Uphold.com Review 2021 – Scam or Not?
There are a lot of “BTC Exchange” websites out there today. But how many of them are real exchange websites wherein you are not only able to directly exchange fiat money to BTC but trade fiat/crypto pairs as well? With the number of websites we’ve been through, we can honestly say that there are only a handful of websites that offer dual services. Most of them simply sell BTC, and some of them may or may not have a trading platform.
Today, we will be looking into one exchange website called Uphold.com and know more about them. Do they have a trading platform? Do they sell BTC? How do you get BTC or sell with them? These are the questions that we are going to answer in this review. Without further delay, let’s talk about that!
Background
The website was launched in 2015 and has continued to provide services to more than a hundred countries across different currencies. Uphold.com is also a FinCEN registered MSB in the United States and CSSF for Europe, making it a perfect choice for people that love to exchange with regulated websites.
Verifications with Uphold.com
The first step is to provide an active email address, the type of account, and your country of residence. The next step is they ask you personal details like complete name, username for your new account, state you live in, and your date of birth. After completing the second part, they will send you an email confirmation straight to the provided email address. The third part would be sending a code to your mobile phone. We strongly advise not to create an account with them if providing information through the internet is not your thing!
After completing all the three steps, you’re done! The last step was there to also activate your Two-Factor Authentication for added security on your account.
Becoming a verified member – Creating an account with them is just the first part. You are able to upgrade your account to a verified one if you think that the transaction limits are not enough for you. Verified members are able to transact more than $1,000 USD in their new upgraded account. In order to do this, you just need to log into your account and click on “Verify now” button. This will redirect you to a new page with the requirements needed.
Features
The website acts as a virtual wallet for not only cryptocurrencies but Fiat money as well. This is probably one of the features that they are doing great in compared with any other crypto exchange websites today. This means that not only people are able to use their services as an online wallet, but exchange different fiat currencies to BTC, BCH, DASH, ETH, or LTC with just a few clicks of a button. Fees might be high compared to regular exchange websites, but hey, you get to keep in your different cards.
Speaking of cards, the website offers virtual MasterCard for all your currencies online. This means that even if you do have a pure cryptocurrency account, the funds will still be able to be used through online stores as a MasterCard transaction.
Trading with Uphold.com
The website acts as a straight exchange platform wherein its users can easily convert their Fiat funds into crypto currency with just one click. Here at Uphold.com, verified users can also exchange fiat to fiat if they want to. The ability to use the accounts as digital wallets also increased the ability for users to use the exchange more often due to its flexibility in the current online market.
Fees
Exchange fees here at Uphold.com can be a bit pricey if you ask us. There is a bunch of websites today that offer lower exchange fees but without any wallet services. At least here, customers would not only be able to exchange fiat to crypto, they can also store them for future use. BTC exchange fees currently are at 1.05% against Fiat currencies, for ETH and a couple of currencies they charge 1.4% per exchange. Exchange fees for USD, EUR, and GBP are at 0.65% per transaction.
Deposits and Withdrawals
One of the features that we did not mention earlier is the ability to send funds from one Uphold member to another. This is great since users are able to transfer fiat or crypto from one account to another without limitations, and of course, fees. Uphold also does not charge deposits directly with banks or personal BTC wallets. Third party payment options like China UnionPay Card has a deposit fee of 1.8%.
Withdrawals are different since they charge both crypto and fiat transactions. For crypto withdrawals, they charge $2.99 per transaction and wire transfers cost $3.99. Please be advised that this is just the plain fee without third party costs which will be shouldered by the account holder.
Customer Service
Their customer support isn’t that great since they work with a ticket system. You can access their support tab through this link. What we do not like about ticket systems is that you can either get an answer within the next five minutes or it would take it 5 days for them to get back to you. What should have been great is a phone number that their customers can call, but they currency to not have this feature.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Exchange and wallet service
- Virtual wallet with MasterCard
- Regulated
Cons
- Not anonymous
- Fees are expensive
Uphold Review Conclusion
Uphold.com is a regulated exchange/wallet service that peoples from around the world use. They might have high service fees compared to a lot of exchange websites today, but they not only offer an exchange but users are also able to use their wallet service for free, so we guess that’s where the extra charge comes from. Their website is innovative and really easy to understand. We do want to let you guys know that if you want to have an anonymous account with an exchange website, this is not your website. They follow an intensive ID review for newly registered accounts. All-in-all, the website is not bad if you’re looking for a regulated exchange website based in the United States.
