Lebanese Banks Capital Control

There are 2 reasons why lebanese banks were still alive before the 17th October :

1) for us lebanese citizen / resident, it was nearly impossible to bank with a non lebanese bank despite their abysmal level of service. If N26 or any other "online banking app" could have operated in Lebanon, i don't see why any of us who don't have gazillions dollars in the bank would have used a local bank.
IMO the reason online banks are forbidden from operating in leb was so our money could go fund the bankrupt government through local banks, basically it was a mafia : force them to give us their money, and we will lend it back to you (the motto between local banks and the govt)

2) the crazy interest rates, if you had gazillion of dollars, then the rates were practically unparalleled anywhere in the world, hence why most rich Lebanese people invested their money in bonds through the bank.

If you want a really good exemple of the level of expertise of lebanese banks, just ask yourself : "in which country has a Lebanese bank opened and not lost money when in competition against real bankers ?"
Very few, for exemple bank audi lost a lot of money in Turkey and Syria, they only succeed in Egypt
The rest of the banks are mostly corresponding offices (Bank audi France or Bank of Beirut UK).

So yes, in a TL:DR, lebanese bankers are shit, their level of competency is null compared to bankers worldwide, their level of service is non-existent and a monopoly of the lebanese market was installed by the Govt in exchange of which banks would put their money in lebanese bonds.

My 2 cent.

Draguen wroteThere are 2 reasons why lebanese banks were still alive before the 17th October :

1) for us lebanese citizen / resident, it was nearly impossible to bank with a non lebanese bank despite their abysmal level of service. If N26 or any other "online banking app" could have operated in Lebanon, i don't see why any of us who don't have gazillions dollars in the bank would have used a local bank.
IMO the reason online banks are forbidden from operating in leb was so our money could go fund the bankrupt government through local banks, basically it was a mafia : force them to give us their money, and we will lend it back to you (the motto between local banks and the govt)

2) the crazy interest rates, if you had gazillion of dollars, then the rates were practically unparalleled anywhere in the world, hence why most rich Lebanese people invested their money in bonds through the bank.

If you want a really good exemple of the level of expertise of lebanese banks, just ask yourself : "in which country has a Lebanese bank opened and not lost money when in competition against real bankers ?"
Very few, for exemple bank audi lost a lot of money in Turkey and Syria, they only succeed in Egypt
The rest of the banks are mostly corresponding offices (Bank audi France or Bank of Beirut UK).

So yes, in a TL:DR, lebanese bankers are shit, their level of competency is null compared to bankers worldwide, their level of service is non-existent and a monopoly of the lebanese market was installed by the Govt in exchange of which banks would put their money in lebanese bonds.

My 2 cent.

these high fake interest rates are actually the problem .. they are a ponzi scheme
what kind of business can generate 10% return ?! are these banks selling cocaine ?!

Oh I completely agree, only the lebanese didn't see that, many articles mention that 80% of the holders of lebanese bonds are lebanese themselves. It says a lot about how many non lebanese had confidence in our system.

random-username wroteGonna repost this question here since this thread is more relevant than the bitcoin one. Also, this would help anyone else in a similar situation

So i have some money stuck in an account in Lebanon and I want to get as much out as I can, in addition to the bi-weekly cash withdraws that I have entrusted a family member to do.
I have a USD credit card and the limits are as follows: Max 200$ a day and 500$ a month.
I was hoping to buy gold with it, but due to the small limit I'd be taking a major hit on a gram-to-gram basis if I'm only buying 2-3 grams, in comparison to a full ounce.
I need a method to "save" my credit card $ into some sort of account or crypto which I can use later on to buy an ounce of gold.
I'm in Canada, so local dealers are not an option for me, everything has to be done online.
I've tried buying crypto on coinbase with my Lebanese CC, but that didn't work.
Anyone has any suggestions? (I'm also open to paypal or anything else that would help me turn my CC balance to real $ in my canadian bank account)

i don't want to sound pessimistic, but based on what i am noticing, whatever method you find that would work today, it may not work after 2 or 3 days.
banks are doing whatever they can -illegally sometimes, but that's another discussion- to stop you from withdrawing or transferring real USD, you want to invest in crypto and/or gold which is near impossible using CC or checks, maybe your best bet if you can find someone that's willing to sell you anything valuable(real estate, car...) for check bancaire or wire transfer..

random-username wrote
Check Paxful for lowest offers on giftcards ==> Buy said giftcards with lebanese credit card ==> Exchange giftcards for bitcoin ==> Transfer bitcoin to shakepay app (free open source app for canadians to manage their bitcoin wallets) ==>Sell bitcoin immediately and have it auto-deposited into my checking account on the spot.

