Hello there,
I'm from Italy and I'm moving to university in the UK this September.
Despite my reluctance, I will have to use fiat money while in there, and will have to regularly exchange euros to British pounds.
I'm planning on opening a bank account in the UK (do you have any advice for which to go with, btw?), and started looking into ways to avoid banks' disadvantageous exchange rates when making a bank transfer from my bank in Italy to my future one in the UK.
I thought of using bitcoins, and wanted your opinion.
I've been buying bitcoins through online exchanges (mainly Kraken.com). Unfortunately the online withdrawal options available are either through SEPA payments which are made in euros and would defeat the whole purpose of using bitcoins, or through wire transfers which require a considerable fee and are very slow.
I thought about selling my bitcoins for GBP on Localbitcoins.com, though I've never traded there before. My main concern is being the website based on user feedbacks, I don't know if buyers would trust a seller with 0 feedbacks. Also, wouldn't multiple transactions look shady to the bank risking my account to be freezed?
Another option which I came across on Reddit is
Coinfloor now allowing UK bank transfers. I'd just deposit BTC on my account, maybe wait for a good BTC/GBP rate and just exchange and withdraw with bank transfer paying a £5 fee. (BTW, almost instant bank transfer are AMAZING - SEPA sucks compared to that!)
What do you think? Any opinion, insight and experience is appreciated.
Thanks!