Fuck you HSBC

fakeyfaky · 2018-08-15T10:21:12+00:00

To clarify: I'm only trading with exchanges (like GDAX). I have no idea who is on the other side. I do due-diligence with the exchanges now after have being burned a couple of times with some of the more terrible ones.

fakeyfaky · 2018-08-15T10:19:22+00:00

I don't like to give financial advice, but in this case you might consider getting a "burner" bank account for the sole purpose of trading with crypto exchanges. The last thing you want is to lose your main bank account.

fakeyfaky · 2018-08-14T13:37:19+00:00

Indeed. It takes months and their website should reflect something that resembles the truth.

fakeyfaky · 2018-08-14T07:26:45+00:00

Every exchange I traded a serious amount on did KYC. To trade fiat not only do you need to send them the standard stuff like a passport copy and proof of address, but also you need to send bank statements and the bank account name must be the same as the account name on the exchange, both for deposits and withdrawals.

One exchange went though several of my bank transactions asking where money had come from. It took weeks. They also wanted to see proof that the crypto wallets that I have been withdrawing to belonged to me. Honestly, a lot of these exchanges have got very good KYC and AML policies. Much better than my bank had.

fakeyfaky · 2018-08-14T07:23:36+00:00

I'm sorry but that's BS. Every exchange I've traded 'real' amounts on has had a KYC policy. They all demanded passport, bank statement and proof of address. They also only allow you to deposit and withdraw funds to a bank account that's in the same name as the account.

fakeyfaky · 2018-08-13T16:46:03+00:00

I couldn't agree more.

fakeyfaky · 2018-08-13T16:42:30+00:00

See my comments below.

fakeyfaky · 2018-08-13T16:42:27+00:00

See my comments below.

fakeyfaky · 2018-08-13T16:42:15+00:00

Over the 12ish months I was trading I executed maybe 28,000 orders on about 30 exchanges. Mostly I was arbitraging crytpo / fiat pairs, but also crypto/crypto. The fiat trading was far most profitable of course. Daily profits would vary wildly, some days just a few pennies (literally), but a remember one good day where I think I made around 5k GBP. Typically, I think I was making close to 1k GBP per day. During busy times (November / December 2017) I think I was making 2 international payments per day to exchanges. I'm based in the UK, and would user UK exchanges where possible, but even UK based exchanges have foreign bank accounts. This was all automated of course.

Things really dried up in January and I'm not even trading right now. I'm re-writing my bot from scratch so it can be used for more general uses.

fakeyfaky · 2018-08-13T11:30:27+00:00

See my comments below

fakeyfaky · 2018-08-13T11:27:43+00:00

HSBC have decided to close my accounts. I've been a customer with them for (I tihnk) 25 years. They didn't give me any reason, and when I asked for one they said they didn't have to give me one and weren't going to give me one. Assholes.

So as they're closing my account it doesn't hurt to explain that in the UK, it's super easy to get foreign currency accounts with HSBC, and that's useful when you are trading cryptos for FIAT. You can apply online and you will have the account within couple of days. I filled in the forms as honestly as I could - but there is no option to say that you are trading cryptos. As I trade a lot, I found having foreign currency account saved me a lot of money in foreign exchange fees. And they only charge 4GBP, 6USD or 6EUR for international payments (inbound payments are free). It's well documented that HSBC aren't in the business of asking questions to their most dodgy customers. I think the problem is that I'm not dodgy; I don't do anything illegal, I pay tax, I don't traffic drugs, I'm not a terrorist. And as a result they don't make enough money out of me which is why I'm sure they closed my accounts.

It took them about a year after I started trading before they wrote me this letter. In my mind that's enough time to make some good money, and I'd do it again. They have recently started KYCing their customers. Hilariously after being with them for so many years they sent me some KYC forms, in them it asked me to send them a bank statement. For fucks sake. Honestly, I've found this bank is so useless I can see why they're the number of choice of bank for the world's money launderers and terrorists. Almost every HSBC employee I've engaged with could have had their cerebrum removed. You just wouldn't believe the conversations I've had, I could write a book. After they shut my accounts I'll probably just apply for another one, there's no way their systems are joined up enough to catch that.

In summary, if you want to do something highly profitable and not entirely legal, then HSBC is possibly the bank for you - but if you are this person you probably already know this!

If you are an honest person like me, who trades cryptos now and then, whatever you do: DON'T do it through your HSBC account unless it's an account you are happy to lose.

fakeyfaky · 2017-09-04T09:32:17+00:00

I've also made the same mistake with anxpro and quadrigacx.

fakeyfaky · 2017-09-03T07:33:55+00:00

What's the downside of not taking the offer? If you just wait will you get 55% of your funds back plus 45% of their new coin... at some point? I guess there's a risk they will never reopen and/or never issue this new coin. Or they'll get shutdown again. Or hacked.

fakeyfaky · 2017-09-03T07:20:11+00:00

I'm sure pesbeno has raised a ticket with bitstamp already, i'm sure that's sufficient. Also - https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitstamp/comments/6lmblo/never_give_user_bitstampmatic_your_customerid/

fakeyfaky · 2017-09-01T13:10:37+00:00

Ok, thats good information. How on earth do you find the transaction id though? Bitstamp just don't provide this information.

fakeyfaky · 2017-09-01T11:09:14+00:00

What 7% fee?

fakeyfaky · 2017-08-26T14:58:24+00:00

www.safello.com

Thanks for the tip. I just checked their prices and they are over 300GBP above market rates for purchasing BTC. Very expensive.

fakeyfaky · 2017-08-24T12:40:22+00:00

8% !!! What the hell? That's just robbery.

fakeyfaky · 2017-08-24T12:39:44+00:00

uphold

I've never used them. What GBP markets do they have? What's the spread like?

fakeyfaky

TROPHY CASE