Go to uphold.com
Where is customer service ???
uphold sucks. It takes much longer than 5 minutes to get verified and it takes a hell of a lot longer than 5 days to get back to you
I can’t even log in/sign up. The verification process is unbelievable. Can’t communicate with them, either. It’s incredible that they can still be in business.
Scam Exchange, Uphold Scam
Locked my account for no reason.! HOpe someday
Your account
Hi Robertson,
We’re very sorry to tell you that we can no longer offer you an account. Sometimes we have to make difficult decisions as new information becomes available.
Our automated systems aren’t perfect and, if you feel that we’ve made a mistake, please contact support.
Don’t worry, your funds are safe and we’ll be in touch about handling any available balance.
Thank you for your understanding.
Sincerely,
Team Uphold
Lol, how is this a four star. This service doesn’t have any support at all. hard to get verified, hence your money will be stuck there forever.
uphold first withdrew 3k out of my bank account unauthorized and then they locked me out of my account with 10,000 in it. they said i would get my money back in 65 days. does this seem fair. in the meantime bitcoin has dropped 2% today.
Do not deposit into uphold, they hold your crypto for 60 days and you cant transfer out to your wallet. What a scam.
I have been trying for several days to get my funds transferred. I would strongly discourage anyone from signing up.
Terrible experience. I have open a ticket and it has not been resolved for 3 weeks now. I have been getting no response from emails even though they will respond to reviews only asking for ticket number. At this point I have no choice to reach out to BBB to help get my currency.
This is a propaganda piece probably paid for by Uphold! Once you deposit your money into an Uphold account good luck getting it out!
UPHOLD DOESN’T HAVE CUSTOMER SERVICE! UPHOLD NEVER PICS UP THE PHONE! How can this agency have a license to transact electronic currency? Corruption!
Indeed. My complaints are filed with CFPB, FTC, soon FIRA
Uphold is and absolute joke at best and a complete fraud at the worst. I have been trying to contact their so called “support” non-stop for quite a while JUST TO CHANGE MY EMAIL ADDRESS. Not one word from them! No response, nothing. Do no use this company! I cannot get my money out due to the stupid 2-step verification that sends an email to my non-working email address.
I earn interests on bitcoins I hold on the AxisOption wallet platform.
Fraud! They have no fraud Department! Do any of you understand trading? Uphold does not allow “tick b tick” settlement! A trader has to guess a sum, submit that sum for profit back to your bank, and by the time you go thru all the hoop-la-la the sum you typed in is LOWER! Get it! A fly trap! How is this legal? How can these internet corporations including Facebook transact currency exchange and NOT HAVE A FRAUD DEPARTMENT!?
ZERO stars would be a better description. Uphold is the TYPICAL used car salesman. If you want to buy, the price is UP. If you want to sell, the price, or demand is ‘magically’ LOW. Uphold does NOT give you the actual market price on a stock. They inflate the price and ask if you’re willing to spend that much. THEN, when you want to sell, your valuation has gone down because they are not willing to give you that same price. Go sell your used ’68 Camaro and the values are historically LOW. Try and buy a ’68 Camaro however, and the values are soaring to record numbers. The algorithm can easily track your habits and you can start on a good note. Then, you lose a little here, little there. Pretty soon your stocks are worthless.
I don’t know what the fuck any of these reviews are talking about. I have used uphold for 2 years now with 0 issues. Yes there are fees but that’s with any exchange. I have never an account issue. Maybe you guys don’t know what the fuck your doing. I never even needed to submit a ticket for anything. Their app just works.
