Bankera has gone totally crazy

[mrau]

Just register in Cyprus and get a EU residency for banking purposes.

Do you mean register a company?
Either a company or a rental, both would take a thousands of Euros per year in expenses.
It would't be cost-effective at all for me to spend such amount just to have an EMI account to transact €10K euros per year in crypto operations.
I do have another account in a real bank in Europe but it's not a crypto-friendly entity and I don't wany to try my luck

 

[JohnnyDoe]

Do you mean register a company?
Either a company or a rental, both would take a thousands of Euros per year in expenses.
It would't be cost-effective at all for me to spend such amount just to have an EMI account to transact €10K euros per year in crypto operations.
I do have another account in a real bank in Europe but it's not a crypto-friendly entity and I don't wany to try my luck

Your problems can be solved with a $150 budget, which includes one month membership of the Mentor Group Gold

 

[mrau]

Your problems can be solved with a $150 budget, which includes one month membership of the Mentor Group Gold

I'll try to take a look later

 

[Dandyline]

Do you mean register a company?
Either a company or a rental, both would take a thousands of Euros per year in expenses.
It would't be cost-effective at all for me to spend such amount just to have an EMI account to transact €10K euros per year in crypto operations.
I do have another account in a real bank in Europe but it's not a crypto-friendly entity and I don't wany to try my luck

You don't need a company, just rent a cheap room or something. It all comes down to how important EU banking is to you.

 

[Forester]

For non-EEA (personal use) I just know WISE, Bankera and the recently "launched" SwissMoney (whose reviews here in the forum are not that good, specially for its VERY HIGH fees). Then I also know Dukascopy but it's almost the same than bankera (extremely low limits of just EUR 3000 every 4 months)
If you know any other, please advise.

Check e.g. Verifo, Paysera, zen.com and Interpolitan Money (of course the result can depend on your particular country of residence).

It could make a difference regardless.
EU citizenship shows that you have a right to stay in the country and visit Schengen countries for tourism purposes, while for example a digital nomad visa allows you to work and do business in an EU country, so it naturally offers more substance.

Well, TBMK, EU citizenship itself allows you to stay, work and do business in any EU country, regardless of your place of residence, it's the core of Maastricht and further agreements. So I would be even surprised if you can ask for a digital nomad visa as an EU citizen and you definitely do not need to do it...

My recommendation stems from experience + hearing this directly from an onboarding assistant of an EMI, when getting a pre-approval for a UAE structure that wasn't yet formed at the time.

Having said the above, I can imagine well that some bank monkey can think like you describe

 

[mrau]

Check e.g. Verifo, Paysera, zen.com and Interpolitan Money (of course the result can depend on your particular country of residence).


Well, TBMK, EU citizenship itself allows you to stay, work and do business in any EU country, regardless of your place of residence, it's the core of Maastricht and further agreements. So I would be even surprised if you can ask for a digital nomad visa as an EU citizen and you definitely do not need to do it...

Having said the above, I can imagine well that some bank monkey can think like you describe

Thank you . From that list only Verifo and Interpolitan offer accounts for residents in South America as me.
Interpolitan seems to be a solution for high risk profiles (and therefore, enormous fees involved).
Verifo website seems friendly and its costs are affordable. Don't know (nor is stated in the website) if they allow payments to/from crypto exchanges (one of my main purposes)

 

[Forester]

Thank you .

You are welcome.

From that list only Verifo and Interpolitan offer accounts for residents in South America as me.

Well, if you are in South America, check Zenus.com as well; however I admit that I do not know how they look at crypto-related transactions.

Interpolitan seems to be a solution for high risk profiles (and therefore, enormous fees involved).

Worse than with Bankera? (I have not checked, currently.)

Verifo website seems friendly and its costs are affordable. Don't know (nor is stated in the website) if they allow payments to/from crypto exchanges (one of my main purposes)

AFAIK, they allow.

 

[ilke]

Well, if you are in South America, check Zenus.com as well; however I admit that I do not know how they look at crypto-related transactions.

I think Zenus is a good suggestion. They are not anti-crypto and they don't reject crypto-related transactions. Living outside of the EEA, he will also be able to get the card from Zenus, which is quite nice for transactions.

Worse than with Bankera? (I have not checked, currently.)

Actually, yes (for some businesses). They vary the fees a lot and there isn't a specific fixed cost setup AFAIK (unlike Bankera). They also 'resell' some other EMIs with BaaS (like Modulr) or some banks. They do adapt the pricing based on risk, though, so even though it will still probably be more expensive than other options, the difference shouldn't be as high for lower risk.

