Topic: Avoiding banking challenges (how do you buy crypto?) (Read 385 times)

Don't try it since FCA have placed the ban but you can still trade online and conduct crypto related transaction using peer to peer exchange, open Revolut account.or ask one of your bank official about it.

What he saying is that he haven't try to transfer any fund to cryptocurrency related site to be sure if they ban crypto related transaction but since FCA banned crypto investment or trading by retailer consumers which was effective on January this year, his bank will definitely ban every crypto related transactions.

So you come from the UK.
Maybe you can find local sellers from your country that can be like a bridge to help you to buy or sell bitcoin. We called it the p2p market.
You can try to use Jaxx and try to use their feature about buying bitcoin, I see Simplex powers that feature, and in that feature, I see the option to use a credit card or Bank Transfer you can see you can send the money.
For more information, maybe you can visit Simplex.com.
But I do not use that service to buy or sell bitcoin because I have local sellers who help me do that.

Its just your bank policy maybe so they started to block even if its legitimate but you are saying they are uet to ban but still want to continue with then which is so weird.

The ban was brought in via our FCA:

https://www.fca.org.uk/news/press-releases/fca-bans-sale-crypto-derivatives-retail-consumers

To be fair to my bank, I've not yet tried to move money to a broker or any other route that might suggest 'this customer is buying crypto' so I can't comment yet as to whether they would block my account.  However I'd rather find legitimate ways to avoid even highlighting this to them.

You are the owner of the money and I don't know why you have to bend to the bank policies since you are from the UK. Why do you change bank just as Welsh said cause I read that Barclay, Natwest, SCB, RBS, TSB supported crypto related payment.
You can also also open Revolut account if you don't want leave the bank though.

I'm in the UK.  Buying crypto isn't banned, however trading is.  I think what's happening is banks are seeing transactions on someone's account e.g. transfer to Coinbase, and whether it's an automatic (e.g. picked up by software) or human interaction, the account might then be blocked as the bank assumes the account holder is trading crypto.  I've also heard of people hitting difficulties when trying to arrange a mortgage/re-mortgage if transactions such as Coinbase are showing up on statements.  There are ways around the latter e.g. just don't move money for a few months prior to arranging the mortgage (banks only ask for 1-3 months previous statements) however I reckon the only way to avoid my raising suspicion with my bank is to transfer money to a third party and then buy my crypto from that source. 

Bank of America is blocking all crypto transactions by default, I can call them and re-try the transaction after their ok, but in a few weeks - same story.  They are just not found of crypto.

If you aren't particularly fond of the bank in the first place, then I would recommend just changing banks. Not just because they are blocking cryptocurrencies, but by doing so they are demonstrating that you aren't truly in control of your money, and you are governed by their policies. I've done this in the past, I haven't agreed with the policies set out by banks, and therefore changed bank accounts. I haven't really looked back since, and the bank I'm with now hasn't blocked any transactions concerning Bitcoin.

Obviously, what others have recommended about P2P transactions is good advice, but doesn't come without its risks. Personally, I'm very strict when it comes to relying on third parties, and when they demonstrate something which goes against my beliefs, whether its in their policies or not I'll look for better alternatives. Depending on the country you are in, I've noticed that the "older" banks are more hostile towards Bitcoin, while the newer challenger banks are more accepting. There are a few older banks which are accepting of it, but out of the big ones in the UK I've either had or heard issues from friends from at least 3 of them.

It depends on rules and regulations on cryptocurrency in each nation. In some nation, cryptocurrency exchanges to fiats are prohibited by laws. In some other nations, such exchanges are not prohibited but are not protected by laws and governments. So go ahead with your cryptocurrency exchanges but if you unfortunately get scammed, you won't be protected at any levels. Worse when you are not scammed by anyone else but if you have trades in bank transfers with a scammer who stole money from someone else, victims filed support to police. Hence, banks are required to freeze banks have relations to that scammer. Your bank account will be frozen or at least some amount will be frozen. It is terrible.

P2P trades are risky as I discussed above. Choose trusted trade partners to avoid risk of bank account freeze.

People will still use PayPal if they already have money in PayPal. They will easily to use PayPal to convert their fiat to btc even it is only a virtual credited figure, not real amount of btc on PayPal.

So weird if the banks really ban their users because of using it or crypto transactions.
But, actually, how can it be? is crypto illegal in your country? if yes, it makes sense.
Bank probably only follows the rules and will always act like that.

However, if you want to make any transaction, maybe you can use a P2P transaction, or I also wonder how you can transfer the money to buy it.

