Crypto credit cards are certainly not an entirely new phenomenon, but they are much more famous now than they were a year or two ago. Although Bitcoin was initially hailed to revolutionize the world of online payments, in reality, most people use cryptocurrencies only as a means of wealth storage or speculation. There are also scaling constraints intrinsic to the idea of a public, decentralized blockchain. This has opened the door for a bitcoin credit card and bitcoin debit card if you, as a crypto enthusiast, want to spend your wealth in the real world.

VISA creditcards crypto

What is a credit card?

While traditional debit cards are usually linked to a bank account, a crypto debit card allows you to spend your Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. And yes, there are now even crypto credit cards available that rely on your crypto assets. This way, you can spend your coins wherever they accept Visa or Mastercard. Let’s take a closer look at the crypto credit card ecosystem to see if this amalgamation of the old financial system and the digital money of the future is a good option for you.

There are several reasons to decide to apply for a crypto debitcard. Some people can only participate in the global economy with crypto prepaid cards. For most people, a crypto debit card does nothing more than simplifying the process of converting cryptocurrencies into money that you can spend in the real world. Yes, you can keep your cryptocurrency on an exchange, redeem your funds there and transfer the funds to your bank account whenever you want to spend money, but this can be a time-consuming process. You also have to deal with difficult to understand user interfaces that are at odds with the digital money age. With crypto debit cards, you can convert your crypto coins into your currency in minutes and pay with them at shops that accept Visa and Mastercard. You can even withdraw paper money from ATMs with a BTC credit card.

Although converting cryptocurrencies into disposable money is the main asset of crypto debit cards, there are other benefits to be found as well. For example, you can immediately receive a loan based on your crypto assets or cashback rewards in Bitcoin or another cryptocurrency.

Which card is the best?

Binance card

From August 2020, Binance users from the EU can apply for a Binance Card. The Binance debit Card is powered by Swipe. Binance bought Swipe in 2020 to develop and offer the Binance Card. The Binance credit Card will start supporting Bitcoin (BTC), Binance’s BNB token, Swipe’s

SXP token and Binance’s stablecoin: Binance USD (BUSD). In principle, the Binance Card works like a traditional bank card, but users do not have to convert the cryptos to euros themselves first to make a payment. This process is done automatically. It is also possible to top up the Binance Card from the Binance Wallets, and a preferred currency can be set.

Creditcard Binance

Coinbase card

You may be familiar with Coinbase. It is one of the most popular cryptocurrency trading platforms in the world. You may not have known that they recently also offered a debit card, namely the Coinbase Card.

With this crypto debit card, you can use the funds in your Coinbase account to make daily purchases as well. Anywhere Visa is available. Withdrawing money is free, with a limit of 200 euros per month. If you go above that, you pay 1% transaction costs (domestic) and 2% (abroad.

The Coinbase debit Card is also accompanied by a handy app that provides a simple overview of your expenses. The app was not so well received at launch and had the necessary crashes and bugs. In the meantime, there have been some updates, and the app is currently working stable and well again.

Applying for the Coinbase credit card costs exactly 4.95 euros, and you do not pay any monthly fees. Coinbase currently supports the following cryptocurrencies: BTC, BCH, ETH, ETC, LTC, ZRX, BAT, USDC, ZEC, DAI, LINK, XRP, REP, XLM, EOS, XTZ and Dash.

Coinbase creditcard

Crypto.com card

Crypto.com is a website where you can buy, sell and trade cryptocurrencies. Trading crypto can be done on the exchange that has the website. In addition, Crypto.com offers different steel languages cards with which you can quickly pay with your crypto. A debit card is not the same as a credit card. The difference is that you first have to put money/credit on the crypto.com card before paying with it. This is not necessary with a credit card.

Crypto.com card offers various Visa cards. Below I explain the differences between the cards to choose the card that suits you best easily.

  • Midnight Blue: This is the only free crypto.com credit card, also the only plastic card (the others are all steel). In addition, you get 1% cashback with this card, which means that after every expenditure, you get 1% of your expenses refunded to your card.
  • Ruby steel: I own this card and recommend it to everyone. For this crypto.com debit card, you need 1000 CRO coins (= about 100 euros). The advantage of this card is that you get Spotify for free, and you get 2% cashback.
  • Jade Green/Royal Indigo: To get this card, you must stake 10,000 CRO coins. The advantage of this card is that in addition to Spotify, you also get Netflix for free. In addition, with this card, you get 3% cashback on all your expenses.
  • Icy White/Rose Gold: This card requires you to stake 100,000 CRO. For freeObsidian: This is the most expensive card from crypto.com. For this card, you need a whopping 1,000,000 CRO coins. This card comes with many features. For this, I would like to refer you to crypto.com.

Crypto.com credit card

Swipe card

Unlike most other cryptocurrency debit cards, the Swipe cryptocurrency Visa Debit cards allow you to make direct purchases with cryptocurrency (without manual conversion). There are four levels of debit cards: Saffron, Sky, Steel, and Slate.

All but the Saffron card require you to stake Swipe’s SXP token to receive the progressively more lucrative rewards, including 100% discounts on Spotify, Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, and Apple Music, and 10% discounts on Travala, Starbucks, Airbnb, and Uber.

One of the selling points of Swipe’s cryptocurrency debit cards is the cashback reward that can go up to 5% and is paid out in Bitcoin. All cards also offer contactless (NFC) payments, ATM withdrawals, and lucrative referral rewards up to $3,000. You can even use a digital version of the debit card with just your phone and use the digital Swipe card anywhere that accepts Google Pay and Apple Pay.

Swipe card

Wirex card

With this card, you can pay with crypto everywhere. At least wherever Visa is available. Paying abroad is also no problem. You do not pay an extra fee for this, which makes the card extremely interesting for travellers in particular. You can also withdraw money from any ATM worldwide (for a fixed price, which amounts to €2.25 within Europe and €2.75 outside Europe).

Creating an account and applying for the card is completely free. You also do not have to pay the shipping costs. You pay a maintenance fee of €1.20 per month for using the card. You do pay 1% of your total amount per top-up of your credit card. (So for every €100 you put on your card, you get €99 in return.)

They currently offer several cryptocurrencies (tokens), including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Ripple, Waves, WOLLO, Nano, Stellar Lumens, DAI, and their WireX token. Not a fan of plastic cards? Alternatively, they also have a virtual card and a handy app, where you can easily manage your budget.

The nice thing about WireX is that they have a kind of cashback reward program, namely the “Cryptoback Reward Program”. By default, you will earn back 0.5% of your expenses when you make a purchase. But here’s a catch: You pay 1% transaction costs per top-up. This means that for every €100 you put on your card, you get €99 in return. The cashback means that you get 50% of these (already paid) costs back.

So we can say that the 0.5% cashback you get is more of a marketing trick than a real bonus. We thought this was worth mentioning, given that the WireX card, despite the many advantages, is slightly more expensive. WireX’s cashback only becomes interesting when you have 500,000 WXT tokens in your wallet. Then you get 1.50% cashback on all transactions. For most, this cashback of 1.50% immediately becomes a lot less attractive. Unless, of course, you believe in the success of WireX, and you see it as an investment. The cryptocurrency that you earn through the cashback program is automatically added to your account, and you can use it immediately.

Wirex card

 

 

 

 

Conclusion

The most significant advantage is that all these cards are visa crypto card or MasterCard crypto cards. This means they can lean on the already existing infrastructure of these cards. So as long as the place you want to pay accepts cryptocurrencies. You can pay with your crypto visa card.