MetaMask is in the process of launching a debit card and for those that are interested like myself I thought it best to gleam some information first. Right off the bat I see I am not eligible (region) so I hope this helps anyone else who is looking. Finding an off ramp that suits our needs is what we are all hoping to find.
First up these are the regions it supports with New York and Vermont for some reason not included in the USA. The EU region is the EEA region in this particular case so included are Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein plus the other EU member countries. Sucks no South Africa, but I will be moving to the EU so not a big deal right now.
The important take from all of this from what I have read is the card is being run on the Linea network on behalf of MetaMask. They will have to have KYC so adding an email, password and a phone number will be required.
When setting up he card you will be asked to bridge funds across from MetaMask to the Linea wallet and to set up a spending limit. At this moment only USDC, USDT, and wETH are supported on the Metamask card. This is not a Visa card and is a Master card.
Linea is part of the Ethereum network so beware there are gas fees involved when using the card and when bridging funds across. Linea will automatically deposit at least $1 in your MetaMask card wallet to cover the first few transaction fees.
The card fees seem very reasonable and far cheaper than other crypto debit cards which is a major plus. Using the stable coins one can expect to pay roughly $0.02c per transaction and if using wETH the same amount but another 0.875% which is a swap fee on top of the $0.02c.
I hope this makes sense as the only bridge I have ever used is one you drive over lol. There are a few things to watch out for and that is every time you set up a spending limit you will pay gas fees. If you had a $100 spend limit and spent all your funds then you would need to reset the spend settings again. My advice is to make sure the spend settings you set up are sufficient first time.
The MetaMask card also offers a 1% cash back in spending rewards which is paid in USDC. This will have to be claimed by using a redeem rewards button which will automatically add them to your funds.
The MetaMask card is accepted at Apple and Google Play so one can just load the card details and shop.
As crypto Debit cards go this does seem like a reasonable offering and tis all boils down to the cost of bridging between MetaMask and Linea and what the gas fees are. MetaMask says they are minimal and until someone uses the card we are in the dark with the real costs. We do not know some basic information like how much are the daily/monthly spend limits which are important when making a decision if the card is right for you.
I am seriously interested in this card basically as the new COTI V2 Treasury is about to launch on MetaMask and having a direct access to the funds would be beneficial. I do think another major factor is how this is going to be policed and how much information is going to the authorities in each country which I would rather not be part of.