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The best of the crypto debit card is here in APAC, Europe, Canada and the US and with lots of benefits like free Spotify/Netflix/Lounge

Royal Indigo 10 000 CRO (10K CRO) Card

Table of Contents：

1. CRO Visa Card Introduction
   ⒈ CRO Token Ecosystem
   ⒉ Types of CRO Visa Card
   ⒊ ⭐ Analyzing CRO Visa Card

2. ⭐ Things You Should Know Before Using the Card

3. Start Shopping and Withdrawals

4. ⭐ Conclusion (Pros and Cons)

• 2020/8/8 updates: MCO have been replaced by CRO

I believe that every crypto fan knows about the current situation of blockchain/cryptocurrency. Liquidity is one of the difficulties caused by regulations, high volatility, adoption, etc. This problem leads to only a few merchants accepting cryptocurrency as a payment method. When ICO exploded in 2017, there were some companies that want to cooperate with the international transaction facility like VISA/MasterCard. The most notable ones were Crypto.com and TenX. Almost two years have passed and regulations gradually became clearer, giving those companies the ability to issue their cards. Finally, a lot of crypto fans, like me, can now have the chance to spend cryptos in our daily lives!

👉 TL;DR Click me to know the conclusion and apply for the card!

Now supported countries are Europe, Canada, the US and APAC regions: Singapore 🇸🇬、臺灣 🇹🇼、Hong Kong 🇭🇰、대한민국 🇰🇷、ไทย 🇹🇭、Philippines 🇵🇭、Vietnam 🇻🇳 (The card put on hold right now)、Australia 🇦🇺、New Zealand 🇳🇿。

The below content is based on the experience of the APAC card. It may have a slightly different from the US and Europe card.

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CRO Visa Card Introduction

CRO Visa Card is a card service that belongs to Crypto.com. Crypto.com (formerly Monaco) raised cryptocurrency equivalent to 2.67M dollars in min-2017. In the same period of time, there was also a project about to do the same business, TenX. They also raised cryptocurrency equivalent to 8M dollars. After some fierce competition, as we can confirm, the TenX’s community and its card issue rate both lost to Crypto.com’s. In the early days, I applied for TenX’s card, but now? Nothing. This post mainly analyzes the CRO Visa Card but first, I’ll quickly go through the CRO cryptocurrency then dive into the card details.

CRO Token Ecosystem (Now becomes CRO utility)

The utility of CRO token is now part of the CRO utility

As the above image shows, the current benefits of stacking CRO are all related to Crypto.com services like:

• Earn service (like lending): Higher lending interest rate.

• Credit service (like loan): Lower loan interest rate.

• Invest service (like financial management): Half of the fee from profit.

I’ll go through these real quick because I don’t use any of them personally. You can go check them out if you are interested. The Earn service provides 8% APR with a flexible period (which can let you withdraw anytime) or 12% APR with 3 months of being locked. It is still a bit like the Celsius platform so there is no obvious difference. I would rather put money in a low-risk platform, like Celsius, or the high-risk one, like Bitfinex (both contained referral code, please remove it if you mind). All in all, those services are more elastic and I don’t really want to put all my eggs in one basket. If you use the above Crypto.com services, you should count this kind of risk in the below evaluation.

From the point of security, Crypto.com does a pretty good job at it. They have a page describing their securities including the multi-sig wallet from Ledger Vault, code auditing, penetration testing, the security bounty program at HackerOne, and many others.

Types of CRO Visa Card

• Midnight Blue = Free to sign up for with no registration fee

Below are the types for the metal card (current ratio: 1 CRO = 0.16 USD)

• Ruby Steel = Low entry-level for staking 1K CRO (≅ 160 USD)

• Royal Indigo/Jade Green = Staking 10K CRO (≅ 1.6K USD)

• Icy White/Frosted Rose Gold = High-end for stacking 100K CRO (≅ 16K USD)

• Obsidian Black = High-end for stacking 1M CRO (≅ 160K USD)

Monthly rebate (crypto.com has the right to modify rates at any time):

• Spotify: USD 9.99

• Netflix/Amazon Prime: USD 12.99 each

• Expedia 10%: USD 50

• Airbnb 10%: USD 100

The missing part from the image (additional benefits)：

• 10K CRO tier has the CRO reward for 16% APR paid weekly.

• 100K/1M CRO tier has the CRO reward for 18% APR paid weekly.

Note:

• The above benefits are not a result of the partnership between Crypto.com and those companies. Crypto.com identifies the rebate by the merchant name or transaction ID.

• Spotify and Netflix can both use the plan you desire, for example, a family plan, but the limitations are shown above. If you exceed the limitation, you need to pay the rest of the amount. Except for the rebates, you are entitled to a certain amount of cashback with the payment you make. As shown in the image, the Netflix family plan in Taiwan is 390 NTD ≅ 17.48 SGD ≅ 12.9 USD. It’s within the rebate amount, 12.99 USD. Although, it was one dollar short, but still acceptable.

