HSBC is killing my business, piece by piece

I've got coworkers and a friend who have been contacting coinbase for ~months because their funds have just disappeared into the ether. Deposited money, nothing showed up in their account. Apparently it's common, and they're just supposed to wait longer. I would guess that this is because just like you said, it has problems and is still maturing. But - doesn't that mean that coinbase could just off their accounts?

don't bank with someone who's been caught money laundering, as they'll treat all their customers like criminals.

> Don’t bank with HSBC.

Unless you are a drug cartel, of course.

Not sure if you're in the US? where that maybe possible. In the UK this is not that simple. Not even sure how you would sue them, their T&C would cover this under AML / Knowing your customer legislation. The problem is the knee jerk reaction from the government on stopping the bank's bad practices without thinking what happens, in reality, day to day.

I'm not entirely clear why the author felt it was a productive use of his time to write several thousand words on this. HSBC aren't likely to be swayed by such an article. They've been fined billions, they're probably not worried about being "called out".

First of all:

Why are you depending on only one bank account to run your business? It's very easy to set up two or more business bank accounts and use them both. Just like you have back-ups for your data (right?), it makes a lot of sense to also have financial back-ups for your business.

Same with the debit/credit card - is that all you've got for business payments? Why don't you have more than one card? Why don't you move things over to a personal card while you open a second business card?

It's too late for that now as the author didn't set that all up ahead of time, but instead of complaining on the internet, why don't they start moving things ASAP. I've found Santander incredibly easy to get up and running with (same day almost), compared to Barclays...etc.

Look, you're running a business, and your job running a business is to keep it running. If you haven't thought ahead to such possible events, you're doing your business a disservice.

So my advice - call Santander, start switching things over, stop broadcasting things online, and focus on keeping your business running. You can always do a recap later once things have died down.

And I agree, HSBC are a complete PITA. It's far too much trouble even getting a personal account with them, so a business account would be far more effort than I would be looking for.

Even Barclays wanted an in-person meeting (even though I've banked with them for decades) to open a business bank account. And the only date they had available was a month in the future. Yup, I cancelled that appointment.

So, build redundancy into your business. At the very least a second bank account. It's easy, but as you can see, so very important. Just IMHO.