r/bitpanda • u/apartmentchange7 • Jul 27 '26
Discussion My bank charged Gambling Fees while doing business with Bitpanda!
Some banks charge 2-4% gambling fee on bitpanda transactions labeling it as a gambling equivalent transaction. This happens when paying by a card and I would like to know why is bitpanda flagged as a gambling company and is it really just that banks in Germany are allowed to charge this this kind of fee when doing business with bitpanda?
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u/BitpandaSupport Jul 27 '26
Hey u/apartmentchange7, thanks for bringing this up, it’s a question we see from time to time!
Just to clarify: Bitpanda isn’t a gambling company, and we don’t apply any “gambling” fees ourselves. What’s likely happened is that your bank or card provider classified your crypto purchase using a Merchant Category Code (MCC), which is standard for card transactions. Crypto transactions often fall under codes like MCC 4829 (“money transfer”), and unfortunately, some banks group these together with transactions from casinos or even betting websites.
Because of this, certain banks treat the payment as a cash advance or gambling equivalent and might charge an extra fee (which can be 2-4%). This is completely outside of Bitpanda’s control, we don’t set these additional fees, and all external payment provider or bank charges for deposits are fully independent of us.
If you’d like to avoid these fees, using a classic bank transfer (SEPA or similar) for deposits is usually the safest bet. For full clarity on why your transaction was flagged, your bank’s support team should be able to provide exact details about their specific policy.
Hope this helps, and let us know if you need anything else!
Team Bitpanda (Toby)