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Bitcoin Ban Expands Across Credit Cards as Big U.S. Banks Recoil

posted by Fnord666 on Sunday February 04 2018, @10:34PM   Printer-friendly
from the too-much-risk dept.

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard

A growing number of big U.S. credit-card issuers are deciding they don't want to finance a falling knife.

JPMorgan Chase & Co., Bank of America Corp. and Citigroup Inc. said they're halting purchases of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies on their credit cards. JPMorgan, enacting the ban Saturday, doesn't want the credit risk associated with the transactions, company spokeswoman Mary Jane Rogers said.

Bank of America started declining credit card transactions with known crypto exchanges on Friday. The policy applies to all personal and business credit cards, according to a memo. It doesn't affect debit cards, said company spokeswoman Betty Riess.

And late Friday, Citigroup said it too will halt purchases of cryptocurrencies on its credit cards. "We will continue to review our policy as this market evolves," company spokeswoman Jennifer Bombardier said.

Source: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-02-02/bofa-to-decline-all-cryptocurrency-transactions-on-credit-cards

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 05 2018, @04:51PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 05 2018, @04:51PM (#633323)

    The Bitcoin, valued at over $8300 at this writing according to CNN Money [cnn.com], is probably not a good investment

    Yet you are still more likely to get more of your money back when investing in Bitcoin, than if buying a lottery ticket. Yet I don't think the banks block buying lottery tickets (I never tried, though).

  • (Score: 2) by rcamera on Monday February 05 2018, @05:14PM

    by rcamera (2360) on Monday February 05 2018, @05:14PM (#633334) Homepage Journal

    you can't buy lottery tickets with a credit card in many jurisdictions. that's a function of the state, though, not the credit card company.

    --
    /* no comment */

  • (Score: 2) by requerdanos on Monday February 05 2018, @05:19PM

    by requerdanos (5997) Subscriber Badge on Monday February 05 2018, @05:19PM (#633336) Journal

    I don't think the banks block buying lottery tickets (I never tried, though).

    I think the blocking works the other way around.

    The merchants selling the lottery tickets (mostly gas stations and grocery stores) only allow cash purchases, or in some instances, cash or debit card. I haven't seen a merchant that offers lottery tickets for sale with credit card as a method of payment.

    This is presumably because a credit card holder can contact the card issuer and report a transaction to be withdrawn, causing the merchant to lose the money to a "chargeback." In that event, the merchant has lost the money without recourse--they must pay the state or jurisdictional lottery association for tickets sold no matter what. Tickets can't be "voided," to avoid a fraud scenario wherein a merchant sells tickets to customers and then voids them to avoid paying the lottery association for the tickets.