My Experience Using the Bitpay Debit Card for a Few Months

in #bitcoin7 years ago

A few months ago I finally decided to check into getting a bitcoin debit card, mostly because the price had gone up, I was looking to pay off a little extra in college loans and pulling out in tradional ways was becoming worrysome and semi expensive. I saw the Bitpay debit card as a way to bypass many of these issues and ultimately im glad I picked it up. If you want a too long didn’t read version of this article, if you want to spend some of your gains and no worry about having to deal with banking institutions, the debit card is completely worth it. However, here is the long answer.

With banks still not being exactly crypto friendly and me not wanting to pull out multiple amounts from coinbase in a month and trigger some sort of account closure, the Bitpay debit card was a great solution. At the time I was pulling out money from coinbase into paypal and using their debit card/withdrawal system so the banks didn’t think anything was suspicious, which was costing me a bit of money since they take like a 5% cut. With the Bitpay card things were much easier, its around a $15 startup cost and the amounts on a transaction are very minimal. You send your bitcoin to the card one time, it automatically converts it on the spot and you can spend it at any store in person or the vast majority online.

I have never had a problem with the debit card in stores, but there are a small amount of times where online credit card recognition systems don’t recognize it as a card. This is usually unfortunate, but if you are looking for a certain item you can find it elsewhere at a site that will recognize it, or worst case scenario you can call up the company and give them the card. The daily limits on the card are in the thousands so I don’t think most people will hit it just doing daily stuff. I am still putting hundreds towards my college loans as much as I can and I have never had a problem with limits.

The best part about the card is just convenience overall and it does a good job branching the old world financial system with the new. While crypto is awesome and revolutionary, it will still take some time for most merchants to accept it, especially with certain companies that oversee bills like utilities, rent, ect. For a minimal amount of fees, the Bitpay debit card fixes most of these problems. I know many people got into crypto because they don’t want to work with the old legacy finance system with credit card companies and banks, but if you want to live on crypto it can be very hard to do so without at least one or two connections.

Overall if you spend a decent amount of crypto on bills or other payments a month and worry about getting a bank account flagged or shut down because of the payments and simply just don’t want to risk it, then the Bitpay debit card is a very good investment. It makes one less time I have to make my payments through a bank and lets me spend my crypto earnings as I please without any fear of them taking my money. While I know not everyone has had a great experience with Bitpay, I personally have found that for what I do with the card, it works very well. Even if you just take out cash via an ATM the charges end up being relatively small. You can check out the fee structure on their website, but I think they are very reasonable and offering the card not as a way to make lots of money, but to better connect crypto with the existing world.

-Calaber24p

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It's a shame a SSN is required :(

I agree, just want to pay some bills. I think they may be outside their legal right to ask for it. But they're covering themselves. Interesting that IRS settled for 20K or more transactions or more. Maybe it's a can of worms for the IRS, but really all they have to do is send out a blanket letter and flag your ass; you'll be doing the rest of the homework to prove otherwise.

I too am very happy with the BitPay card.

The. Card looks very useful

Awesome and Userful card. Its can help save lots of stress. I recommend anyone to just please get it. Kindly follow me @bewajijohnson

Thanks for sharing. I always wanted to get one but never pulled the trigger, Maybe I will now..

Also, any researching that monaco visa card? I wonder how itl compare to this..

the monaco card seems to have a few more perks than bitpay. also uses ETH. and fees may be higher. check out a review i read here: https://steemit.com/cryptocurrency/@sirwinchester/monaco-the-cryptocurrency-visa-card-for-btc-and-eth

Monaco does look very sexy... will be ordering one when it goes live.

More fee on monaco unfortunately :/ 1% on every transaction.
But you can spend ETH
Tenx looks also promising !

no tenx in united states!

check out Bitplastic !

will do!

I agree - Monaco looks great!! Just love how only the amount you need for your current purchase is actually converted. This should "hopefully" keep you bitcoin/eth increase over time :)

what about token card?

I don't think you can get a monaco card in the US can you?
Plus monaco is geared towards eth?

I talked to them. they told me the US and a few other countries cannot participate in the crowdfunding ICO but CAN buy a card once its available. I think aug or sept

Thank you so much!

I think you can participate in the US. You just have to select that you're a not in the US.

I didn't know bitpay has that card. Probably will get one soon.

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Sounds like a great solution - if you have the crypto funds to spend that is!

Seems quite promising. Want to get one myself but not sure whether it gets delivered in India or not. Above that another problem which i fell would occur is using it. Dont think that our system is capable enough to let me use this card in India ( if at all i get one ).

Another issue which i am not sure about is that how much fee will i be charged upon using one. Gotta surf about that now.

If you wanna see and enjoy my work over steemit then please follow me at @honeychum

Bitpay it's adding more countries to their list. Check the website, and since it's a Visa card can work almost everywhere. I got it myself, I love it, the fees are very reasonable.

"but there are a small amount of times where online credit card recognition systems don’t recognize it as a card."

I have biolife visa card and I think the problems are the save. I was told the reason that it dose not allways work is that some POS (point of sale) systems look for a bank name when you scan the card. If there is no bank then it is not recognize. So I can't use this card at 'pay at the pump' at a gas station, but I can go in to the store and prepay for my gas.

Nice information. Thanks

Thanks for sharing, this is very timely!

i got the shiftpay card from coinbase, seems legit af, linked it to my ltc wallet and can buy weed at the dispensary and get cash back at grocery store with it. no need to load anything, just make sure there are coins in my wallet on coinbase. so far i love it!

I only have one thing against Coinbase...it's currently being targeted by the IRS. It's good enough to use as an exchange when needed...otherwise, that wallet is empty.

Others will be targeted in short order. They'll be no escaping that.

I too have a Shift Visa. Unlike Bitpay (et.al.), you're not actually topping off a prepay card with fiat, and they charge for that top off. There are no fees on the Shift.
I recently re-linked my Shift card from BTC to LTC. Nice feature to be able to link it to BTC, ETH, LTC, or USD wallet. If Coinbase adds others cryptos, it will be the debit card to have. I just wish Shift would have branded the card as a BTC or crypto-card.

Thanks for sharing your experience calaber24p.I am looking for a good bitcoin debit card too and I hope it is available for my country. I will check the details soon. I wish one day we will use Steemit debit card.