AFAIK, they allow.

Based on my experience, they do. I can confirm your statement.

 

[csp dubai]

they are looking excusee to freeze yoiur accounts

 

[jafo]

they

With "they" you mean the subject of the topic, correct?

 

[mrau]

they are looking excusee to freeze yoiur accounts

The account balance has never-ever exceeded €3 so they won't be able to rob much from me.

 

[jafo]

The account balance has never-ever exceeded €3 so they won't be able to rob much from me.

and

Now, just imagine what your "CONFIDENTIAL PASSPORT KYC AML CRS AEOI CFC, etc." *data* is worth....

I don't think they care about the €3...they already have so much info on you. Even in a plea deal, they could "offer your info" in exchange for a lesser sentence, cooperation, and maybe even a reward....

 

[wonderfulboy]

I´m a non EEA resident and opened a fully verified personal account at Bankera back in 2021. Since then (almost 3 years) I only moved LESS THAN 3 EUROS (I just have the account as a buffer between non-crypto friendly banks and exchanges and as I don't do too much crypto I never have to really used it). The 2 transactions (again, LESS THAN 3 EUROS) were made from/to my OWN accounts in Europe (never sent or received from any crypto exchange)
At the end of December they sent me an e-mail requesting to re-verify the account. That's ok with me and I started the process and completed the KYC forms again. Since then the nightmare begun, they keep requesting REALLY SENSITIVE AND INTRUSIVE information about me. I have nothing to hide and diligently provided 2023 tax returns, utility bills, bank statements (both in Europe and in my home country), crypto addresses, etc. But THAT WAS NOT ENOUGH for them. Now they are asking licenses, more bank statements, investment receipts, invoices, contracts, and an endless list of documents just like if I were (or had) to move TENS OF THOUSANDS of euros in the account. I repeat for the third time because this is unbelievable: I only moved 3 EUROS in 3 YEARS with them and FROM/TO MY OWN ACCOUNTS. In the KYC forms I only stated that my maximum planned operation with the account could be between 3000 and 5000 Euros (and not every month but perhaps once or twice A YEAR).
Bankera approach is clearly not rational
@Gediminas

How is it going with your nightmare?

 

[mrau]

How is it going with your nightmare?

I left the KYC process (and the account) abandoned.
Few days later, they kept requesting me to continue with it but then they stopped.
I think they will keep the account only with a level 2 verification status which only allows €1000 per year turnout.
Anyway, I'm not planning to use it anymore because the risk of a freezing is enormous.

 

[jafo]

I left the KYC process (and the account) abandoned.

Anyway, I'm not planning to use it anymore because the risk of a freezing is enormous.

Very smart move! You dodged a bullet!

PS. Just to f*ck with them, if they write again, insist on doing KYC/AML on them to make sure they are entitled to this info...

 

[Piano]

I think Zenus is a good suggestion. They are not anti-crypto and they don't reject crypto-related transactions. Living outside of the EEA, he will also be able to get the card from Zenus, which is quite nice for transactions.

Actually, yes (for some businesses). They vary the fees a lot and there isn't a specific fixed cost setup AFAIK (unlike Bankera). They also 'resell' some other EMIs with BaaS (like Modulr) or some banks. They do adapt the pricing based on risk, though, so even though it will still probably be more expensive than other options, the difference shouldn't be as high for lower risk.

Based on my experience, they do. I can confirm your statement.

How long have you been with Zenus ?

 

[patterson]

They also sent me some questions this week asking about 5k I sent from Coinbase. For now it's reasonable. Told them the payments were from my company and they asked for some sample invoices. If it ends with that, I'm fine. There are EUR 20 in the account right now.

 

[mrau]

They also sent me some questions this week asking about 5k I sent from Coinbase. For now it's reasonable. Told them the payments were from my company and they asked for some sample invoices. If it ends with that, I'm fine. There are EUR 20 in the account right now.

In my case I never received anything from third-party accounts. Just less than €10 from my personal account in Wise to test how fast it worked. That's all the activity in the account and they started spending my tons of requests about my income, assets, accounts, crypto wallets, etc. Totally insane.

 

[wellington]

epay something just sent me a KYC request (update) haven't used them thought it would be a scam, but i set up an account there years ago, might be an alternative.

 

[ilke]

epay something just sent me a KYC request (update) haven't used them thought it would be a scam, but i set up an account there years ago, might be an alternative.

ePay-what? ePayments has been gone for a long time; ePayService was a Russian EMI that lost its Malta license a long time ago (although they still promote it on their site. Can't think of any others..