This winter JPMorgan Chase on par with other outstanding US and UK banks declared it would bar its "patrons" from purchasing cyber assets with their credit card. Among them, there were Virgin Money, Lloyds Banking Group as well as Citigroup.
Financial institutions resorted to such measures, as they said, to avoid loss risks as crypto-coins are highly volatile and there would be no guarantee that their customers would pay them back. That occurred right after bitcoin started plummeting down to lows, which had not been seen in 2018.
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JPMorgan did not only stopped allowing its clients to buy cryptos with anything but debit cards but also began charging users unexpected fees as well as started treating the buys as cash advances.
This has led to the backlash from some JPMorgan’s clients and, ultimately, has ended up by the suit against the international investment bank.
JPMorgan Sued In a Crypto-Case
This week Reuters reported that JPMorgan had been stroke by a suit in Manhattan federal court. The financial giant got blamed for charging its customers sudden dues after it barred them from purchasing cyber-assets with credit cards.
In accordance with the report, the scandalous suit was registered on April 5 on behalf of an offered universal class. In the document it was stated that the bank charged:
- Additional fees
- Thoroughly higher interest rates on cash advances
Notably, the interest rates were imposed by JPMorgan, not on credit cards but cash advances, apparently, and those are entirely different sums. Moreover, the bank declined requests of its clients to return the charges after they lamented.
JPMorgan’s Position
Even though the official representative of the bank Mary Jane Rogers rejected to discuss directly on the suit, she explained why JPMorgan suspended processing credit cards for buying cryptos. According to her words, it happened on February 3 due to risks it carried in.
Rogers, however, emphasized, that their "patrons" could still use debit cards for the same procedures and operations without worrying about any extra fees.
The View Of The Claimant
The claimant in the case is Brady Tucker, who lives in Idaho state, US. He claimed that he faced from JPMorgan extra fees of as much as $143.30 as well as unexpected interest rates of $20.61. He was charged with all this after he had carried out five cyber money remittances in the frames of January 27 and February 2.
Therefore, the man contacted the customer support team of the bank to challenge the dues. However, JPMorgan decided not to remove the fees, Tucker claimed.
The plaintiff also said in the suit, that he is not the only one who suffered – there are hundreds of his “cancer friends.” After that, the bank remained persistent on the fact that the customer should pay the fees.
Thus, Tucker refers to the American Truth in Lending Act, according to which credit cards issuers have to let their clients know (in written) about any considerable changes regarding use or charges. The plaintiff accused the bank of not doing that.
By the way, Tucker asks the court to finalize that he needs to get $1 million for tangible and legal losses.
