If you want to take advantage of the Bitcoin craze and put it on your credit card, you may be out of luck there. According to a report from Bloomberg, three major banks have come out and said that they will not allow cryptocurrency purchases to be made on their credit cards.
Citigroup, Bank of America and JP Morgan Chase all confirmed to Bloomberg that they have been halting transactions involving digital currency purchases with their credit cards. If you’re a Bank of America customer, spokeswoman Betty Riess says that customers will still be allowed to use their debit cards for digital currency transactions. Apart from these three companies, Discover and Capital One have previously said that they will also not allow their cards to be used for cryptocurrency transactions.
Not allowing cryptocurrency transactions is a logical move for credit card companies. Bloomberg notes that digital currencies can be a big problem for lenders if their customers aren’t able to repay loans, or if stolen cards are used to purchase cryptocurrency. It doesn’t help the fact that it’s also untraceable.
Cryptocurrencies bring a lot of doubt and less monitoring capabilities for the companies, especially since they are required to be on the look out for signs of money laundering.
