UK Bitcoiners Friendly Banks Business List Localbitcoin Traders

[Baitty]

I believe there is mix reviews about llyods bank. I think some people have had problems and others have told their bank that they trade with Bitcoin and they were fine with it.

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[franky1]

I believe there is mix reviews about llyods bank. I think some people have had problems and others have told their bank that they trade with Bitcoin and they were fine with it.

there are mixed views about most banks. its all about th 'sales pitch' you give to the bank manager, which h then classes as high risk low risk. i personally found my bank manager cared more about my intentions and honour, rather then the business model

[RockHound]

I believe there is mix reviews about llyods bank. I think some people have had problems and others have told their bank that they trade with Bitcoin and they were fine with it.

As was the case with me, my branch manager's a good guy and we've maintained a good relationship - But this is just One Guy and not fully representative of Lloyds Group with respect to the treatment of Bitcoins, especially from a business perspective. From his point of view, he was happy with how I maintained my accounts, never zero/negative balance, higher than average fees/charges for IMT's, FX Exchange fee's per month paid out to Lloyds, a good customer.

The problem I had was migrating to a Business Account and letting them know my business involved Bitcoin. In fact I've heard some people had their accounts frozen for incoming/outgoing transfers Referenced + "Bitcoin".

It's hard because most traders are legit and once their turnover exceeds VAT threshold the reasonable thing to do is register as a Sole Trader/pay any Income Tax liabilities/Partition to Business Account. Now I know HMRC do not impose any VAT on the trading of Bitcoins themselves but I thought registration and migration would be the best thing to do. Properly shot myself in the foot  

[RockHound]

Very useful yet disheartening topic for me as I am UK based am setting up my first bitcoin-related business.

What I don't understand is why does it matter if your business is risky?  It is not like you are applying for a loan or even an overdraft, it is just a bank account.  Worst case scenario if bitcoin collapses is your business is over and the profits left in your bank account won't grow any larger.

The way I see it, your best bet is to simply say you are mining bitcoins and just pay capital gains tax on it if you pass the threshold.

Blatchcorn, I spoke to a BTC specialist accountant/financial adviser last week:

http://www.nowellassociates.co.uk/bitcoin   a grand lady Norma Nowell, they have many BTC business clients in UK but mainly eastern European countries, we discussed UK regs and tax issues. But she told me about smile/Co-operative bank and suggested they are BTC friendly at least more so than our other banks. I will be meeting with their branch manager on Tuesday.

I'm treading carefully because don't want to get flat "No" wrt to business banking with them, for my purposes just a simple Current Account might serve me well, there IMT's are fairly competitive too, for overseas exchange funding (8GBP).

Will try asking them about BTC perhaps at a later date. But I would suggest you do the same for your business, perhaps find a branch in neighboring town, lock-in a meeting and discuss Bitcoin to hearts content. Alternatively you could call their business group http://www.co-operativebank.co.uk/corporate/customerservices/contactus/phone-us#generalnumbers

All goes well, they might be happy to open a Business Account for your BTC enterprise

[RockHound]

Just a handy very brief summary for UK BTC traders:

https://blog.quickbitcoin.co.uk/good-and-bad-uk-banks-for-bitcoin/

Posted on a competitor site to LocalBitcoins

[acs267]

If only we had these were I lived. By the way, how would this work exactly? Would it be like walking into a physical Localbitoins?

[RockHound]

If only we had these were I lived. By the way, how would this work exactly? Would it be like walking into a physical Localbitoins?

Right on mate! - Us UK Bitcoiners are lucky in that respect, something I've taken for granted - The Faster Payments network offered by most UK banks has certainly benefited me over the past year.

We have the ability using our Online Banking services to transfer fiat (GBP) funds to another UK bank account typically under a minute.

I'm guessing where you are from, clearing funds takes much longer (3-8 days?) via Cheque, Standing Orders or Giro Credits (old payment methods banks use)

You can still use Localbitcoins website though - in a lot of places, people use this site to arrange meeting in person, where you can exchange your local currency for Bitcoins directly with a Seller.