Stay away from Uphold, far away! I have transferred xrp from coinbase to uphold yesterday morning. First a smaller amount which went through right away, then a large amount, which took a few hours. As soon as it was available, they restricted my account from withdrawing the funds to my bank account. They requested employers name and address, which I don’t have since i am self employed, screenshot of bank account or coinbase account and annual income. I have no idea for what they need all this information as I am not applying for a loan, but just want MY MONEY. I sent everything promptly though, but it is not their business to ask me for my annual income and all that stuff to get MY money that was only transferred to uphold so I can withdraw it, since coinbase did suspend xrp. I need this money asap or I would have never sold my xrp. I have not received any further reply to my many inquiries. I cannot wait 5 or 6 days with a daily withdraw limit of $10K. This would take an eternity to get all my money. I am losing out on some big deals. Had I known this before that I have to go through so many time consuming emails and stuff, I would have sent my xrp to another wallet and already have the funds by now. I do not recommend this site, never had any withdraw problems of large amounts at coinbase. After I sent my negative review on Trustpilot someone responded, telling me it’s the law for security reasons. If that was the case,
t hey would not be able to allow me trading my money for coins either. I am only restricted to withdraw to my bank account, not from buying coins to make them money. This seems to be just an excuse to make some interest on other people’s money for a few days. Very shady and immoral to say the least. I will warn everyone to sign up with them and tell them about this experience. I have traded in other venues and never experienced anything like this.
28 hours later no update at all. Keeping my account locked so I cannot withdraw my money. Emotional stress, loss of opportunities, wasted time. Stay away from this site. It seems like they do this with everyone who transfers big money from another wallet to their wallet. This is how they earn interest on peoples money. It is unlawful to ask me for a screenshot of my bank account and yearly income as i am not applying for a mortgage or loan. I just need MY MONEY to be released. It is not Their money, but mine and they have no right to keep it. I will call a lawyer on Monday to see what my options are. One should think that info they request, should be requested upfront when people open an account with them, not later when people transfer money, so they can give you a illegit reason to freeze your money. I am predicting this company won’t last long as those reviews spread like a wildfire and once everyone know how you operate and keep people’s money locked up, no one will sign up with you any more. I wish I had read these reviews before I signed up. Big regrets and I urge everyone who had or has the same negative experience like I and many others have, spread the word, so they can’t do this to other people any more.
Horrible customer service – they locked my deposit with no explanation 100% do not recommend
I believe uphold.com are a fraudulent company.. I suddenly started receiving Welcome emails from them.. I had no idea they even existed. Reached out to their Fraud prevention email address.. No response.
Complete scam. Even after a 65 “cooldown” period, still can’t get my money out. They ignore service tickets, so no response.
SCAM! SCAM! SCAM!
A company to avoid
Impossible to get my money back after two months of exchange with the support.
Scammers to suit
I will inform the SEC in USA
Ive just had Uphold.com try to take money from my current account fraudulently. Please be aware! I have never had any dealings with these people and I certainly do not want to! Beware!
Uphold is scam ,I think the whole system is bullshit ,Brave wants to credit you funds for using their browser and paying you to receive ads,that is great.However only being able to withdraw your fund from Uphold wallet smells fishy.They are in cahoots ,I had $14 in BAT and wanted to familiarize myself with process so I exchange BAT for BTC and then send it out of Uphold to my trezor. All in all I was left with $6 dollars in BTC with all the fees and fees. This I call a scam,so Uphold received the equivalent $ value of about 60 brave ads that I received. So brave wants to pay you for accepting the marketing ads and then Uphold takes half your money that you accumulated, I enjoy the Brave browser and their ads however seems to me that that the peeps from Brave are definitely involved in Uphold ,Why wouldn’t they give you an address for your BAT so you can transfer it out for minimal fees and excahnge it with the excahnge of your choice.It all smells fishy to me .And yes the Customer service is terrible. Uphold and Brave are the same thing. Brave pays you for the ads then takes fees for trying to take your money out of your wallet .it is a pretty sad. Had to wait weeks to get verified and they claim it takes minutes ,Bull
Uphold pushes their 2nd means verification whether you want it or not. That means if you lose access to your email, they will not accept a 2nd email or a phone number to send SMS messages. Every confirmation email will go to your original email and you are in trouble if you can’t get access to it.
