A number of Coinbase users have reported unauthorized charges to their bank accounts by the exchange and digital wallet provider, in some cases draining all their funds and leaving customers with large overdraft fees.
Posting on the Coinbase subreddit, customers indicated that previous, legitimate withdrawals from their bank accounts were wrongly duplicated multiple times.
“My bank account went from very comfortable to negative balance, not to mention extra $5 charges, and overdraft fees,” wrote one user. “As a result my rent check bounced, and my bank went further into negative for a [non-sufficient funds] charge for $25. My landlord is not a nice person and is on my CASE and I have nothing to offer him. I am FREAKING OUT.”
A Reddit post attributed to a Coinbase staff member said the problem was potentially related to the company’s recent decision to disable credit cards as a payment option on its platform.
An update of the post from 9:37am PST read:
“We can confirm that the unexpected charges are originating from our payment processing network, and are related to charges from previous purchases. To the best of our knowledge, these unexpected charges are not permanent and are in the process of being refunded. We are running joint investigations with all parties involved, and will provide updates as we receive them.”
In a follow-up statement on Twitter, Coinbase said that the issue “is related to the recent MCC code change by the card networks and card issuers charging additional fees.”
“We have identified a solution and any future purchases will not be affected by this issue. We will ensure any customer affected by this issue is fully refunded for any incorrect charge,” the company continued. “We expect this to happen for customers automatically through their bank.”
According to the The Verge, these complaints started around two weeks ago, but have intensified in the past 24 hours.
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Disclosure: CoinDesk is a subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which has an ownership stake in Coinbase.
This story has been updated with comment from Coinbase.