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Wells Fargo Bans Cryptocurrency Purchases On Its Credit Cards (bloomberg.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the no-longer-available dept.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: Wells Fargo customers hoping to use their credit cards to buy Bitcoin will have to look elsewhere. While putting a prohibition on such cryptocurrency purchases for now, Wells Fargo "will continue to evaluate the issue as the market evolves," Shelley Miller, a spokeswoman, said in an emailed statement. Wells Fargo joins Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America, which limited cryptocurrency purchases on their credit cards in February, citing market volatility and credit risks. Lenders have said they're worried they'd be left on the hook if a borrower lost money on a digital currency bet and couldn't repay. A study conducted by LendEDU last year found that roughly 18 percent of Bitcoin investors used a credit card to fund the purchases. Of those, 22 percent couldn't pay off their balance after buying the digital coin.

4 of 129 comments (clear)

  1. Good by war4peace · · Score: 4, Interesting

    As someone who's interested in the crypto market and believes it does gave future, I applaud this decision.
    Generating debt by buying cryptocurrencies is stupid.

    --
    ...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
  2. What else is prohibited? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Interesting

    What other charges or goods/services does Wells Fargo prohibit customers using their credit cards for?
    As long as product/service is legal, don't see how this is legal. Image Wells Fargo prohibiting purchases of Girl Scout Cookies, or changes to grocery stores that Wells Fargo doesn't own.

    1. Re:What else is prohibited? by bloodhawk · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Their money, Their rules. A credit card is not a guarantee of funds for anything you desire. You sign up to terms and conditions for an unsecured loan and part of those conditions are rules that determine things they will not extend credit for. Also part of those rules you agree to is they can change that list anytime they deem fit. This is status Quo for pretty much all credit cards, While I don't deal with Wells Fargo I imagine they are the same.

  3. Makes sense by duke_cheetah2003 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I can already smell the scam: Get a credit card, buy cryptocurrency, tear up credit card and refuse to pay. Technically, all you have is 'tokens' that're not legal tender in any government. They are technically worthless, so they can't be seized by a court.

    And even if by some twist of logic, some court did decide to rule Cryptocurrency isn't a token, but it is in fact a legal tender, or commodity, or whatever.. still, you're going to have a real tough time trying to extract cryptocurrency from any individual.

    The normal collections methods are not going to affect cryptocurrencies in any way, shape or form. In REALITY, cryptocurrency coins are literally NOTHING.

    But I imagine a clever criminal will find a way to mask the purchase to make this work out, anyway. So .. no solutions here, nothing more than a: Good luck with that!