Although cryptocurrencies have their own wallets through which payments and transfers of assets can be made, due to the adoption process that is underway in this industry, an intermediate step is necessary before the direct payments from wallet to wallet are used on a day-to-day basis.
That is why several projects are making available to their customers bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies debit cards.
The function of these cards is to make a crypto-fiat change when making a payment, so that a payment can be made with the debit card for the purchase of any item paying with cryptocurrencies.
In this article, we are going to talk about the best known bitcoin prepaid cards, how they work, their commissions and everything you need to know about them.
How do bitcoin debit cards work?
The first thing we must be clear, is that this service is only offered by some platforms, that is why if we want to use it, we must register on this platform, request the sending of the debit card and once it is in our power, we must transfer cryptocurrencies to the wallet of said platform to have available funds.
The functioning of these prepaid cards is simple, basically what they do is use the available balance in cryptocurrencies and make a change to fiduciary money (at the value that the cryptocurrency has at the time of purchase) in order to make the payment.
The best debit/prepaid bitcoin cards
Coinbase Card
Coinbase is offering a Visa debit card that is financed by the balance of Coinbase. With it you can make purchases anywhere in the world, pay with contactless or make cash withdrawals at any ATM.
Because Coinbase accepts different cryptocurrencies, when making a payment with these cards it will allow you to select which one you want to use.
Security of Coinbase debit cards
The security of its clients, is something that Coinbase takes very seriously, that is why we can emphasize that it has an AES-256 encryption at a bank level and all the transfers made go through SSL (Secure Sockets Layer), which are cryptographic protocols, which provide secure communications through Internet.
Rates, commissions and limits
- Plastic Card Issuance Fee: €4.5
- Charge for domestic withdrawals:
- Up to €200 (per month) no fee
- More than €200 (per month) 1% fee
- Charge for international withdrawals:
- Up to €200 (per month) no fee
- More than €200 (per month) 2% fee
- Domestic purchase transaction fee: Free
- Purchase transaction rate within the EEA (European Economic Area): 0.2%
- International purchase transaction fee: 3%
- Card replacement fee: €4.95
- Chargeback processing fee: €20
- Crypto Liquidation Fees: 2.49%
- Daily cash withdrawal limit: €500
- Daily spending limit: €10,000
You can see the more detailed rates on the following link.
VISA Wirex
The Wirex Visa card allows you to make purchases in EUR, USD or GPB, using both the 18 cryptocurrencies accepted by the platform and the fiduciary money you have on it.
Thanks to Wirex VISA, you can buy in more than 40 million stores around the world, make purchases online or make withdrawals at ATMs.
In addition, thanks to its rewards, 0.5% of the purchase made will be returned in BTC.
Wirex Visa card security
Wirex is PCI-DSS level 1 certified, which provides the greatest possible protection against fraud.
It also has the 3D Secure security protocol that offers both online and offline protection and has multiple signature (multi-signature) vaults, TLS encryption and 256-bit AES. All this added to the security that users use to protect their accounts.
Rates, commissions and limits: EEA (European Economic Area)
- Account fee: Free
- Multi-sig cryptographic accounts: Free
- Fiat multi-sig accounts: Free
- Maintenance fee for the card account: £1.00/€1.20/$1.50 per month
- Issuance of cards: Free (Initial deposit in account required)
- Delivery of cards
- Standard: Free
- Express: Upon request
- Crypto recharges by external card: 1%
You can see all the Wirex rates in this link.
VISA Bitpay card
Currently the BitPay card is issued by the Metropolitan Commercial Bank of the United States and is available and supported in the 50 states of the United States.
BitPay also provides payment processing and settlement of cryptocurrencies to merchants in 233 countries.
The operation of these cards is very similar, you just have to make a cash deposit or one of the accepted cryptocurrencies in the wallets of the card and when the transfer has been completed you can use the card as any VISA card.
Limits and commissions
Limits
- Buy: $10,000 a day
- Cash withdrawal: $3,000 per day
- Charge: $10,000 per day
- Maximum Balance of the Card: $25,000
- Transfer from card to card: $500 a day
commissions
- Withdrawals at ATMs: $2
- ACH Debit: $5
- Notifications by mail: $3
- Card replacement: $9.95
- Account account transfer: $5
You can see all the charges in more detail on the Bitpay website.
Crypto.com
Crypto.com, formerly known as Monaco, is a blockchain platform that offers different services, in this article we will talk about one in particular, its prepaid VISA cards.
Crypto.com has several cards with different characteristics, these cards are easily identified due to their color and you can get one or the other depending on the MCO you have bought and stored for at least 6 months on the platform.
- Midnight Blue
- Ruby Steel
- Royal Indigo/Jade Green
- Frosted Rose Gold/Icy White
- Obsidian Black
This card does not make a change from crypto to fiat when making purchases, as they say from their website:
Cardholders cannot charge the cryptocurrency on their MCO Visa card, all cryptocurrency will be converted into US dollars and US dollars can be loaded onto the MCO Visa card for use in purchases and withdrawals at ATMs.
To have a Crypto.com card you need: An email address, a phone number and an identification document.
Benefits of the MCO VISA card
Depending on the card used, you will have discounts of up to 100% in the NETFLIX and Spotity subscription plan, 10% in AirBNB and Expedia bookings and 5% in all expenses incurred.
You can see all the benefits of these cards on the website of crypto.com.
Bitnovo – Bitcard
Thanks to Bitnovo‘s Bitcard prepaid card, you can make online purchases, pay at shops worldwide, make SEPA transfers, withdraw cash at ATMs or make transfers between cards, all without needing a bank account.
Levels of Bitcard cards
The card has 3 levels: BASIC, PLUS and PREMIUM.
Basic level
- Allows a single top-up of €250
- Make purchases around the world
- Without online registration and without documentation
- It is not possible to withdraw at ATMs
PLUS level
- Maximum Balance on the card of €2,500
- Refill limit of €2,500 per year
- Recharges of a maximum of €1,000 per day (divided into 1-3 recharges per day)
- Withdrawal of up to €500 a day at ATMs
PREMIUM level
- Maximum balance on card €15,000
- Daily recharge limit of up to €3,000
- Withdraw from up to €500 a day at ATMs
- Allows you to spend up to €10,000 per day on your available balance
Commissions and rates
- Purchase of the card: €20 (VAT included) (Only for EU residents)
- Activation and request of PIN code: No cost
- Commission for balance top-up: 2% of the total amount
- ATM withdrawals: €1 (VAT included) (Banks can charge their own commissions)
- Monthly fee for balance maintenance €1.20 (VAT included)
- Costs for closing the account: No cost
For more information about the rest of the commissions, you can go to the Bitnovo website.
Conclusion
This type of card is a great step towards the adoption of cryptocurrencies, since it brings them closer to people from any part of the world and when they see how they work they take away those first “fears” about whether cryptocurrencies “really work”.
Not being linked to a bank account, they work as prepaid cards, where you can only spend what you previously charged.
It is advisable to top-up the cards according to the expenses that are going to be made, in this way if it is lost or stolen, only the amount that has been charged is in danger.
The cards can have different commissions, benefits or restrictions depending on where you live, if you are interested in using any of them, make sure it is the best for its services and that you can use it in your place of residence.
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