Tell HN: Coinbase will not allow ACH transfers without Plaid

33 points

2 years ago

Something changed in the past 30 days with Coinbase. They disabled my connected bank account for ACH transfers, which I've used for years on Coinbase. They force verification with Plaid. Their help/marketing documents suggest you can do deposit verification if you don't want to use Plaid, or if your bank doesn't support Plaid:

- https://help.coinbase.com/en/coinbase/getting-started/add-a-payment-method/how-do-i-locate-my-payment-method-verification-amounts

- https://help.coinbase.com/en/coinbase/getting-started/add-a-payment-method/payment-methods-for-us-customers

These claims are not true.

The support agent told me my bank wants me to use Plaid. I called my bank and they said they do not support Plaid, and that giving my bank login (username and password) to an unapproved third party might break my contract and customer protections. So Coinbase lied to me. Three different people said the same thing, that because my bank "requires Plaid" that I should give Plaid my login, which I never did.

The only cash-out options available to me now are to pay transaction fees for using a debit card or PayPal account, or go create a new bank account somewhere and allow Plaid to have access to it.

I'm looking for and not finding an announcement about this, which would have provided an opportunity to move money before these changes were implemented. Best case, it's really crappy policy from Coinbase and outdated marketing docs, and worst case, it's intentionally misleading and fraudulent. Just thought the HN community with assets in Coinbase might want to know about it.

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