I (and probably many of you) just received a notice from Coinbase (copied in full below).  It warned that the Merchant Category Code (MCC) for digital currency purchases was changed by a number of the major credit card networks and that the new code will allow banks and card issuers to charge additional "cash advance" fees.

Clearly, the rent-seeking parasites believe that they have found yet another way to take your money for no reason other than "because they can".

DO NOT GIVE THEM YOUR HARD-EARNED MONEY!!!

Debit cards are immune to this charge and should therefore become the default method of purchase.

Dear Coinbase Customer 

We’re writing because you have a credit card on file and want to inform you of a recent change that may increase the cost of purchasing digital currency with a credit card.    

Recently, the MCC code for digital currency purchases was changed by a number of the major credit card networks. The new code will allow banks and card issuers to charge additional "cash advance" fees. These fees are not charged or collected by Coinbase. These additional fees will show up as a separate line item on your card statement.    

Coinbase does not know whether or not your card issuer collects these fees, nor do we know how much they might collect. As a result, we would strongly suggest switching to a debit card or bank account as your primary payment method. You can do that on the following page: https://www.coinbase.com/settings/linked-accounts.    

We apologize for any inconvenience this might cause.  

  Best,

 The Coinbase Team