• The Spotify account needs to change the country setting to Singapore. If you don’t want to change it, you can use PayPal to bypass it (use card issuer’s exchange rate). This is because Spotify binds the country setting and the card issuer’s country for the availability of charge.

• LoungeKey is the service for free access to business lounges. Remember to register it before using it. There are some differences between 10K CRO and 100K+ CRO tier card. You can notice that the 10K CRO tier is 100 lounges lesser on the official site. I’m not sure which airports are excluded. I will leave it for you to figure out. Before using the lounge, the counter will put 3.25 USD on hold for a while. Click me to check out the details.

• Every card type should stack a corresponding amount of CRO for 6 months. In this period, the CRO can’t be unlocked. After that, you can unlock it anytime you want. However, if you unlock the CRO, you will be losing lots of benefits that come with staking (like cashback, Spotify and etc.). So, the best hedging strategy is to use the below methods: downgrade and stop-loss (i.e. sell the CRO near the cost price).

• After the CRO locking period, you can downgrade the tier. You will still have the benefits of 0 fee ATM withdrawal, interbank exchange rates, LoungeKey and a physical card. However, the remaining benefits will be downgraded to the corresponding tier (Like Spotify and Netflix). For example, 10K CRO tier downgrades to 1K CRO tier, you will be losing the Netflix rebate and dropping the cashback rate from 3% to 2%.

• You can upgrade your card tier anytime, including the locking period, for a charge of 50 USD (Singapore issued card is 50 SGD). The benefits and the physical card will be replaced.

• The Visa card is valid for 4 years.

Deeply Analyzing CRO Visa Card

Assuming that we spend 6,666 USD annually. The actual spending varies from person to person. You should change the number in the following evaluation.

💳 Plastic Blue Card

0 risk with 1% cashback. You can save 66.66 USD annually.

💳 Ruby Steel (1000 CRO ≅ 160 USD) — The best deal

You’ll breakeven starting from the 8th month, and save 103.2 USD in the first year. After that, you’ll save 253.2 USD annually.

(Spotify * 8 months + 8 months of cashback) — (value of staking the CRO — 50 USD bonus from referral code)

= (9.99*8+6666/12*8*0.02)-(200–50) = 18.8 USD (break even)

(Spotify*12 months + a year of cashback)

= 9.99*12+6666*0.02 = 253.2 USD

The best deal lies in the metal cards. After staking 6 months of 1000 CRO, you won’t need to worry about the CRO price anymore and instead enjoy your 2% cashback with free Spotify.

💳 Royal Indigo/Jade Green (10k CRO ≅ 1600 USD) — Sweatspot

By using the downgrade strategy, you can break-even in the 6th month, if the CRO price isn’t lower than 0.16$ USD. You save 630 USD annually.

Assume:

• The CRO price is stable at around 0.16$ USD

It’s a middle-risk tier because you may have a little chance to lose money short term depending on price fluctuations.

If you think the following six months is a bull market, I suggest you apply for the 10k CRO tier. Instead, if you think it will be a bear market or you don’t want to let the price bother you, the best choice is 1000 CRO tier.

💳 Icy White/Frosted Rose Gold/Obsidian Black (≥ 100K CRO) — Extreme Risky

It’s highly risky. You probably know that even I don’t evaluate it. Crypto.com still hasn’t announced the service of CRO Private or any reliable benefits.

Wallet types from Crypto.com:

• (Crypto) Wallet: Crypto stays here

• Fiat Wallet: Support lots of fiat currency

• Card (Wallet): Support a few fiat currencies for the card only

Functionality:

Fiat Wallet：

• Wire transfer to deposit and withdraw the fiat (Now support 21 currencies)

• Currency exchange in Fiat Wallet only

• Buy the crypto and store it in Crypto Wallet

Card Wallet：

• Spend the fiat in the Card Wallet through the CRO Visa Card

• Currency exchange in Card Wallet only (APAC: SGD, EUR, AUD, HKD, JPY, and GBP)

• Despoit can only be done through Crypto Wallet or Credit/Debit Card (Fee: for the Credit card is 1%, for the debit card is 0%. In Taiwan, we have another cross border fee which is 1.5%)

• The only fiat currency you can deposit in Card Wallet is SGD. For other fiat currencies, you can exchange by SGD. Like if you plan to travel to Japan in the future. You can exchange SGD to JPY when the rate is good.

• Withdrawal needs an ATM machine that supports Visa.

Crypto Wallet：

• The place to store your crypto

• Buy the crypto through other cryptos, Fiat Wallet or credit/debit card (both fees are 3.5%. Also, the bank cross-border transaction fee in Taiwan is about 1.5%) is valid.

• Sell the crypto to exchange for other cryptos, Fiat Wallet and Card Wallet are available.

• There’s only an internal transfer function for the Pay service so it’s on-chain action (with fee) if you withdraw the crypto.

