bank account suspended, 4500 miles from home !

[nbruce]

Hi,
I've been trading bitcoin for about 5 months. I am currently on holiday in Florida for 2 weeks. I informed my UK bank (santander) that I would be here so they would not think there was any fraudulent activity when I used my bank card. They replied acknowledging that fact.

I just tried using my card and my account has been frozen. I called the bank and this is what they said -

"Until I visit a branch, in person, to explain a cash deposit made in October, my account will remain locked."
I explained I was 4500 miles away and could not comply, and needed access to my funds.
They refused. It also appears they deliberately waited until I was out of the country to do this.

So I have just under 2 weeks to wait, with no cash, no credit, and no way of changing the situation.

As far as I can tell, this problem has been caused by a cash deposit of less than £100 in exchange for bitcoins.

Any suggestions would be most welcome.

[franky1]

cash deposit?

how would they know it was bitcoin related and not a family gift or simply depositing £100 from junk change you had laying around your house?

i think the banks would freeze accounts normally in these circumstances
1) cash/wire transfer well above normal income levels (£100 is to small of an amount to cause a flag)
2) wire transfers to or from known bitcoin accounts(exchanges such as bitstamp or circle or coinbase)
3) lots of movements and/or large amounts of funds to or from random people

in most cases if you are paid lets say £250 a week and you are doing wire transfers of over £800 a week, or you deposited over £800 in cash every week, then the banks would start questioning the source or purpose of the funds.

so i do not believe it is to do with a cash deposit of only £100. try to see what else happened with your account in october

[keystroke]

I'm in India right now (I'm from the US) and the same thing has happened to me again, and again. I can't tell you how frustrating it can be. It has happened in all sorts of forms... I do have a bunch of interesting stories.

Maybe a friend can WU or MG you some $ for a bit? Or even better, send it to you with BTC and you can sell them locally for cash.

I've had problems with banks, credit cards, and PayPal. Only bitcoin has worked flawlessly. It proves the point we are trying to make here. ATMs are also annoying and in India carrying lots of cash is a pain (you do need tons of paper bills to pay for anything marginally expensive as each unit is not worth much... plus tons of change (10 rupee notes) as many people cannot break larger bills).

[nbruce]

Hi Franky, thanks for your reply.

The situation is, I trade using localbitcoins.com and one of my payment methods is cash deposit. I know that the only cash deposits made in october were in payment for bitcoins, and were made by people located hundreds of miles away from my home address.

I have not mentioned bitcoins to my bank, as we are all aware of the usual consequences of that ! However, I am not acting fraudulently or otherwise illegally in any way. I resent being persecuted in this way and see no reason to deny my involvement with bitcoins.

Consequently I am prepared to tell the bank exactly what the payment was for, I do actually have records and can trace who paid me, at least as far as the username on localbitcoins.

The issue is that I cannot do any of this until I get back to the UK. Even if the bank were to accept my explanation over the phone, they would probably just close the account anyway, leaving me no better off.

Catch 22.

I am obviously not happy and am looking for a way to bring this situation into the public domain. It is about time that the banks were forced to accept a perfectly legal activity and stop persecuting those who trade bitcoin for "fun and profit".

So at this stage I am after suggestions on how to go about this. I've considered the banking ombudsman ( vested interests and/or not quick enough), the law (unlikely to care and not quick enough) or the newspapers.

Does anybody think the papers might publish a story on this ? I am just an average person who works for a living for low pay, gets monthly salary into my bank and trades bitcoins "on the side". Would this be a human interest story ?
Would my going public hurt other bitcoin traders or help the situation ?

I need to fight back.

thanks

[Buffer Overflow]

I just tried using my card and my account has been frozen.

Bet they charged you premium rate phone charges.

[Flashman]

You could try an incomplete truth on them for now, like "I sold some of my legally held possessions on an online market place" and details are none of their freaking business.

[nbruce]

I just tried using my card and my account has been frozen.

Bet they charged you premium rate phone charges.

I've no doubt of that. I'm using my cell phone too. They don't have a "normal" number. Last time I had to call it, while in the uk it cost me £21 :-(

[Undermood]

The bank seems ridiculous and don't even listen to customers' difficulty. Normally we should prepare another debit card or credit card in case.

[Freedomfromfiat]

Hello,

I am sorry as I know my comment does not offer you any assistance but I feel compelled to say it that, from personal experience Santander is the worst, poorest excuse for a financial institution the world over. You will likely not get anywhere with them except the personal satisfaction for doing a greater good for the community as a whole and exposing this with some publicity.