If you try this, I would advise you check the Sellers Feedback, meet up in a public location, maybe bring some friends with you (basically just be careful)

Here's a link to their website: https://localbitcoins.com/

Just type in your location, then select the best payment method that suits you. If you click on the Sellers name, it'll bring up more information about the Seller and you can check his/her Feedback and contact information.

[blatchcorn]

Very useful yet disheartening topic for me as I am UK based am setting up my first bitcoin-related business.

What I don't understand is why does it matter if your business is risky?  It is not like you are applying for a loan or even an overdraft, it is just a bank account.  Worst case scenario if bitcoin collapses is your business is over and the profits left in your bank account won't grow any larger.

The way I see it, your best bet is to simply say you are mining bitcoins and just pay capital gains tax on it if you pass the threshold.

Blatchcorn, I spoke to a BTC specialist accountant/financial adviser last week:

http://www.nowellassociates.co.uk/bitcoin   a grand lady Norma Nowell, they have many BTC business clients in UK but mainly eastern European countries, we discussed UK regs and tax issues. But she told me about smile/Co-operative bank and suggested they are BTC friendly at least more so than our other banks. I will be meeting with their branch manager on Tuesday.

I'm treading carefully because don't want to get flat "No" wrt to business banking with them, for my purposes just a simple Current Account might serve me well, there IMT's are fairly competitive too, for overseas exchange funding (8GBP).

Will try asking them about BTC perhaps at a later date. But I would suggest you do the same for your business, perhaps find a branch in neighboring town, lock-in a meeting and discuss Bitcoin to hearts content. Alternatively you could call their business group http://www.co-operativebank.co.uk/corporate/customerservices/contactus/phone-us#generalnumbers

All goes well, they might be happy to open a Business Account for your BTC enterprise

Thanks a lot mate.  Really appreciate the advice.  Good luck with your meeting

[illymoka]

Looks like we have some progress in UK. Friendly banks, ATMs... Seems like BTC can find good ground here rather that in US

[Zebedee23]

Strike The Co-Operative Bank/Smile of your list of UK BTC friendy Banks!!! Done a few small transactions on Local Bitcoins, they cancelled both my cards and blocked my internet Banking, made me speak to fraud department. As i thought 1 of the transactions must have been fraudulant i told them it was from Local Bitcoins. "It is our policy not to allow any Bitcoin related business"

edit: small as in worth altogether under £1000 in 3 or 4 sells, so not that small!?

[blatchcorn]

Strike The Co-Operative Bank/Smile of your list of UK BTC friendy Banks!!! Done a few small transactions on Local Bitcoins, the cancelled both my cards and blocked my internet Banking, made me speak to fraud department. As i thought 1 of the transactions must have been fraudulant i told them it was from Local Bitcoins. "It is our policy not to allow any Bitcoin related business"

That is just pure insanity.

What happens to your money inside the bank account in those circumstances?  Can you withdraw it?

[ArnoldChippy]

Strike The Co-Operative Bank/Smile of your list of UK BTC friendy Banks!!! Done a few small transactions on Local Bitcoins, the cancelled both my cards and blocked my internet Banking, made me speak to fraud department. As i thought 1 of the transactions must have been fraudulant i told them it was from Local Bitcoins. "It is our policy not to allow any Bitcoin related business"

Yeah, the Ethical Bank 

Just like any other 'organised crime' outfit.

[Zebedee23]

Well i couldnt use cards or internet banking but i assume they wld have let me use phone banking or in person???, none of the transactions were even fraudulant and all the people i traded with had been verified with good feedback. I asked them why they had this policy and they acted like i was a criminal, "we will be keeping a watch on your account from now on for any Bitcoin related activity!!!!"

