Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has launched a Visa debit card in the UK, letting users spend cryptocurrencies in retail stores and online.
The company plans to roll the card out in other European countries next month.
The card is tied to your Coinbase account balance, meaning you can directly spend the coins you hold there. The card itself is issued by payment processor Paysafe and works like any other debit card: You can make contactless, chip and PIN payments as well as withdraw cash from ATMs.
Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and all other cryptocurrencies present on Coinbase are supported, the company said.
The card comes with an accompanying Coinbase Card app, which lets users choose which crypto wallet they want to spend from. It also offers instant receipts and lets users track purchases.
When it comes to crypto cards, there are three very important questions users have to ask before plunging in: Fees, limits, and exchange rates. Starting with the latter, Coinbase automatically converts crypto to fiat currency when you make a purchase. Presumably it just uses whatever the exchange rate is on Coinbase at time of purchase, but I've asked Coinbase to be sure that there are no additional fees and will update this post when I hear back from them.
Then there are the fees. You can see a detailed overview here, but these are the highlights: There's no monthly fee associated with owning the card. The issuance fee (which Coinbase will waive for the first 1,000 people who sign up for the card) is £4.95. Domestic cash withdrawal fee is zero for up to £200 per month, after which it goes up to 1% of value of ATM withdrawal, per transaction. International cash withdrawal fee is also zero for up to £200 per month, after which it's raised to 2% of value of withdrawal. Domestic purchase transaction fees are zero; purchase transaction fee for countries inside the European Economic Area is a reasonable 0.2%, and the international purchase transaction fee is 3% per transaction.
UPDATE: April 11, 2019, 12:31 p.m. CEST Coinbase got back to me with some answers, and the picture is quite different (read: far worse) when you add up all the fees. Domestic fees per transaction are 2.49% (1.49% crypto conversion fee + 1% transaction fee). In Europe, fee per transaction is 2.69% (0.20% + standard 2.49%). And Internationally, fee per transaction is a whopping 5.49% (3% + standard 2.49%).
The 2.49% additional fee is the "crypto liquidation fee," which is apparently incurred every time you make a transaction.
As for limits, the daily spending limit starts at £10,000, but users can ask to get this increased. The monthly purchase limit is £20,000, with a yearly purchase limit of £50,000. Finally, there's a daily ATM withdrawal limit of £500.
Coinbase Card is currently available for UK customers only. The company said it plans to support other European countries as well, but the timeline is a bit murky: The press release Coinbase sent Mashable said "next month," while the company's blog post says "in the coming months."
(Update: a Coinbase rep told me the date has not been set, but it should happen in the coming months.)
Topics Bitcoin Cryptocurrency
