I’m still in beautiful Bali Indonesia and I wanted to share this great view with you all while at the same time telling you about these magical cards that exist that allow you to spend your Bitcoin and other cryptos out in the real world.
No longer do you have to wonder and hope that your local mini mart will take Bitcoin as a form of payment.
Now you can spend your BTC anywhere Visa or MasterCard is accepted, and they’ll never know the difference!
What’s even cooler is that you can use many of these cards at ATMs and cash out your bitcoin that way.
There’s quite a few of these cards now so let me introduce you to some of the most reputable options and you can decide which will work best for you.
Before I begin I want to point out that these cards aren’t exactly made to maintain privacy.
Because these cards are dealing with financial institutions they must require certain forms of identification before allowing issuance of a card.
A few cards offer a non-verified option but this severely reduces the loading and withdrawing limits of the card to around $2,500 for the entire lifetime of the card, that is not a monthly limit.
Also I highly suggest only loading these cards with the amount that you are willing to lose, I say this because you are ultimately giving your Bitcoin to a third party for them to handle.
Many of these cards have a 3% international transaction fee along with an ATM withdrawal fee that varies from card to card and many have a maintanence fee, either monthly or annually.
Xapo:
One of the first Bitcoin debit cards that is available in most countries. A Xapo card will cost you $20 to obtain with a $12 annual fee. This card gives you the option to go unverified but again, this means the card’s lifetime is limited to $2,500
BitPay:
Only available for US residents with a physical address, a P.O. box address will not suffice for this one. BitPay costs about $10 and can be used internationally with a 3% fee for currency conversions. BitPay does not give you the unverified option.
Shift Card:
Perhaps the easiest card to use in regards of loading it with your bitcoin. This card is a part of Coinbase and lets you withdraw from your account there instead of having to send your bitcoin to a different location in order to load onto your card like the other options. Shift card is available for those residing in a majority of the U.S. states. The Shift Card does not charge a maintenance fee.
As with pretty much anything in this world, there are a few bad apples. So if you’re looking into getting one of these cards, here are some indications that it might not be a good option for you.
If you want to know what a bitcoin debit card scam looks like check out ExKash
Legitimate bitcoin debit cards must play by the rules of the major financial institutions, this means you pretty much have to submit forms of identification to get unlimited usage of the card. If a card promises zero verification and also unlimited loading and withdrawals, they are highly unlikely to be associated with any kind of legitimate backing.
Not to mention the fact that the website is full of grammatical errors and the reviews seem to be fake as well.
This topic was suggested to me by the Steemit user: @prep4shtf.
Thank you for your suggestion and if any of you are curious about a topic that I haven’t yet covered feel free to post it in the comment section down below.
Additional Reading/Sources:
99 Bitcoins Review, Plus Easy Compare Graph
CoinTelegraph Article: Understanding Privacy with Crypto Debit Cards
Xapo Website
BitPay Website
Shift Card Website
ExKash Scam Article
ExKash Website: For Viewing Purposes ONLY