Crypto debit cards: an overview and comparison of existing options

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Avatar for Piliz
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4 years ago

You might have heard of the MCO Visa card, or the Uphold card, but these are not the only options available if you want to seamlessly spend your crypto coins when you go shopping. I have gathered a list of the main cards that allow you to do so, their prices and limitations, to help you choose which one fits your needs the best. Whether you want to be able to spend dozens of different assets, or if, like me, you love cashback rewards, I'm sure you'll find a card for you in this list!

I tried to stick to the facts I have found on each website, and not give a personal opinion. This post is an unbiased list of options, meant to help you make a choice. For that reason, there is no particular order.

/!\ Disclaimer: As you may gather from this post only, there are MANY companies offering crypto debit cards, I have omitted some, I may have forgotten some, I do not claim this post to be complete, so if you don't see a project you know and like, feel free to comment about it down below and I can add it to the list!

So let's get right into it!

 

Uphold

Provider

Mastercard

Fees and limits

  • $9.95 issuance fee

  • $2.50 per withdrawal ($3.50 international withdrawals)

  • $10000 daily spending limit (no purchase fee)

  • $1500 daily ATM withdrawal limit ($500 per transaction)

Spendable assets

27 fiat currencies, 30 crypto assets and 4 metals.

Availability

United States, soon to be deployed in Europe.

Cashback

  • 2% when spending crypto

  • 1% when spending fiat

Referral program

No referral program

Bonus

No need to change your assets to fiat before using the card, you can spend gold or Bitcoin seamlessly.

 


Coinbase

Provider

VISA

Fees and limits

  • One time issuance fee: 4.95€

  • 200€ monthly ATM withdrawal, 1% fee per transaction after

  • 3% international purchase transaction fee

Spendable assets

BTC, ETH, LTC, BCH, XRP, BAT, REP, ZRX, and XLM.

Availability

Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and the UK.

Cashback

No cashback.

Referral program

No referral program specific to the card, but Coinbase pays $10 to you and your referees when they buy $100 of crypto.

Bonus

Like Uphold, no need to change your crypto assets to fiat before using the card. If you only have, say, Bitcoin in your Coinbase account, the conversion will be made upon payment with the card. Even though it is convenient, it also has a major drawback if you want spend at a time where the rates are not at your advantage, so be careful.

 


Wirex

Provider

VISA

Fees and limits

  • 1.20€ monthly maintenance fee in Europe, no monthly fee in the rest of the world

  • 2.25€ ATM withdrawal fee

  • No spending fee (online/offline)

  • $10000 spending limit per day

  • $250 ATM withdrawal limit per day

  • No maximum balance

Spendable assets

18 different fiat and crypto assets.

Availability

Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, and the UK.

Cashback

  • Up to 1.5% cashback on all in-store purchases (depending on how much WXT, their private token, you own, the percentage goes from 0.5% to 1.5%)

Referral program

  • $5 when referee buys $100 of crypto (Europe)

  • $5 when referee first uses their card for an in-store purchase (Europe)

  • $5 in BTC for both users (rest of the world)

 


BitWala

Provider

Mastercard

Fees and limits

  • 3000€ maximum transaction amount per day, 5000€ for online spendings

  • No monthly fee, no ATM withdrawal fee, no payment fee

  • They apply regular Mastercard exchange rates for non-euro purchases

Spendable assets

BTC and ETH.

Availability

Europe.

Cashback

No cashback.

Referral program

  • 20€ credited to your account for every account created using your referral link

 


Monolith

Provider

VISA

Fees and limits

  • No monthly fee

  • 1.75% non-euro or pound sterling purchase

  • 1.50€ ATM withdrawal fee

  • 1% top-up fee

  • 8000€ daily spend limit

  • 350€ daily ATM withdrawal limit

Spendable assets

ETH, TKN, DAI, DGD, DGX, MKR, SAI and USDT.

Availability

Europe and UK.

Cashback

No cashback.

Referral program

No referral program.

Bonus

Completely decentralised, your assets only belong to you, there is no major company handling Monolith cards. 

 


Plutus

Provider

VISA

Fees and limits

There are 3 levels of account: Starter, Premium and Pro, each having different spending limits and fees, and the fees vary depending on your location. I will detail the starters fees for Europe here.

  • 9.99€ card order fee, no monthly fee afterwards (Premium and Pro accounts have monthly fees but no order fee)

  • 1.35€ + 1% per ATM withdrawal, with a 300€ limit

  • 0.57€ + 1.5% per non euro transaction

  • 2.500€ daily spending limit, 5000 monthly

  • All fees detailed: https://plutus.it/fees

Spendable assets

BTC, ETH and PLU - requires a conversion to EUR through the app

Availability

Europe and UK.

