Cashing Out
Today while I’m supposed to be working I’m trying to tackle an issue that’s been brought up through my lack of taking profits before the crash plus some financial pressures at home – cashing out to FIAT. In the US and other countries this is really easy, if a little delayed, but in the UK it’s much harder to get your hard earned Bitcoin back into Great British pounds.
The first issue is that exchanges offer Euro and dollar withdrawals but not GBP because of red tape here in Blighty, and if they do it’s prohibitively expensive. This means you can only withdraw to a Euro or dollar bank account, which most of us in the UK don’t have. And even if you did have such an account, the chances of your bank accepting the withdrawal are slim to none – lots of banks have sites like Localbitcoins, Bitstamp and Coinbase etc. blacklisted, so your deposits will get blocked. And then even if you did get your Bitcoin-made millions of Euros into your account the bank would be asking you where you got them. They’re getting wiser and nastier.
So, with so many hurdles to jump it is not going to be a simple process. There are projects such as TokenPay and Hawala Today on the horizon, and Bitwala will apparently soon be reopening their bank account withdrawal service. However, for those like me who need a little cash now, I might have found a solution. It’s a work in progress, but here’s the theory.
Step 1 – I opened an Uphold account. This is a sort of online currency holding platform which lets you deposit, exchange and withdraw BTC, BCH and other high profile cryptocurrencies to various FIAT currencies and hold them. Although for small amounts you don’t need to, I verified my ID (this was instant) to avoid any potential hiccups down the line. I also sent $500 in BCH as my test funds (don’t judge me, it was quick!) and converted it to EUR at 1.4% (reasons for EUR are explained below).
Step 2 - I opened a Revolut account. This is a mobile-only bank which professes to offer all the services of a regular bank but with the added ability to exchange crypto as well as FIAT (you can only deposit FIAT though, hence why it’s not 100% the solution). I created a EUR and a GBP account in Revolut, which was free and gave me IBAN, BIC and swift details.
Step 3 – I entered my new Revolut EUR account details into Uphold as my bank account. I would have preferred to use my GBP account obviously, but Uphold ask for your IBAN/BIC details and, crucially, these are NOT in your name in Revolut. This needs some explaining – if you want to transact GBP in the UK through Revolut you can use your standard account no./sort code and this IS in your name, but Uphold is based abroad so they need your international banking details, which is in the name ‘Revolut’ rather than yours. So to ensure maximum chance of success, I will be using my EUR account – which is in my name. This is where the first stumbling block of sorts has cropped up – this bank account will take 1-3 days to clear, assuming it does. Of course it might not, in which case this experiment is over, but for now I’m waiting.
Step 4 (assuming my Revolut account is cleared) - I will send the EUR from Uphold to Revolut and convert to GBP within Revolut for whatever fee they charge. Then I can either forward it onto my UK bank account, but with Revolut having standard banking facilities (once you have ordered one of their bank cards) why should I? I may as well keep it in Revolut and use from there. I can always send some to my UK bank should I encounter any problems with Revolut with the understanding that a deposit will be accepted (no guarantee, obviously).
So there we go. It’s long and drawn out, at least in the first instance, but it seems to be one of the only ways to overcome the ridiculous constraints placed on the system. Of course if I still lived in London I’d just cash a shitload out using the ATMs there, but Yorkshire doesn’t offer those facilities yet.
I’ll update when I get a response to my account being added to Uphold. Hope this was useful – as usual, please ask any questions.