Posts Tagged ‘Bitcoin Debit Card’

E-Coin Bitcoin Debit Card and Multi-Sig Wallet

28, Nov 2015

e-coin-e-card

Getting and using a Bitcoin Debit Card to spend Bitcoins at places where BTC is not normally accepted as a form of payment is a convenient way to spend your crypto coins, so services that offer such capabilities such as E-Coin are getting more and more user attention. We actually have and are using a physical Bitcoin debit card from for quite a while already, but there are always more new options available such as getting a virtual Bitcoin debit card or a physical one from the E-Coin Bitcoin debit card and multi-sig wallet service. The biggest advantage of this service is that you can get a virtual VISA debit card that is powered by Bitcoin in just a few minutes after you register for the service. Then you just send in Bitcoins to your wallet and transfer them to the card and you can spend them for online purchases from around the world where VISA is accepted. When sending BTC to your E-Coin online wallet you just need to wait for 3 confirmations before you can actually use the coins you have sent, so it takes less time than the usual 6 confirmations. At a later time you can either upgrade your virtual card to a physical one, or get another physical card should you need so and it will be shipped to you with either regular or express service.

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You can request to get a Bitcoin debit card is either EUR, USD or GBP as a currency. Getting a virtual debit card you normally need to pay $3 USD, and for a physical card $17 USD if you wan the card shipped to you via Royal Mail with standard shipping or $50 USD for express shipping with DHL. The virtual Bitcoin debit card issues to you will be available in a couple of minutes and you can start using it for online payments, while a physical card will take some time to be delivered to you and then you need to activate it before it can be used. There are multiple of ways available for you to pay the fee required to get your Bitcoin debit card such as with Bitcoin from your account, through PayPal, with an existing bank card etc. Once you get your card you would have some limits on the amount you can spend through the card and if you want to increase the limits you will need to go through a verification process to extend the limits. For an EUR Bitcoin debit card you start with a maximum total ATM withdraw limit of 1000 EUR and you can remove this limit once you pass the verification process, there are no limits on POS or Online payments, though the total maximum Bitcoin you can load in the card is the equivalent of 2500 EUR, again removing this limit once you verify. The standard limits are more than enough for you to try out the card and decide for yourself if it is something you want to keep using, so that you will provide identity verification to increase your card’s limits. Do note that one thing specific to the E-Coin Bitcoin debit card is that normally the balance you have in the online wallet is not directly available in the card to be used, you need to “load” the card with the desired amount that you need spending. This way you can get an extra level of security if you loose the card or it gets stolen.

e-coin-bank-visa-fees

Here are the Bank/VISA fees associated with the Bitcoin debit card regardless if it is virtual or a physical one, the fees are pretty reasonable and the only thing that you need to be more careful with is the “Foreign Transaction Fee” of 3% that you will be charged if the transaction is not in the card’s currency. This means that if you have an EUR card and you purchase something in Euro there will be no extra fees for you, but if you withdraw 100 USD from that EUR card from an ATM you will have to pay 2.25 EUR fee for the ATM transaction as well as 3% extra fee to convert your EUR balance to USD. This foreign transaction fee is something that is available with other similar products like the Bitcoin debit card from E-Coin, you just need to be aware of it when using the card.

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Here are the default limits you get for the Bitcoin debit cards either virtual or physical that you can get. The limits for the Unverified do not require any personal documents from the user meaning that you cans tart using your Bitcoin debit card immediately after you register and request the card (for virtual) or as soon as you get the physical card and you activate it. In order to increase the limits of the Bitcoin debit card you need to provide identity documents that must be verified according to AML and KYC regulations – scanned ID and proof of address is required. Once you get verified the limits of the card are pretty high and you should not have any more trouble using the card daily even for more significant amounts.

We have already got a virtual VISA Bitcoin debit card in EURO currency from the service and were pretty pleasantly surprised how fast the card was available for us to use, of course limited to doing only online payments. We have since then requested the virtual Bitcoin debit card to be upgraded to a plastic one and are currently waiting for the physical card to arrive. Meanwhile we can use our virtual card just fine and once we get the plastic card we need to activate it, making the virtual card unavailable anymore as the physical card should be with a different number than the virtual one. We are going to share some more feedback from the service once we ge the physical Bitcoin debit card from E-Coin, but so far we are pretty happy with the service. So if you are in need of a way to spend Bitcoins in a more traditional way with a bank card in places where BTC is nor directly accepted, then you might want to give the service a try.

