Circle’s a brand-spanking-new bitcoin company out of Boston, and their Coinbase-like services are in beta (users are slowly getting invited to try out the platform).
That inevitably means that they are expected to encounter issues while they perfect their product.
One such issue, reported by a number of customers, was that upon purchasing bitcoin using the service, the end user was being charged by their credit card companies as if the transaction was a cash advance as opposed to a purchase.
What that means is hefty fees in many cases, which is certainly not the intention on the part of Circle Internet Financial.
PandoDaily‘s Michael Carney reached out to the company to inquire about the issues a slight percentage of users were experiencing, and the company says they’re very well aware of the issue.
The only problem is that they don’t know why it’s happening — but they’re investigating. Here’s what they had to say (via PandoDaily):
[blockquote style=”2″]We’ve become aware that some credit card issuing banks are erroneously processing settlements as cash advances. It is not our intent to process charges as cash advances whatsoever, and we’re investigating the issue. We understand the frustration. Since this issue does not occur across all issuing banks, and since we are not notified when it occurs, it would be helpful for any affected customers to let us know by way of email to support@circle.com.[/blockquote]
And while no information is available on just who in particular this might affect, it should serve as a slight warning if you’re planning to use the service to buy bitcoin with a credit card.
You may even want to check in with the company first to inquire as to whether or not any other customers with the same credit card have had issues.
We’ll have more information on this as developments become available.