[nbruce]

You could try an incomplete truth on them for now, like "I sold some of my legally held possessions on an online market place" and details are none of their freaking business.

Yes I could, but they are refusing to listen until I present myself to them in the UK. They are acting like law enforcement and there is little I can do about it.

The bank seems ridiculous and don't even listen to customers' difficulty. Normally we should prepare another debit card or credit card in case.

I do have other accounts, but I don't have the cards with me, and they have only recently been opened so have little in the way of funds. Because I contacted the bank before travelling and received a positive reply, I didn't anticipate such vindictive behaviour. More fool me !

Hello,

I am sorry as I know my comment does not offer you any assistance but I feel compelled to say it that, from personal experience Santander is the worst, poorest excuse for a financial institution the world over. You will likely not get anywhere with them except the personal satisfaction for doing a greater good for the community as a whole and exposing this with some publicity.

Thanks for your support. I am composing a message to submit to a newspaper in the hope that something will get done about this.

Sorry about the delay in replying, forum imposed rules ...

[Buffer Overflow]

I just tried using my card and my account has been frozen.

Bet they charged you premium rate phone charges.

I've no doubt of that. I'm using my cell phone too. They don't have a "normal" number. Last time I had to call it, while in the uk it cost me £21 :-(

Before I went on holiday to Mexico I informed my bank I was going for a fortnight there. They acknowledged that was fine and informed me I would be able to use my card.
When on holiday I wanted to do an excursion and decided to use my card. Surprise surprise it was blocked. The call to my bank to unblock it was *a lot* more than £21.

One big scam.

[1Referee]

This only shows again that we do not control OUR money.

How difficult cant it be to let us spend our money when we want, and where we want....

[nbruce]

I'm sending my letter to a newspaper today. I'll let you know what they decide to do, if anything...

Any UK citizens with similar stories please let me know here, and I'll try to demonstrate the scale of the problem. Only if you're prepared to go public of course.

Thanks for your support.

[Buffer Overflow]

I'm sending my letter to a newspaper today. I'll let you know what they decide to do, if anything...

Any UK citizens with similar stories please let me know here, and I'll try to demonstrate the scale of the problem. Only if you're prepared to go public of course.

Thanks for your support.

I doubt they will class banks scamming as news. It's just the norm.

[MilesJohan]

I'm sending my letter to a newspaper today. I'll let you know what they decide to do, if anything...

Any UK citizens with similar stories please let me know here, and I'll try to demonstrate the scale of the problem. Only if you're prepared to go public of course.

Thanks for your support.

I somewhat doubt the newspaper would publish your editorial. It is reasonable to request an in-person visit to a branch when there is extremely suspicious activity on your account. Most travel professionals will advise you to keep multiple credit cards with you as well as cash/travelers checks when you are traveling

[segvec]

You are SOL until you get back to your homeland.
Sell some of your btc to me. 

[Biomech]

Unfortunately, I can't offer any actual assistance.

However, I would, if it were me, go in when I got home and demand that my account be closed and cashed out immediately, and I'd take a lawyer and a cameraman with me. I would very openly accuse them of fraud and misappropriation of funds, and I would file a complaint with the central banking authority.

Then I'd put that video on every social media site in the world and pimp the hell out of it.

Banks don't hold all the keys. They think they do, but cash hasn't yet been made illegal. And BTC and it's successors will soon enough render them irrelevant if we all stay the course.

EDIT: The negative publicity could potentially cost them millions, especially if you encourage people to remove all funding from that institution. As long as your statements are factual or clearly stated as opinion, there is really nothing they can do about it.

[Bitcoinpro]

have you got travel insurance call them, they should offer u up to 1 million in legal assistance/indemnity

you could sue your bank for a million if they are really leaving you in the lurch overseas, id call a lawyer or go see one in the US, get in touch with

consumer affairs in london and also find out who the banking regulatory authority is and contact them too, also get in touch with your

local politician, your embassy in florida should be able to provide you with all the help u need making phone calls etc

[smoothie]

Lesson: Do not go on long distance trips without cash or access to a way to convert your bitcoin to fiat.

DON'T LEAVE HOME WITHOUT IT.

[cheekychap]

Lesson: Do not go on long distance trips without cash or access to a way to convert your bitcoin to fiat.

DON'T LEAVE HOME WITHOUT IT.

I second that. I was in a different town, and lost my wallet. I traded my bitcoin on the go, with someone I found on localbitcoins for cash.