Cashback

  • 3% cashback in PLU per purchase (for Premium and Pro accounts only)

  • Up to 30% back for shopping online (for Premium and Pro accounts only)

Referral program

No referral program

 


Crypterium

Provider

VISA

Fees and limits

  • 14.99€ delivery fee

  • 5000€ online monthly spending limit, 5000€ offline monthly spending limit, 2500€ total daily spending limit

  • 500€ daily ATM withdrawals, 2500€ monthly (€3 + 1.6% fee per withdrawal)

  • 2.99€ monthly service fee - Reimbursed as cashback if topped up with at least 299€ that month

  • 2.5% of transaction value for non-Euro purchases

  • 1.5% + 0.5% gas load fee

Spendable assets

BTC, ETH, LTC, XRP, BCH, CRPT - requires a conversion to EUR through the app

Availability

Europe.

Cashback

  • Up to 0.5% per purchase

  • 2.99€ monthly fee paid back with a 299€ top up

Referral program

No referral program

 


TraStra

Provider

VISA

Fees and limits

  • 9€ order fee

  • 7700€ daily spending limit

  • 300€ daily ATM withdrawals (2.25€ fee per withdrawal)

  • 1.25€ monthly service fee

  • 3% of transaction value for non-Euro purchases

Spendable assets

BTC, ETH, BCH, LTC and XRP - requires a conversion to EUR through the app

Availability

Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and the UK.

Cashback

No cashback.

Referral program

  • 5€ for each card activation

  • 0.2% – from the exchange volume card-crypto-card (with a 6-month time cap for referral and negotiable at later stages based on volume)

 


Binance

Provider

VISA

Fees and limits

Binance issues two cards in one: a virtual one and a physical one, each with their own limits.

  • 8000€ daily spending limit (physical) / 870€ daily spending limit (virtual)

  • 20000€ monthly spending limit (physical) / 2000€ monthly spending limit (virtual)

  • 300€ monthly ATM withdrawal limit (150 per transaction)

  • up to 0.9% transaction fee on both purchases and withdrawals

Spendable assets

Binance is one of the biggest - if not the biggest - exchange that exists today, with more that 150 crypto assets available.

Availability

Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Republic of Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Gibraltar, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden.

Cashback

There are 7 levels available, based on the number of BNB (their own token) staked. Depending on the level, you will get more or less cashback.

  • Min: 1% cashback on all purchases with 0 BNB staked (level 1)

  • Max: 8% cashback on all purchases with 6000 BNB staked (level 7)

Referral program

No referral program specific to the card, but Binance has a program that allows you and your referees to get a percentage of commission back every time they make a trade on the platform.

Bonus

Like coinbase and Uphold, no need to exchange your assets for fiats before spending, the conversion will be done automatically upon payment.

 


Crypto.com

Provider

VISA

Fees and limits

There are 5 different cards offered by Crypto.com, each requiring a certain amount of CRO (their own token) staked.

  • $200 (lowest level) to $1000 (highest level) monthly free ATM withdrawal limit (after that, there is a 2% fee per withdrawal)

  • No monthly maintenance fee

Spendable assets

7 fiat and 70 cryptocurrencies - requires a conversion to fiat through the app

Availability

US, Europe and Singapore.

Cashback

  • 1% to 8% depending on the card

  • Lots of advantages (Netflix, Spotify, Amazon Prime "for free"), again depending on the level (see below in Bonus section)

Referral program

No referral program specific to the cards, but Crypto.com rewards $50 in CRO tokens for both users when the referee stakes 1000 CRO

Bonus

I think it is easier for this one to share a screenshot of the website. To make it clearer though, I will add that "getting Spotify for free" means that you subscribe to a premium Spotify account using your MCO card as the payent card, and every month you will receive the subscription price equivalent in CRO tokens. Meaning you pay for your subscription in USD (or euros, pounds...) and get reimbursed in CRO tokens, keep that in mind.


Swipe

Provider

VISA

Fees and limits

Swipe offers two cards: Saffron Orange and Slate Black (requires a 30000 SXP stake).

Saffron Orange:

  • 1000€ daily purchase limit, 10000€ monthly

  • 100€ daily ATM withdrawal, 1000€ monthly

Slate Black:

  • 8400€ daily purchase limit, 50000€ monthly

  • 320€ daily ATM withdrawal, 2400€ monthly

  • No purchase, withdrawal, ordering or maintenance fee for either card

Spendable assets

Over 30 fiat and crypto assets.

Availability

Canada, US, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Republic of Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, UK, Singapore and Australia.

Cashback

  • 1% in BTC on all purchases with Saffron Orange

  • 8% in BTC on all purchases with Slate Black

  • Specific (but capped) rebates on Apple Music, Amazon Prime, Aribnb, Starbucks, Travala, Uber, Hulu, Netflix and Spotify, paid in BTC.

Referral program

  • $10 to $50 depending on your level, and a commission on your referees' trades inside the Swipe wallet

Bonus

No need to change your crypto assets to fiat before using the card, but you need to specify the funding source in your wallet before using the card.

 

 

 

 

So there you have it, a quick overview of some of the main crypto cards available in the world today. I hope this list will help you make a decision and choose the card that fits your needs the most. You can find in the links down below all the information I exposed today, and much more, on all the official websites.

 

Thumbnail credits: Photo by Avery Evans on Unsplash

This article was first published on Publish0x, in my Crypto thoughts in a crypto world blog.

 

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