U.K Bank, First Direct. plan to restrict customers buying Bitcoin & Crypto \ stacker news ~bitcoin

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U.K Bank, First Direct. plan to restrict customers buying Bitcoin & Crypto

1073 sats \ 15 comments \ @stackernews_9inky 8 Aug 2023 bitcoin

First Direct has decided to launch a scheme at the end of August restricting its customers from purchasing Bitcoin & crypto. There motivation in doing so is to protect people against crypto scams.

Personally, I find it abhorrent a bank decides how, and when I spend my money. If I was a coincidence theorist, I would say this is a first baby step to stop people from escaping the system if they so desire.

I intend to contact them formally about this, or simply leave them after being a happy, and promoting customer for over a decade.

Are there any Bitcoin friendly banks in the U.K. people can recommend? Preferably, that have not been caught up in the debanking nonsense?

P.s. you will find First Direct on Twitter @firstdirect, maybe, if you feel similar to myself you can voice your opinions on the matter?

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11 sats \ 3 replies \ @SpaceHodler 8 Aug 2023

I have an account with those fiat buttheads, but don't use it. I only opened it to skim £150 off of them through the switch bonus and buy more corn. Did the same with NatWest and Halifax. When another bonus offer becomes available I'll switch from FD.

1 sat \ 2 replies \ @stackernews_9inky OP 8 Aug 2023

Haha, good plan. So, who is your primary bank now? Or are they all "buttheads" 😅

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @SpaceHodler 8 Aug 2023

Barclays, for 15 years, and more recently also Chase. No issues with them sending deposits to exchanges.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @stackernews_9inky OP 8 Aug 2023

Interesting, Barclays did well at protecting themselves against the crash, too.

Maybe they are a sane dark horse in the game.

I'll give them a look.

10 sats \ 2 replies \ @orthwyrm 8 Aug 2023

Are there any Bitcoin friendly banks in the U.K. people can recommend? Preferably, that have not been caught up in the debanking nonsense?

I find it's best to separate activities by bank. I use one bank for "ordinary" activities like receiving salary and groceries, and a Revolut account on the side for Bitcoin-related things like exchange purchases.

Revolut in particular is unlikely to block you for transacting with exchanges, as they themselves offer a number of Bitcoin / crypto services. But even if they blocked you, your main bank account would remain intact and you can just swap to a different challenger bank for the Bitcoin stuff (Monzo, Starling, Chase, etc.) Revolut is also good for the P2P exchanges like Robosats and Bisq.

It's a pain that I have to do this in the first place... Personally I don't believe it's the bank's job to "protect" me from scams, but at least it's easy to swap around these days. Move your capital to the businesses that treat you best.

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @stackernews_9inky OP 8 Aug 2023

I have, and use, a Curve card. I get Bitcoin with 6 of my favourite retailers. Is Curve comparable to Revolut? I was working at a hospital the other day, and they had signs up telling people they don't take Revolut, this makes me think they aren't the same thing..

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @orthwyrm 9 Aug 2023

I am not familiar with Curve, sorry!

10 sats \ 1 reply \ @SatsCats 8 Aug 2023

Same crap with HSBC now

#220995

https://www.hsbc.co.uk/help/security-centre/cryptocurrency/

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @stackernews_9inky OP 8 Aug 2023

Makes sense, HSBC are First Direct's parent company. I feel we need to make it known we won't put up with this nonsense.

10 sats \ 0 replies \ @quark 8 Aug 2023

We all know the real motivation is not to protect people against crypto scams. It is probably to protect their bank deposits.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Sasquatch 11 Aug 2023

Hard to stop you from buying a gift card and exchanging it on Robosats for BTC.

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @Lumor 8 Aug 2023

Peter McCormack was advertising some UK bank a year or more ago when he got kicked out from his old bank.. can't recall the crypto-friendly one.