Hey, hey.
Hope you guys are having a great day so far. I spent it listening to rain and thunder while I played GameCube games on my Wii. Yeah, I still play games on my Wii, fuck off. Anyway, I've been using the Coinbase card for a few days now so if you want to check out my initial impressions go here. I've covered quite a few topics in the Crypto Noobs series here so please take a minute to go through my feed if you want to learn some shit about crypto from a regular shitbag. Today, I'm going to break down some key differences of the crypto debit cards I've personally used, the Coinbase card and the Bitpay card. Yes, I know there are a number of other cards and maybe I'll try them out soon. So grab a beer and get ready to learn some shit. Or not. Whatever.
Coinbase card
The idea is - spend crypto straight from your wallet on Coinbase anywhere that VISA is accepted. Sounds awesome, right? You might now know, but there was a card called the Shift card from Coinbase a few years ago that did the same thing but wasn't as good. Here's a bonus pic of that bad boy. As you can see, it lived a decent life and was put to rest in April 2019.
Anyway, we're here to talk about the Coinbase card. This debit card links to your Coinbase account and you're able to pay with any asset traded on Coinbase. So, have some random shitcoins you got from Coinbase Earn? Well now you can spend em. You can swap assets you're spending instantly any time. There is a 2.49% fee on top of your transaction when spending any crypto other than USDC. If you're spending USDC out of your wallet there is no fee, so it might be a good idea to go ahead and swap whichever asset to USDC before using it. You also earn either 1% cashback in BTC on all purchases or 4% back in XLM in all purchases! Amazing cashback for a debit card. It is supported on Google Pay, Apple pay, and even has tap to pay. Overall, it is a great experience. You access and manage the card via the Coinbase app so it's a very seamless experience. Sign up for Coinbase if you don't already have an account here and you'll get $10 in BTC for free when you spend $100.
Bitpay Card
The idea is - you can load crypto onto the card to spend anywhere VISA is accepted. This is a prepaid style debit card. While it's not a perfect solution, it does work and I've been using it for years. It was especially useful when the Shift card was ever so swiftly killed. The Bitpay card supports a variety of different cryptos such as Dogecoin, Litecoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin, Bitcoin cash, and a few more. When you want to spend crypto, you need to have crypto in your Bitpay wallet in the app. I typically use Bitcoin Cash because of the low fees. There is no transaction fee unless you're outside the U.S. there is a 3% fee every time you load your card. In addition to the 3% fee, if you choose to use Ethereum or Bitcoin, be prepared to pay gas fees or miner fees. They can be steep at times so I usually lean toward Bitcoin Cash or Dogecoin. Just kidding, I don't use Dogecoin. There is a $10 fee to get the card and there is a $2.50 ATM fee. I love my Bitpay card and I think you would too. Get your card here and start living on crypto.
Coinclusion
You see what I did there? I love both cards for different reasons. I recommend getting both! Let me know what other cards are out there. I'd love to try more.
peace.