For a while there, living off crypto alone was made really easy by the plethora of companies offering prepaid visa cards backed by cryptocurrencies in various constellation. The discontinuation of services by WaveCrest (the card issuer), made things a bit more difficult but not at all unmanageable.
As a crypto nomad without a bank account, here's how I spend in Thailand:
Bitcoin to Hard Thai Baht Cash - Coins.co.th
Coins.TH is my main go-to in Thailand, for its convenience and ease of use. The “cash out” option takes me from bitcoin to Thai Baht within one business day. Cash pick up available at any Krungsri or Bangkok bank, no account required. Folks who have a local ID and/or bank account have more withdrawal options.
Processing time, officially, is 24 hours but I found that any cash out request sent before 11am gets processed on the same business day (so far it’s been within 3-4 hour for me).
KYC Required: email, ID and selfie for up to 150,000thb daily / address for up to 600,000.
Fees: the exchange rate offered on the platform is about 1.5% above market, withdrawals up to 10,000 baht set me back 40 baht per transaction, and 50 per transaction for up to 20,000. More than 20k requires a separate cash out request but they do batch them together when processing multiple requests for the same business day.
Other stuff I like -
- Mobile top up directly from the hosted wallet
- Bank transfers to local bank accounts (in Thai Baht), helped me pay for a workshop and avoid having to go to the bank to cash out (and pay the fee, small as it is).
Debit Card, virtual and plastic - Revolut
Revolut is currently available for “legal residents of EEA” + their FAQ offer everyone else to “stay tuned” for updates.
Used for online purchases, accommodation and flight bookings, anything not in Thai Baht and generally to cover my paying-with-plastic needs. Virtual and plastic cards available.
Revolut, a digital bank based in the UK, offer their users an immense advantage over a great number of other prepaid card providers: an actual bank account under the users’ own name. Which means, topping up the card is possible using exchanges and other financial platform that limit the “withdrawal” option to accounts under the users name, for GBP or EUR transfers.
Revolut also say they don’t charge any conversion fees between foreign currencies and I have so far found that to be true, doing random spot checks on my transactions in different currencies.
I combine my Revolut card account with SEPA (EUR) transfers from Kraken.
It usually takes one business day to get to my account and costs €0.09 on the Kraken side.
Other stuff I like -
- Virtual cards for when I don’t fully trust the provider / website / computer I’m using
- Medical insurance: admittedly, I haven’t tested this option and hope I don’t have to
- Cryptocurrencies: Revolut had recently started dipping their toes in the world of crypto. Currently very limited (users can convert fiat to bitcoin and back, but not send bitcoin in or out, no private keys), but I’m looking forward to see where they take it.
Also see:
Monaco Card
Seems to be the one survivor left standing in the crypto-visa space, with official partnership with Visa announces late last year. The FAQ on their site states the cards are being rolled out first to Asia, Europe second, then north America - with intentions to be available globally.
Me? I went and bought some MCO just in case, and watching closely for developments.
Thanks for reading! I’d love to get your comments, corrections, suggestions and thoughts! ♥
p.s.
This article is not sponsored and all that. Just me sharing stuff :)