Other sites will let you change the email without 2FA, but Uphold will be dicks about it and force you into a system that eventually will turn against you. This means I’ll be starting a class action lawsuit with other unhappy Uphold customers. Contact me so we can get started on this.
Total scam. They took my $2500 when I bought lite coin. They closed my account immediately they deducted the money. I message them and they replied after many trial that my money will be refunded after 60 days, it’s over 75 days already and I still did not get anything. They are total scam. They even sent me a fake refund email. DO NOT USE.
UPHOLD is a nightmare. DO NOT OPEN AN ACCOUNT NOR DEPOSIT MONEY. YOU MAY NEVER SEE IT AGAIN. I could not get my money back. Could not get customer service. 2 layer authentication sent me in an email/app loop and I was not able to transfer my money back to my account after they took 10% fees.
This is a totally scam! They put my account on hold for review when I tried to transfer my bitcoin worth of $200 to my another bitcoin wallet. They sent me an email regarding the issue in my account and submitted all the documents that they requested from me. Also, I sent them multiple emails but unfortunately, did not receive any reply from them since then. This is a totally scam!
Never saw a crooked website like theirs. They litterally stole my money 150$ by closing my account while I was transfering coins. Now I can’t have any answer, I suppose I won’t ever see my money back… Total scam!
Every review here is fraudulent. Uphold is a superior service and the fee schedule is one of the lowest available. They make their money via exotics. I agree customer service is lacking, but hey, at least they’re transparent and carry 110% account value in fiat, which is absurd. I believe Uphold has, like 100% the wealth of one of the PayPal founders…like, he seeded all of his money in backing Uphold. As always, the best reviews are the efforts of your own due diligence.
i have had nothing but trouble from uphold.
they still have my money and will not answer their phone or emails.
i am in the process of getting the financial ombudsman to deal with this.
nobody should use uphold.
After hearing about cryptocurrency through a family member, i should say i dont have money to throw around, i decided to invest £3500 which i transferred to UPHOLD EUROPE LTD. i then transferred into USDT. I then tried to transfer to my external wallet which failed due to sending to the wrong address, so it actually came back into my uphold wallet, after speaking to uphold support they closed my account sending me an email saying my funds would be sent back to me in 7 to 10 days. i am still waiting for the funds and my emails are being ignored. if exchanges are trying to promote more adoption to the markets and exchanges are treating potential new customers in this way, i guarantee that it will damage the reputation of not only UPHOLD EUROPE LTD but also the crypto space as a whole.
if you are reading this and can help in anyway get my funds returned id be obliged £3500 is a lot of money to me and would welcome seeking other avenues to obtaining my money back, further more i am have many social media groups the largest of which is on Facebook with over 50k members so if i dont get a satisfactory conclusion to this i will be presenting a special report on UPHOLD EUROPE LTD, be warned if you want to get a reputation for fraudulent activity sort it out!!!!!
This company tried to withdrawal funds out out my account costing me 150.00 on od fees when them we’re suppose to be depositing and I still haven’t gotten my earnings since July.
This company took my money, when I pressed their button to copy my receiving Uphold wallet address, it copied a similar address with all lower case letters instead of lowers and uppers like the actual address was displayed. Only afterwards did I find out after viewing the blockchain transaction because my money did not show up in my Uphold wallet, yet was verified through blockchain.
I received a small amount of BTC from a family member using the Uphold wallet. I tried to open my Uphold wallet, but for some reason I did not understand, the system did not accept it. The digital wallet in my name never opened. Although Uphold reports that it will send back the amount between 5-7 days, it keeps it for more than 20 days and does not make the refund transaction. Customer support is absolutely awful and not working. There are only automatic answers and call center personnel who cannot produce solutions. I think Uphold doesn’t deserve even a single star. The best thing is to find a different digital wallet that doesn’t upHOLDING your money.