And about PayPal, yeah you can buy crypto at PayPal but you cannot withdraw it, only for trading there.
Except that you use PayPal or gateway and transfer it into a certain exchange.

This way maybe longer because you need double ways to get into certain exchanges. But I think it will okay as long as the ways are normal and also easy to do without any complication and also challenges.

Downside of Bisq is security deposit which maybe higher but the minimum amount could be 15% of the total trade volume so its actually perfect for bigger trades not for someone who trades in few hundreds or less than hundred dollars too often.

Bisq 

It is a pretty perfect solution for "small" transactions, deals are secured by an inbuilt escrow. Everyone is anonymous and there is a reputation system too.

You can use fiat bank transfers with strangers or even trade alt coins for bitcoin with people.

https://bisq.wiki/Main_Page

When you say the world deposit means then there will be no control over the fees. The platform will allows you to withdraw at any time you want but they are going to release not by yourself. You can use peer to peer platforms which are completely decentralized but you cannot deposit any amount, you directly pay the seller's bank account and will receive cryptos once the payment was confirmed by the seller and escrow.

Thanks for the reply.  Not sure if I'm misreadng/misunderstanding you.  Say for example I pay £200 into a broker account.  Forgetting fees, let's say I buy £100 of crypto.  So I then have £100 remaining in my broker fiat account and £100 in my crypto broker wallet.  Do the brokers not allow you to hold the public and private keys for the crypto investments you've made via them?  Apologies if I'm not understanding, however my preference is to hold my keys in my own offline wallet and for the broker not to have the private key.  Is this not possible?

So cryptos are legal in your country so it is not stopping you from buying or using it as currency, so your bank doesn't know the source of income so they may put on hold until you submit the source of money and you are paying taxes on your capital gains if there is any. No brokerage is going to give you the keys to control your fiat account because fiat itself is centralized and brokerage is responsible for every kind of purchase is happening.

I'm in the UK, where I understand it's not illegal to buy and own crypto, however it's illegal to trade?  That doesn't bother me as my intention would be to buy and sit on my investment, trading in that sense doesn't interest me.  What I'd ideally like to do is:

1.  Create account with a reputable broker that allows you to retain your own keys (I'd want to go the offline wallet route.)
2.  Transfer money from my bank account to the broker, perhaps on a monthly basis to cover my dollar cost averaging buying strategy.
3.  When I then want to buy, I'd already have funds with the broker, so I'd be free to buy and sell within that environment.

I do still have some concerns, not sure to what extent these are founded, because you see stories online of people (within the UK and other countries where it's legal to buy crypto) having their bank accounts frozen when it's discovered they're transferring money to a crypto broker.  The account holder often has to go through a protracted process to get their account unlocked.  So I'm not sure if my above process could still present challenges for me?

I want to invest in crypto, however I don't want to rock the boat with my traditional bank account as it runs all my financial activities!

And I seem to be struggling to find many brokers that allow you to hold your own keys?  I don't want to use a broker that holds the keys, surely that increases your risk of losing your investment?

Peer 2 peer offers one of the best chance  for you in buying crypyos within crypto banned territories as it is a trading system that oftens sidelines the bank as to what is the purpose of your business transactions. Mind you, when cash is not involved and you've still got to use quickteller services in transferring fiat as payment for traded coins, there is always a section for comments on trade. In case of such comment section, its always best to live it void or use any random comment that defines trade in a way but have got nothing to do with crypto to avoid further complications as to reasons for fund transfer.

The reason why you are not banned from using this service is that they do not own Bitcoin or rather they do not sell you bitcoin, you get something that has the same value of bitcoin and when you want to withdraw, you are withdrawing your profits in USD and not the bitcoin.


in short, Not your keys, not your coins. Avoid it if you want to keep BTC for long time.


PayPal does the same, you cannot withdraw Bitcoin

If you give us more information such as your country, or the payment methods that you can obtain, we can give you the best method for you.

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Some people buy gift cards for cash and sell them for Bitcoin which are anonymous and good for small amounts.

You can use binance p2p for buying and selling and conversion into your local bank currency and it won't be flagged by your bank because of the cryptocurrency ban.

Sources

https://news.bitcoin.com/uk-bans-sale-of-crypto-derivatives-to-retail-investors-says-move-to-save-69-million-in-losses/
https://www.fca.org.uk/news/press-releases/fca-bans-sale-crypto-derivatives-retail-consumers
https://www.fca.org.uk/news/press-releases/fca-proposes-ban-sale-crypto-derivatives-retail-consumers

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