Idaho resident sues JPMorgan for charging extra on crypto purchases

JPMorgan Chase (JPM) is being sued by one of its credit cardholders, Brady Tucker from Idaho, who claims the bank treated his cryptocurrency purchases as cash advances and charged him higher interest rates and extra fees. He claims his transactions should have been seen as purchases and he is asking for a refund of all associated fees along with $1 million in damages.

Tucker said he and his fellow cardholders opted for cryptocurrency purchases through credit cards over bank accounts to avoid the delays in processing. He said if the bank had informed them of its policy change, he would have avoided the purchases and the related fees. He accused the bank of duping its cardholders by failing to inform them of these changes. JPMorgan did not comment on the issue.

The lawsuit comes at a time when many financial institutions such as JPMorgan, Citigroup, and Bank of America have begun blocking or restricting cryptocurrency purchases. One might also recall JPMorgan chief Jamie Dimon’s harsh comments calling bitcoin a ‘fraud’ and its traders ‘stupid’, ones which he later regretted.

At a separate forum on Wednesday, Jamie Dimon said the U.S. economy looked pretty good and that although there will be a decline sometime, growth was most likely to continue. He said looking at jobs, wages and consumer credit, growth seemed strong for this year and part of next year. He also hinted at the certainty of another recession without any clue on its timing. He called for better policies and regulations to facilitate smooth economic growth.

JPMorgan has plans to broaden its footprint by about 8% and open around 400 new branches, including ones in Boston, Washington DC, and Philadelphia. Dimon said technology has a huge role to play in banking.

JPMorgan is all set to report its first-quarter 2018 earnings on Friday.