Mt Gox has redeemed itself in my eyes. I waited 3 months for an earlier regular swift withdrawal. Cancelled it and requested expedited 5% fee withdrawal instead. Today, about 2 weeks later, just like they promised, he money hit my account. 5 figure USD amount
Wow, "expedited" or "emergency" 5% withdrawal that takes between 2 weeks and 4 weeks to clear... So much for the "emergency"
Honestly, I still think what I wrote weeks ago: the 5% fee is just a desperate attempt to make some extra money to cover Gox's losses. The BS about "the traditional banking system" not able to keep up with their volume is UTTER BS, guys I hope you know what Occam's Razor indicates here: Gox is doing fractional reserve with customers money, they have a huge $10M hole and they are struggling to cover it, and that's the only reason of the huge delays in withdrawals.
I did use the word expedited but not emergency. I dont think Gox refers to it as emergency either. At the time I placed my order, I was told the queue for expedited manual withdrawals would take 2 weeks to clear: it was precise to the very day.
You could be right: maybe gox takes the 5% haircut to cover losses. All I know is, the current regular withdrawal is broken (possibly intentionally but no one knows for sure)and finally I got a large sum of money on the promised timeline for once, and fee or no, at least now people know its a proper workable option. I'm sharing it here because I don't know how much longer this window will remain open. If there was serious money at stake I'm sure this information will be useful to some users.
I'm just happy to get my money. 5% is a small fee as opposed to 10% of the bitstamp exit strategy or 100% of never getting your money out. I've made enough from investing in bitcoin, I don't mind sacrificing a little money to put the cash in my hand