Luna Sanchez
Finding a Crypto friendly UK bank is not always as straight forward as it would seem and you may be surprised to find out that the bank account that you have trusted with your life savings will attempt to block any crypto purchase with no proper explanation.
The following list will outline some of the best crypto friendly UK banks we’ve seen in the market this year.
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When choosing a new bank, it is important to find a crypto-friendly institution that will allow you to purchase crypto as you require.
For instance we have had reports from our readers that banks like HSBC and First Direct can automatically block transactions from places like Crypto.com with no explanation. (In this particular example First Direct believed the Crypto.com app was at fault… it wasn’t, attempting to purchase again with a Monzo card proved that!).
How to know that your bank is crypto friendly:
One of the most proactive partners in regards to crypto is Barclays . They allow their customers to use credit and debit cards for transactions, as well as conduct cryptocurrency purchase with a safe and secure environment.
When contacted by the Telegraph, Barclays said that they had not put any restrictions on accounts (In a similar way to HSBC/First Direct).
https://community.monzo.com/t/monzo-and-cryptocurrency-trading/28788
“So, we don’t have any issue with sensible, personal use of your account for Bitcoin trading. Obviously there are some platforms, like Coinbase, where 3DSecure is implemented and therefore our cards won’t currently work. Therefore, there shouldn’t be a problem unless you’re transferring huge sums.” - Monzo Customer Support.
It is not exactly clear what the Monzo support what is meant by “huge sums” although we haven’t had any reports from our readers of Monzo blocking any transactions unlike other banks.
Monzo declined to comment when they were contacted by the Telegraph regarding this claim.
RBS is a bank that many customers report having no issues with when dealing with cryptocurrency is RBS. You can use their credit or debit cards to buy crypto, and also withdraw or deposit freely.
Revolut facilitate the easy purchase of their form of cryptocurrency within their app for beginners looking to invest. (The usual warnings of “Not Your Keys, Not Your Crypto” apply here). We attempted to purchase on other exchanges such as Crypto.com and found that Revolut blocked our purchases through this platform.
Revolut may block other exchanges as they want to keep customers within their platform.
TSB Bank allows you to purchase bitcoin with credit and debit cards without any problems depositing or withdrawing that crypto into your exchange account. Know, however, that banks have the right to flag transactions as being large and ask for more information before completing a transaction.
Nationwide has been open to accept debit card purchases by cryptocurrency exchanges, when we tested we reported no issues with transferring currency back and forth from Crypto exchanges.
Natwest , owned by RBS, is the latest UK bank to support crypto-purchases. Customers can deposit to cryptocurrency exchanges and withdraw funds from these platforms seamlessly.
Although we have covered a lot of the banks that are crypto friendly there are also a lot of banks that will block transactions for no real reason. We have listed the top unfriendly crypto banks.
The volatility of cryptocurrency means that it poses a risk to the banks as well as the bank customers. The banks
Many of the cryptocurrency exchanges are not FCA approved. Always do your research before investing in any cryptocurrency.
We hope you found this article on crypto friendly banks useful. If you have any experience of banks blocking your transactions, drop a note in the comment section and we will update the list.
Disclaimer: Cryptotravellers or the author are not a financial advisor and the information in this article is not financial advice and should not be construed in this way.
Written By
Luna graduated from University College London with a BA in English, minoring in creative writing. She specialises in writing financial news and analysis, as well as cryptocurrency news and information.
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