Can You Spend Crypto Anywhere?
I’ve been looking for a crypto card solution to be able to spend at any point of sale or at ATMs in Canada and until recently have been unable to find one.
Introducing Localcoin and Bitvo. I met both companies at Futurist in Toronto and was more than thrilled to find out they had solutions for this that work for Canadians. I’ve loaded both cards with $50 of BTC and am going to try withdrawing from an ATM and spending money at a point of sale system.
Now the main hurdle here is not having an Interac chip and only being able to swipe your card. Regardless, it’s game-changing to have access to this technology.
For me, now it’s just about determining which of the two were better.
Things To Note For Both Cards
- Reloadable prepaid cards
- Spend anywhere Visa is accepted
- No photo ID required to get them
- Only can withdraw funds from ATMs where Visa or Plus is accepted (I had issues trying from other ATMs and realized this) Use this link to find one near you https://www.visa.com/atmlocator/
- You can easily view your entire transaction history as you would with a regular credit card
Bitvo
Some things to note right away are:
- No fees for activation and no monthly fee
- $1 fee for purchase transactions and withdrawals
- Converts your crypto when you use it (volatility in value)
- You can find more information about the card and its fees and limitations here https://bitvo.com/bitvo-cash-card/
- What they need is the ability to use stable coins with their card and this will be the better solution.
LocalCoin
Some things to note right away are:
- Card issuance is $5 and the initial card load is $5
- Future reloads are $2.00
- Changing your pin costs $1.50 and checking your balance at an ATM costs $0.75
- Monthly fee of $2.90
- ATM withdrawal fee is $2.50, but domestic POS is free
- May be charged a fee by third party at ATM even if the transaction isn’t successful (I was charged $0.50
- Let’s you convert your crypto when you fund your account to CAD (no volatility issues)
- I had issues originally loading, but support helped solve it
- You can find out more about the card’s fees and limitations here: https://localcoin.ca/sell/bitcoin-prepaid-card/
- It would be better if they could avoid monthly fees and decline transaction charges.
For Bitvo I took out $10 from an ATM and for Localcoin I bought furnace filters at a Walmart and both worked fine. I did have some trouble trying to withdraw money from the ATM at the bank with both cards presumably because it wasn’t Visa compatible.
Overall though, I am happy with them both. They both have their drawbacks and benefits. At the end of the day they are worth having if you want to be able to spend your crypto without having to sell it and claim it. This is the future of payment processing, we just need to work through the current hurdles towards mass adoption.
Let me know if you’ve tried out any Canadian crypto cards including these two and what your experience was with them in the comments below!
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