Ideally you should have a bank abroad, or you just end stuck holding bitcoin. Best of luck everyone!

how much percentage you loose in the process? 20-30%?

Dan28 wrote

random-username wrote
Check Paxful for lowest offers on giftcards ==> Buy said giftcards with lebanese credit card ==> Exchange giftcards for bitcoin ==> Transfer bitcoin to shakepay app (free open source app for canadians to manage their bitcoin wallets) ==>Sell bitcoin immediately and have it auto-deposited into my checking account on the spot.

Ideally you should have a bank abroad, or you just end stuck holding bitcoin. Best of luck everyone!

how much percentage you loose in the process? 20-30%?

8.92% on the gift card and less than 0.2% on fees for transferring the bitcoins between accounts and finally to my checking account.
It all depends on the gift card, some charge a 40% markup, while others are low. Check out the paxful.com listings, they change everyday.
Also, I could speculate and hold those bitcoins in my wallet till they appreciate enough to cover the roughly 9% loss in value, but I don't know much about bitcoin to do that and I've very risk averse after the whole experience in lebanon.

Hopefully this helps you guys to get some of your money out for a reasonable rate. Maybe you have some relatives abroad that can liquidate the bitcoins for you.

@random-username. I tried to access paxful site but was blocked. So I tried with VPN and it work. Can we buy Bitcoin directly with credit card? Or Lebanese ones don't work?

random-username wrote Buy said giftcards with lebanese credit card

isn't there a limitation on online purchases?

random-username wrote

random-username wroteGonna repost this question here since this thread is more relevant than the bitcoin one. Also, this would help anyone else in a similar situation

So i have some money stuck in an account in Lebanon and I want to get as much out as I can, in addition to the bi-weekly cash withdraws that I have entrusted a family member to do.
I have a USD credit card and the limits are as follows: Max 200$ a day and 500$ a month.
I was hoping to buy gold with it, but due to the small limit I'd be taking a major hit on a gram-to-gram basis if I'm only buying 2-3 grams, in comparison to a full ounce.
I need a method to "save" my credit card $ into some sort of account or crypto which I can use later on to buy an ounce of gold.
I'm in Canada, so local dealers are not an option for me, everything has to be done online.
I've tried buying crypto on coinbase with my Lebanese CC, but that didn't work.
Anyone has any suggestions? (I'm also open to paypal or anything else that would help me turn my CC balance to real $ in my canadian bank account)

Big update, but this only works if you have a bank account abroad (i have one in Canada).
I managed to transform my lollar $ on my lebanese credit card to real $ in my canadian checking account using bitcoin. What I did was as follows:

Check Paxful for lowest offers on giftcards ==> Buy said giftcards with lebanese credit card ==> Exchange giftcards for bitcoin ==> Transfer bitcoin to shakepay app (free open source app for canadians to manage their bitcoin wallets) ==>Sell bitcoin immediately and have it auto-deposited into my checking account on the spot.

Ideally you should have a bank abroad, or you just end stuck holding bitcoin. Best of luck everyone!

But isn't there a limit to how much you can buy with your Lebanese credit card ?

There is a limit yes, my bank's limit is 200$ per day and 500$ per month.
That's 500 more dollars that I can withdraw without waiting in line for ages at the bank.

@random-username btw an easier method is to buy the 100$ prepaid mastercards on amazon and load them to your paypal account.

Amazon did not remove the currency conversion.
It always gives me the option to pay in USD or LBP.
And it is charging 1579LBP for 1USD.

I would give this a go, but I do not need anything at the moment nor can I afford it.

Maybe someone else can give it a go and share the result.

Since they're not putting controls on online purchasing with LBP, this was we can buy anything we want on Amazon for 1579 LBP for the dollar.

Dan28 wrote

random-username wrotethe entire paxful verification process is a pain in the ass. Government issued ID + utility bill + selfie with a camera.

another method is to signup on https://purse.io/earn/btc

its a site where users put stuff from amazon in a wish list, you go buy it for them with your lebanese card and get paid in bitcoin.
the site uses escrow system and its pretty easy to use.
i think you can use lbp, amazon added that option recently, it asks you to choose which currency to pay with "lbp or usd".
if you can pay with lbp on amazon "exhange rate 1515" you dont lose money and even make a profit.

EDIT: it seems that amazon removed this option :(

Amazing, thank you so much for this link. I'm new to crypto and already in love with it. Gives you so much freedom.

AVOlio wroteIt always gives me the option to pay in USD or LBP.

yes same here, but it didnt work this time, maybe its something in my cart, ill check again later.