How uphold.com have withdrawn my £40k and gave $50 compensation to say “shut up”.
I would like to share my story about uphold.com how the company is violating his own rules by reversing the trading and holding my initial deposit for 24 hours and making me lose in potential profit.
I have bought an XTZ on 12/03/2020 at 22:14 in the app at a low rate and as a result, I had 334,797 XTZ which in an hour made the total amount of fiat on my account approximately of £ 40k.
But in a few hours all my 334,797 XTZ (approx. £40k) have been withdrawn with the reference credited to uphold team and shortly after I received a copy-paste email from uphold.com:
“Due to a system error, your recent ZRX trade has been reversed. Please accept our sincere apologies. The source of the error has now been fixed. This is a very rare event and we will be crediting your account with $50 as a way of saying sorry for the inconvenience.
Thanks for your understanding.”
$50? – That is so ridiculous when the potential profit of my initial deposit could it be 10x more.
After all, I wanted a transference explanation of why my ZRX trade has been reversed.
I understand that a very low rate could be caused by a system error, according to the uphold.com, but at the time of the trading and even for several hours after, there were no notifications about it, and only at 2 a.m. an official announcement appeared on the site.
But obviously, if the users will lose their money by trading on uphold.com platform, uphold team will never do the reverse of the transaction. So what is the point then to trade on uphold.com?
Even worse, I didn’t have the luck of communication either, they been ignoring my emails for 3 days and closing all the tickets that I have raised thru the help centre by making them solved without any reply.
If you do think to make some money by trading on uphold.com then is not the platform that you can trust as you can never be sure when they will reverse the transaction, according to the needs, and also they do have a high fee on trading but they are saying no on the first web pages but if you do some research on the web you will find it.
Total fucking scam. Withdrew 10 dollars in bitcoin just to see how this site operated. They took out nearly $6 leaving me with $4.07 after fees. They took out MORE than half of what I withdrew! How are they able to stay in business with a business model like this? SPREAD THE WORD, this site is a SCAM!
Uphold is totally rubbish. I would avoid them like a Chinese plague.
Their fees are high….
Customer support is run by a hand full of uneducated monkeys who are hopeless.
I added a bank card to my account for which they have already seen my identity and pictures of my card added. Now they want to see the same identity again and are asking for pictures for all my previous cards added…. how dumb and stupid can you be?
These guys are retarded…. they will make you angry for no reason.
Never use these retards again!
The new Brave web browser uses Uphold for their BAT (Basic Attention Token) feature. Brave promises you a 70% cut of the advertising revenues they receive when you view ads provided by Brave. It’s an interesting idea. So, I began setting up an Uphold account and found how much information is being requested by Uphold. As the review says, “We strongly advise not to create an account with them if providing information through the internet is not your thing!”
I’m now in the process of (unsuccessfully, so far) having my Uphold account deleted. Given the hurdles the company has put forth so far (yes, through a somewhat brain-dead ticketing system), I’m pessimistic that they will indeed delete my account and/or the data I’ve already provided. I advise caution in dealing with Uphold.
No matter the outcome, I personally won’t be dealing with Uphold — or Brave — further.
It was very easy to set up my account and give them thousands of dollars now that I want to use it there is always a reason why I cant went through the verification process 7 times but they still say they cant prove its me wanting my money,,,,,i think it is a scam and i think I have lost my money
very bad experience .i not happy uphold thanks
I’ve tried getting my account verified about 5 times with no luck I believe that uphold have been attacked and have lost money that is why uphold is not verifying any new account
I applied to join Uphold, supplied the verification details, and waited and waited. Eventually I received an email saying the account had been activated. In the next breath a subsequent email arrived temporarily suspending the account for unspecified “security” reasons. I raised this with their support, trying to understand their reasons. After further lengthy delay a support email came back announcing my account had been permanently suspended.
To be honest I’d already decided not to use them because of their application processing delay, but after a 40 year long career in IT and Banking, I’m baffled as to the security concerns.
