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BuyMeACoffee silently dropped support for many countries (2024)

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329 points beeburrt | 5 comments | 16 May 25 06:23 UTC | HN request time: 0.201s | source
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casenmgreen ◴[16 May 25 06:40 UTC] No.44002413[source]▶
From mid-2024.

I regard all FinTech-type companies as unreliable, after incredible (in the literal sense of the word) experiences with Revolut (seven years to get an account closed and the money in it returned, and that actually happened only after I made a GDPR request, and they got it done - seems its less work for them to close than meet the request) and Transferwise (who shortly after the UA war started, blocked donations to the UA State bank military support account - yes, really, if you didn't know).

By all means have an account with them, but never, ever, ever, rely on it, and plan on the basis that the next morning you wake up to find the account, and everything in it, has gone, and that customer support is a defensive shield the company uses to keep customers at arms length.

If you want almost no-cost currency conversion (2 USD minimum, but you have to convert like 100k USD I think it is to go above that), use Interactive Brokers LLC. They won't let you have an account purely for currency conversion, but as long as you do a few trades now and then, it seems fine.

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1. notpushkin ◴[16 May 25 06:54 UTC] No.44002490[source]▶
> Transferwise (who shortly after the UA war started, blocked donations to the UA State bank military support account - yes, really, if you didn't know).

Oh wow. Well, at least donations to NGOs / individuals seem to work.

Agreed, IBKR are a nice bunch. I wouldn’t rely on them either, but it’s always better to have more options, in case everything else fails. And of course, when banks can block your accounts at any moment just because they don’t like your passport, crypto is king.

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2. apples_oranges ◴[16 May 25 06:56 UTC] No.44002502[source]▶
Of course who would ever doubt that
3. throwaway290 ◴[16 May 25 07:37 UTC] No.44002720[source]▶
Ironically crypto is also what helps fund and survive (bypassing sanctions) the warmongers and dictatorships which make banks not like our passports

In the end poor peasants shouting "crypto is king" are the ones owned from both sides. They are used for profit by their local oppressors/gangs and by western cryptobros. The peasants transactions are the rounding error but they are the ones who allow to pretend it's "freedom"

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4. notpushkin ◴[16 May 25 08:17 UTC] No.44002951[source]▶
I’m not sure if that’s the case. I mean, crypto is surely used for some transactions, but governments also just pay for stuff openly. EU is still paying Russia for gas, I believe?

> They are used for profit by their local oppressors/gangs and by western cryptobros.

For a razor-thin margin, maybe. It’s still the cheapest way to move money out from Russia, meaning it’s not used there to pay taxes (i.e. fund the war!) And the alternatives are using banks or money transfer systems, which I think are more likely to be pro-government than just a bunch of local guys that want to make some cash.

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5. throwaway290 ◴[16 May 25 11:42 UTC] No.44004183{3}[source]▶
> For a razor-thin margin, maybe

facepalm. for the fake aura of legitimacy that keeps the whole charade going.

> but governments also just pay for stuff openly

they should stop doing it, but it doesn't change the fact thay the wins around sanctions for russian gov are incomparable with wins for regular people, and regular people suffer sanctions and all related stuff because of the gov in the tirst place