Here, in the UK, we are facing increasing restrictions on our ability to interact with the crypto economy. The hostile environment towards crypto has resulted recently in Celsius leaving the UK and suspending sign-up for UK based customers and I hear others may follow suit as the FCA make it increasingly difficult for crypto enterprises to operate here.
The arguments being used against crypto are equally valid against fiat, such as it is used in crime, money laundering, fraud and scams.
A restriction which really gets stuck in my craw, is the habit of UK highstreet banks to block money transfers to Crypto exchanges. I bank with HSBC and my husband with Halifax (part of the HBOS group). HSBC have blocked all of my transaction attempts to crypto exchanges - though curiously allow transactions to exchanges that also sell stocks, such as BitPanda. My husband has found transactions hit and miss, with Halifax, he was able to send money to COINBASE but an attempt to send money to CRYPTO.COM was blocked.
The UK we have seen repeated instances of highstreet banks engaging in 'misselling', the PPI scandal alone running to ?42b - that's over ?5000 for each UK household! The term 'misselling' is just a more sanitary way of saying 'scam' and now these banks, that scammed their customers out of billions, dare to pretend that their attempts to control how we spend our own money are born out of some avuncular concern for our wellbeing.
I found myself looking for a quick, cheap and simple solution to my problem - and this lead me to Revolut.
Revolut offers personal and business banking services, and their app is packed with great features including the ability to buy Crypto (as well as stocks) directly in the app. Though personally I prefer my coins staked or invested rather than sitting in my bank account.
They have multiple tiers of services, for my needs the free account is perfectly adequate - I ordered a physical card so I can use it in shops, but you can just have a virtual debit card and pay using your phone, if you're so inclined. There is a small fee for ordering a physical card. Once registered I referred my husband and received a ?35 payment when he signed up. A few days after you sign-up you can refer family members too - the current referral bonus is ?50!
There are some amazing security features for your debit card
- Disposable virtual cards - use these once, safe in the knowledge that your card can't be cloned.
- Ability to freeze and unfreeze your physical card.
- Toggle switch for allowing internet transactions.
- Transactions need authorisation in the app.
So far I have been very impressed with Revolut, its service, and its app.
I was able to refer my husband and another friend to collect ?70 of free money (at today's rates that would be ?100) which I invested straight into crypto, if you look in my other articles you can see I have adopted a strategy of stacking offers in order to add as much free crypto to my portfolio as possible. So far this has insulated me against losses I would otherwise have experienced in the recent downturn.