Uphold is really a weird, and extremely automated service, to the point there are no personnel working there. They act very irresponsibly and very unprofessionally, especially on anything dealing with verification. You can be sending them e-mails and all that they do is reply with bot e-mails. Plus, no phone number is used for support, showing their avoidance for serving their customers. 100% shady and NOT recommended.
I’m not finding any of these negative reviews accurate at all. I’ve had no issues and customer service was very nice. I am verified too, I supplied what was asked and had no problems. No I’m not a “bot.”
Hidden fees lack of transparency and overall a frustrating experience.
Charged me 10% for a withdraw instead of their official rate of 1.5%.They have their own ‘price rate’ which they don’t consider as a fee (nor do they present it anywhere) that is 8% lower than the market price.
Lack of transparency, wou’dnt recommend using their service, wouldn’t do so again myself.
This exchange sucks they have my money tied up for 24 hours on a deposit? I tried to cancel it and they refuse to comply? It’s a $200 deposit are they that broke the can’t cancel a $200 transaction? I’m pretty sure it’s a scam and I’ll never see that money again
Beware of this company. I signed up with Uphold early Jan 2018. Recently, they sent a request for KYC info. Now, they are using their KYC as an excuse to suspend my account indefinitely! I provided my Drivers licence, Passport card, Bank Statement, A picture of me holding my ID, a screen shot of my bank webpage, and a Utility bill with my address. Then they say the screen shot needs to have my name, my full bank account number, and recent transactions. However, my banking webpage does not show the full account number so they pointed that out. I told them my dilemma but that still insisted… Next I was able to show the account number on the screenshot but then they said my name was not shown on the page. I then pointed out my name was at the top of the page. I have yet to here a response from customer service. I have never been asked for a screenshot of my Bank Account webpage… Their excuse is that they are heavily regulated… if 2 government issued ID’s, a bank statement, a Utility bill with my address isn’t good enough for these people then I think they are full of it. I have provided KYC info to Kraken, Gemini, HBUS and many other accounts and Uphold is held to a higher standard? Now I can’t access my account. I asked several times for a phone number to call and all I get is a canned response stating that per my agreement that upon request I need to provide the requested documents….Wow… no number to call, runaround responses, falsely stating that my screenshot did not have my name when it is shown at the top…this is seeming more and more like a big scam! Just wanted to warn others who still can to consider protecting your assets from an indefinite suspension by Uphold… Please Be careful!
A scam company. The positive reviews must be bots. They verified me as a user right up to the point where I gave them money. After they received my USD they froze my account until I was a “verified user”….they now have everything to steal identities. DO NOT TRUST THIS COMPANY!!!! They will steal your money with no repercussions on their end
Beware of this company’s KYC requirements. They are asking for a screen shot of my bank account transactions which has your full account number, bank name, and your full name. My bank website does not provide this. Now my account is locked until I provide them with the information that I cannot get! I already provided them with my driver’s licence, passport, bank account statement, garbage bill with my address and it’s still not enough for these people. Wow! All I can say is beware…
Two whom it may concern, I had a tech and then a supervisor from Uphold go into my wallets and withdraw all of my funds from my Bitcoin and half of my holdings from my Ripple account ,I was screaming at them both to stay out of my wallets and I could not stop either of them .
they both told me that they needed full access to my computer to verify my Bittrix account to their Uphold account.
they have blocked my number at customer support, they blocked my Bittrix sign in page and kept my money.
I am mortified on what they did to me , I am Disabled and have very little income , this is my life savings and I pray that I get it back.
I have consulted with a Attorney and he said they have no right on what they did and if I dint get my money back he will go after Uphold.
There are wallet address and they can track the withdraws, and Bittrix are full aware that I did not give Uphold permission to withdraw my funs.
I was told by Uphold that all of my funds will be returned to me with in 24 hours.
ill keep EVERYBODY posted.
I will be reaching out to Brad Garlinghouse from Ripple to let him know how Uphold is treating his clients, I really sure he will be looking into this aswell.
I’ve only been with UPHOLD for two weeks but so far they’ve done everything they promised. I’m really liking them a bunch! Hopefully, everyone agrees.