reason for the transfer, the situation escalated to the point where I had to threaten legal action. Only then was the issue resolved. Unfortunately, this seems to be the only language they understand. I am deleting my account and will no longer use this service.

[satscraper]

Yesterday Trustee Plus finally credited funds into my account. It was the 7th working day (9th overall).

So it turned out to be a three-step plan from their part. I remember competing with a similar service for over six months after they blocked around 0.5 ETH from me. Finally they sent the funds back to me, but ^overall, it was a terrible experience. That said, I'm genuinely happy to see you managed to overcome the issue in just 7 days. ^{As the saying goes "little strokes fell great oaks."}

[lovesmayfamilis]

I sincerely congratulate you on your victory. I think many people give up, but the way you persistently proved your case and provided all the information showed that you are not afraid and are ready to defend your funds. The service really showed itself to be very unreliable. They probably have stories when they did not return funds if everything dragged on for so long, and they were just testing your patience. It is nice to see strong people who can fight back against fraud. My respect.