– For more information about the virtual and physical E-Coin VISA Bitcoin Debit Cards…

First Impressions from the Xapo Bitcoin Debit Card

26, Mar 2015

xapo-bitcoin-debit-card

We’ve received our International Bitcoin Debit Card that is linked to the free Xapo online Bitcoin wallet and Vault and we were very eager to test it out. Earlier this month we’ve tried out the Xapo Online Bitcoin Wallet service and you can read our first impressions here, though the thing that we were most interested in was the ability to link your Bitcoin wallet to an International Debit Card and use the card as any normal debit card, but when you pay with it or withdraw money they are converted instantly from your Bitcoins in the wallet. Xapo has apparently partnered with My Choice as a physical card provider and the card we’ve got is not yet a Xapo branded one as apparently all of the earlier cards are, though in the future they should come as Xapo-branded International Bitcoin Debit Card and not as you see on the photo above a generic debit card with a VISA logo on it. The card we’ve got is with 3 years validity and comes with both magnetic stripe and a chip, but no contactless payment option is supported.

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Do note that Xapo is still in beta testing with their debit cards and have not yet launched the card publicly. You can currently pre-order your card and thus get in the list for an invitation to get it when it becomes officially available, though there may be some options to get is faster such as the one available for EU users if they purchase some BTCs from Xapo via a bank transfer. Once you receive your Bitcoin debit card you need to activate it first via a special website or by calling a dedicated phone number and also get your PIN code (can be done over the phone only!). This is done through the My Choice’s website, though once you activate the card it will be automatically linked to your Xapo wallet, so don’t worry when you see that you have 0 balance in your My Choice account. It is completely normal to see a zero balance in USD or EUR as you actually do not have anything inside the card, when there is a request for a transaction it automatically converts Bitcoins from your Xapo wallet to cover the needed amount. This happens instantly, so there are no additional delays or things that you need to do in order to use the card, you can use it as easy as like any other debit card. There is also no difference to the merchant you are paying when you use a normal debit card or the Xapo debit card linked to your online Bitcoin wallet as the merchant gets the requested amount in the local currency in both cases.

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The Xapo Bitcoin Debit Cards are available in either USD, EUR or GBP currency (you can choose the currency when you fill the form for your card to be sent to you). Here ate the standard fees associated with the international debit card that you will get and that will be linked to your Xapo online Bitcoin wallet. Do note that while there is a monthly service fee included in the chart with the fees, this fee is going to be covered by Xapo, so for the end user there will be no such monthly fee included. Also note that currently Xapo is not charging the planned, one-time ordering fee of $15 USD for the card, while the card is in beta. In the future however this amount will be debited from your Xapo Wallet in Bitcoins when you request to get a debit card linked to your account. As you can see there is a 3% foreign currency conversion fee, so make sure you have the card set to use the main currency you will be using in order to avoid paying that extra fee unless you go abroad and want to pay with the card.

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This table shows what are your Xapo Bitcoin debit card limits, by default once you get your card it will be with the Standard limits applied and these are a bit restricting for the total of both POS terminal purchases and ATM withdraws. After you get the card you can upgrade your status to increase limits, and to do so you need to contact Xapo. This is recommended mostly because it removes the relatively small total limits to the lifetime purchases and ATM withdraws you can do via the card. When you make a purchase or withdraw cash via the Xapo Bitcoin debit card you will immediately see the transaction in your online Bitcoin wallet at Xapo, but that transaction will pretty much list that a certain amount of BTC was sent from your wallet. In order to get extra transaction details about the merchant, how much you’ve paid in a local currency and in the card’s currency you would need to login to your My Choice account that you created when you activated your card.

So our first impressions from the International Debit Card provided by Xapo that is linked to your free online Bitcoin wallet at Xapo are very positive. The card is as easy to be used as any other debit or credit card as long as it is not empty in terms of balance, or in this case if you have some BTC in your wallet. Everything runs smooth and problem free when you pay on a POS terminal or withdraw cash from ATM, what you just need to make sure is that you are familiar with the limits and fees associated with the card to save yourself some possible issues in the future, so make sure you read them carefully. We are going to continue using our Bitcoin debit card for different payments to make sure that there will really be no problems doing various payments with it as we expect it to be. This card is really convenient thing to have in your wallet as it saves you the time and extra trouble of sending Bitcoins from your wallet to an exchange to convert them to USD, EUR or GBP for example and then withdraw them to your bank account that might be linked to a debit card that you can use.

– To check out the Bitcoin Wallet and BTC debit card services offered by Xapo…


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