Topic: UK Bitcoiners Friendly Banks Business List Localbitcoin Traders (Read 3813 times)

Think the government and even Bank Of England don't have an issue as they have done a consultation on this but it's the Bank themselves just being daft.

Well in couple of years if Crypto Take's over then the Bank go do what they want bloody idiots lol.

This will be a very great and nice concept but the problem you will encounter is getting government approval to run the bank. There is no harm in trying.

Yes BTC Enterprise is about as messed up as it can be as Banks don't support them.  For LBC need faster payment and hence offshore etc won't work for me.

Spoke to 1-2 big traders they only gave some tips but did not spill the beans and fair dues as some of them must do 100's of trades a day as I was doing around 15-25 trades a day.

Not looking to trade small amounts as it's a full business set up and want to do it properly legally and with all compliance.

Isle Of Man or Channel Islands may not have faster payment.  Maybe someone on here know's something we dont lol

As far as I know, this is the only way to do it in the UK. All UK banks have to comply with Bank of England supervision and that means no crypto businesses. You can trade small amounts that go unnoticed in a personal account, but for any large volume, you need to go to an offshore bank that lets you have a GBP denominated bank account. You are still going to get hit with wire fees for international transfers. I haven't checked it out but Isle of Man or the Channel Islands might be worth looking into.

I'm sure BTC itself is thriving, but BTC enterprise certainly isn't.

The big LBC traders must have some major banking secrets up their sleeves. I'd be very curious to know how they do it and some have countless thousands of trades. I guess they're not going to let their secrets slip.

Spoke with Lloyds and they were not interested,  I know Barclays are useless as was using Tide Business Account powered by Barclays and they closed down in 5 weeks for no reason nothing to do with chargeback.

Will give Nationwide a buzz and see what they say.

However disagree you mention BTC is not doing well in UK.  For the small time I traded on LBC it was busy was only trading with £5000-£8000 and was getting buy and sell orders like easily shifting 1-2 BTC but seen many people doing £50K+ a day on there?  (Confused on the trick I am missing)

If there was a way around it Bitcoin would be flourishing in the UK. It isn't so there isn't. It's just a fact of life. Nothing's changed since this thread was started.

If you check r/bitcoinuk, pretty much the only subject is how to handle banks.

Bitpay and Coinbase do offer merchant processing but the only possible way they're doing that is by sending GBP from Europe. The only quasi realistic UK exchange is Coinfloor and they have to bank in Poland.

Nationwide sounds like the least crypto hostile. That doesn't mean they'll be open to a business account but it's worth an ask.

Fidor is useless already have it and there too slow and not BTC Friendly at all.  Not sure how the LBC Traders do it spoke to one but obviously he could not advise but said they have accountants and lawyers etc in place.

I am sure there must be a way around it or something.  Anyone had dealings with Co-Op Bank?

Thanks

In all of human history there has not been one single business in the UK associated with cryptcurrencies that has obtained and maintained a British business bank account. It simply cannot be done.

That's why there are no exchanges and little or no business compared to other countries.

Your only hope might be when Fidor launches business bank accounts, but Fidor is looking increasingly useless. Their personal accounts lack giant amounts of functionality.  

I don't know how the Localbitcoins traders do it. I assume they hop from account to account.
 

Hi,

Just came across this topic.  While I have 2 business accounts for our property business and now involved in Bitcoin and doing some trading but ideally want to keep it apart from our other businesses.

I have struggled to get a business account spoke with Lloyds they said no,  Used a Digital Bank called Tide and only lasted 6 weeks.

Any experts on here whom can advise which bank to go as we are fully tax paid business and have good relationship with the banks

Has anyone tried Coutt's?

im looking into developing a template that mentions to UK banks a few fun things. but i will look into them in detail and see which holds weight. read these 2 links and you might understand a few subtle hints i would want bank managers to know when us bitcoiners set up accounts or get told they wish to close our accounts
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/legacy/thereporters/robertpeston/2010/03/a_legal_right_to_a_bank_accoun.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-19511542

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.

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

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.

Open bank account in Australian bank

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

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

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

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!!!!"