Worldpay, Visa faces series of complaints over cryptocurrency charges

The two world’s biggest payments processing companies Worldpay and Visa is now facing charges over cryptocurrency charges.

Reports suggested that the two payments processing companies Worldpay and Visa are at the center of complaints from cryptocurrency traders after erroneous charges were levied on their accounts.

The complaints of dozens of users of America’s biggest cryptocurrencies exchange, Coinbase, was aired to Reddit, the social network, late last week to complain about unexpected charges on credit and debit cards used to buy digital currency.

Some people claimed their bank accounts had been wiped out before refunds were applied, while others said they were hit with overdraft fees. 

“I was charged four times and it completely drained my account,” claimed one user on Reddit. 

Blame for the charges initially fell on Coinbase, which has grown rapidly over the past year as digital currencies such as bitcoin have hit the headlines.

Coinbase has in the past faced other payments issues, including earlier this year a bout of seriously delayed wire transfers. However, the group was not to blame for the erroneous charges this time.

Over the weekend Worldpay and Visa issued a joint a statement conceding that “this issue was not caused by Coinbase”.

Two sources with direct knowledge of the situation said that the problem related to the merchant category code (MCC) that the payment processers assigned to Coinbase.

MCCs are crucial for transactions processing as they help card issuers assess the risk of accepting a transaction. 

Meanwhile, addressing on the issue Coinbase claimed on Thursday that Visa had caused the problem, but Visa denied that it made “any systems changes that would result in the duplicate transactions cardholders are reporting”. 

In a statement, Worldpay said that “we are actively working with and engaging all parties involved — including the card networks, issuing banks, other processors and Coinbase — to resolve this issue”. 

Worldpay did not respond to further requests for comment. 

The row is the latest loopholes between the rapidly growing crypto industry and the traditional financial sector, and illustrates the complex issues faced by the financial institutions as a growing number of individuals seek to pile into the cryptocurrencies market in the world.

It can be remembered that regulators in countries including the US, Germany and France have spoken out recently about their concerns over a lack of clear rules for digital currencies, in contrast to the highly-regulated financial industry.