The important part:

• People always confuse Fiat Wallet with Card Wallet because they both store fiat currency. However, they are not interchangeable.

• In App, the fiat from the Card Wallet can’t be transferred to other in-App wallets. You can only spend it via the card or withdraw it from the ATM.

To sum it up, before you use the CRO Visa Card, you should deposit money into your Card Wallet first.

There are two options:

1. Sell the crypto from the Crypto Wallet to Card Wallet. Currently only support BTC, ETH, LTC, XRP. For APAC region, there’s no option for stable coins but the US card has this option. Every crypto has its minimal deposit amount.

2. (It’s suitable for people who are not quite familiar with the crypto world) By using credit/debit cards to make deposits in the Card Wallet. Fee for debit card is 0 but credit card is 1%. Also, mind the bank cross-border transaction fee. In Taiwan, it is about 1.5%.

Start Shopping and Withdrawals!

Shopping:

Remember to toggle the international usage button in the card page before using it.

For physical shopping, the POS machine needs to support the cross-border transactions.

For online shopping, if the site needs the 3DS verification, the transaction will not be successful. Crypto.com’s blog has announced that they already support 3DS verification, but outside Singapore, it’s still not functional. However, you can use third-party payment services like PayPal or Line Pay to bypass this verification step.

Withdrawal：

The ATM needs to support cross-border withdrawal. Be aware that some banks will add a fee on this kind of transaction. As the image shows, I withdrew 1000 NTD from the card and my Card Wallet reduced 44.69 SGD which is the same as the exchange rate from Visa. After that day, my balance reduced a weird amount of ATM fee, 0.01 SGD. It’s still acceptable. This free-fee benefit is awesome. People can bring less money when traveling around the world. Although the free quota is not that much, it is still helpful when you run out of money in a foreign country. If the free quota is exceeded, the fee is about 2% which is more expensive than the bank card(for Taiwan users).

Conclusion (Pros and Cons)

Pros：

1. 💵 High cashback rate: Without spending a penny to apply for the card, you still have a 1% cashback benefit. It beats all the multi-currency cards in the world. Like the black card from Revolut which has this kind of benefit, but you need to pay 12.99 EUR (around 14.3 USD) monthly membership fee.

2. ✈️ Travel buddy: 0 cross-border transaction and withdrawal fee + support multiple fiat currencies (APAC card supports: SGD, EUR, AUD, HKD, JPY, GBP). Compare to Revolut’s 30 fiat currencies and TransferWise’s 50 fiat currencies, it totally loses. After you applied for the card, you can give up the use of crypto but only deposit the Card Wallet via credit/debit card to prevent the price slippage or the exchange fluctuation.

3. 🏧 Fee quota for ATM withdrawal is quite much: For ruby steel card, you have 400 SGD free quote (around 294 USD or 265.9 EUR). If the stacking CRO has already reached break-even, it’s better than Revolut’s standard account, 200 EUR.

4. Lots of benefits (Like free Spotify, Netflix, interest, free lounges, and etc.)

5. It’s suitable for newbies who are willing to try the crypto world

6. Low eligibility required for the metal card

7. Crypto spendable card

Cons:

1. Stake: People should lock the CRO for 6 months when applying for the metal card. After 6 months, you can unlock anytime. After unlocking the CRO you will be losing lots of benefits coming with staking. The best hedge strategies are downgrade and stop-loss when near the cost price.

2. Not an automatic exchange: It doesn’t directly exchange your crypto to fiat currency when purchasing. The user needs to exchange it beforehand.

To sum it up, the best card is the low-risk ruby steel card (1K CRO). People can break even really quick. It’s another better deal for applying for the 10K CRO tier’s card if you are expecting a bull market in the near future.

Referral Code: v4vw3ndg4k (You can get 50 USD in CRO equivalent. If you missed it at the registration step, you can fill it in the settings page afterward)

Conclusion:

After some trial and experiencing lots of problems, I really recommend people who have spare cash to apply for the ruby steel card. You only need around 160 USD to get the METAL CARD with lots of benefits. It’s impossible to see this deal in the market right now. If you don’t apply for it, could you live with that on your conscience?

Ok, I have said a lot about the benefits of the card, and in the end, I would like to list some of my concerns and expectations.

This card uses Visa to handle the cross-border transaction. It actually violates the spirit of crypto after all. Lots of companies and Crypto.com have already proposed solutions to removing the middleman. No matter it is a direct crypto transaction or hybrid solutions, the obstacle still points to regulations and popularity. I think those problems will be solved in the near future. Sooner or later, crypto will be used widely. At least, that is what I think.

Crypto.com, as a start-up company, is fine to have some minor issues such as wording, design, engineering, and performance problems. The important functions are all working without any serious issues, so it is still tolerable. We can wait for them to gradually improve every detail. All in all, this is the only awesome card that allows me to spend cryptos. For now, I’ll be using this card as my default card for overseas traveling because it’s way better than typical bank cards.

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