Originally Posted by
crabbing
because coin purchases are effective cash advances without the cash advance fee.
No. For actual cash advances, Amex doesn't get the merchant fee money, so they collect it from the cardmember (in spades). USBank is really pulling one over on their customers, by charging the Mint fees, and then not passing the benefits on to the customers. It's much more fair to just not allow the transaction (or cancel the card) than to steal the money like USBank does.
In any case, they can't charge cash advance fees without prior agreement or a pin code.