[franky1]

ok some things to remember.

you dont technically need a business account as a sole trader but if your using your main (personal account) remember that banks look at what money is coming in. so if you are getting a jobseekers payment or a wage of a couple hundred a week(which they class as true income).. and then you are doing movements of funds of more then a couple hundred a week to a random person(s).. it will be flagged. this is why you would normally get a business account so that different flags/less apply to the account.

i personally have both a business and personal account. all my bitcoin stuff is done on the business account, to which my bank manager knows all fully well what the movements are for. and i once a month move enough across to my personal account to then use my personal account to pay the bills. that way my personal account shows a once a month income payment. which is separate and not technically classed as bitcoin related. (it also makes tax accounting far easier).

i truly advise anyone that uses one account for everything. if you get paid your £140~JSA every 2 weeks. to never move more then £140 in a 2 week period to random local bitcoin people. same goes for people with real life jobs. dont move more then your weekly/monthly pay. in the same weekly monthly timescale.

if you wish to do so, get a second account

there are other flag triggers which banks will not admit to (to prevent abuse / workarounds by fraudsters) but so far keeping your personal income separate from bitcoin trades helps you from not hitting one of these flag triggers

luckily im not on JSA or on any employment contracts for these flags to be mis-interpreted by the banks. but i still keep bitcoins out of my personal life

[franky1]

just been bored recently and stumbled across human rights paperwork, it had been a while since i looked into it, but it got me thinking about this topic on banks.

banks are perceived as a human right, that everyone should have the right to one, (as long as they are not doing any illegal activity). so unless proven illegal activity is taking place a bank should not close an account, as thats discrimination..

so i think the co-op has something very public that can ensure, as long as your bitcoin stuff is above board (no drugs, guns or terror) that they should not close accounts, due to HMRC validating bitcoins in the UK

so if you own a co-op account and have issues.. show them their own words and ask them for the exact reason they wish to shut the account.
http://www.co-operativebank.co.uk/aboutus/ourbusiness/ethicalpolicy/human-rights

[DemocraticRepublicOfDave]

Hi All,

Well. I'm a UK business owner and bitcoin is a second (small) income stream for me (mainly mining plus a few other things).  When I started with bitcoin I wanted a second business account specifically for it.  I met with a local HSBC manager and she seemed quite interested in it when I explained what bitcoin was.  Got the second account no problem.

I suspect that if I was a new customer (as opposed to an current one, with three years of filed accounts behind me) and was pitching a bitcoin based business, it could have been a rather different outcome.

So I agree, UK banks seem, overall, quite hostile towards it.

One thought : All the talk on this thread has been about the big banks.

Has anyone approached the smaller private banks to try to get a business account there?

Cheers

Dave

[Alex_green]

Open bank account in Australian bank

[RockHound]

Strike The Co-Operative Bank/Smile of your list of UK BTC friendy Banks!!! Done a few small transactions on Local Bitcoins, they cancelled both my cards and blocked my internet Banking, made me speak to fraud department. As i thought 1 of the transactions must have been fraudulant i told them it was from Local Bitcoins. "It is our policy not to allow any Bitcoin related business"

edit: small as in worth altogether under £1000 in 3 or 4 sells, so not that small!?

Done - Sorry haven't maintained tread for an age

Yes, spoke with Co-op a while back, definitely a no go for BTC Business Accounts.

[RockHound]

just been bored recently and stumbled across human rights paperwork, it had been a while since i looked into it, but it got me thinking about this topic on banks.

banks are perceived as a human right, that everyone should have the right to one, (as long as they are not doing any illegal activity). so unless proven illegal activity is taking place a bank should not close an account, as thats discrimination..

so i think the co-op has something very public that can ensure, as long as your bitcoin stuff is above board (no drugs, guns or terror) that they should not close accounts, due to HMRC validating bitcoins in the UK

so if you own a co-op account and have issues.. show them their own words and ask them for the exact reason they wish to shut the account.
http://www.co-operativebank.co.uk/aboutus/ourbusiness/ethicalpolicy/human-rights

Wish I had bought that to my Co-op session would have been great to hear the reps response
 

[RockHound]

Coinfloor, an emerging UK exchange market place for BTC are running their Faster Payments via Lloyds Bank using their "Capital account" product. I haven't used them thus far because their BTC spot price was very high (7-12% over Bitstamp). However the margin has decreased significantly to around (2% over Bitstamp) this past week. Definitely on my radar as becoming somewhat competitive now.