What is the point of having money if you can't spend it anytime and anywhere you want to? The emergence of blockchain and digital currencies has had so much impact on the way we run businesses and handle transactions. Different sectors of the economy are embracing this ground breaking technology and looking for ways to provide better services by incorporating blockchain technology. There are thousands of cryptocurrencies available today and probably hundreds of good coins that will survive the test of time. Each coin or project has its own mission and at least differ in some way with regard to similar projects; however, all cryptocurrencies face one major challenge – acceptability.
Acceptability and general recognition is what makes money valuable. Digital currencies have monetary value because it is recognized by certain people who are willing to exchange their valuables or services for digital currencies. One of the major limitations of cryptocurrencies is that there are very few spending options and the regular process of converting digital assets to fiat through exchanges is long and full of hassles. Some projects recognized this limitation and decided to work on making it easier to spend cryptocurrencies at different locations by providing credit/debit cards which basically work like regular payment cards such as Visa, Mastercard, etc. With a crypto credit or debit card, you can make payments or withdrawals anywhere regardless of if the shop or merchant accepts cryptocurrencies or not. I’m reviewing five crypto card payment services projects and I’m going to stick to the facts without being biased.
Everything has pros and cons, including getting a crypto credit or debit card. While it may be great to be able to spend your crypto anywhere with just a swipe of your card, it is noteworthy that the processes involved in making this possible is pretty centralized which contradicts the decentralization feature of cryptocurrencies. To use a crypto credit/debit card, you have to deposit your money into a third-party wallet and you have to pay unavoidable fees to the service providers. Of course the pros outweigh the cons and the usual payment cards we use are not any safer.
TenX
TenX has the biggest market capitalization and a first mover advantage over other crypto cards. The TenX card is a Visa card built on the comit network which connects different blockchains hence, TenX is able to perform conversions from the chosen crypto to the appropriate fiat currency. This means that you can use the TenX card anywhere Visa cards are accepted which is a great feature especially for travelers. The mission of the TenX team is to make crypto easily spendable anytime and anywhere using real-time market prices. TenX card allows transactions across the globe not just for major cryptocurrrencies like BTC, ETH and LTC but for many other cryptocurrencies.
One remarkable quality of TenX is that they allow flexibility. TenX combines different local and global currencies and enables users to select their desired payment option. To get the TenX card, what you have to do is download the TenX wallet App (available for android and iOS), create your account and set up 2-factor authentication, then proceed to fund your wallet and order your TenX card right on the app.
TenX wallet is very secure, easy to use and helps to track all transactions which are displayed in the transaction history. The 2FA security measure is compulsory for everyone and the fingerprint unlock option is available for supported mobile devices. In case of loss, users can quickly disable the card through the TenX app and activate the card when it is found. Users will also receive notifications on each usage of the card.
TenX charges a card issuance fee of $15 for the physical card which covers shipping fees. Activating the virtual card costs $1.50 and there is a minimal ATM fee of $2.75, all fees being deducted directly from the wallet. There is also a yearly $10 fee which is waived if you spend more than $1000 during the year.
There are no fees for foreign exchanges or commission rates or transaction fees. TenX users are given incentives which include: 0.5% rewards in Ethereum for TenX token holders and 0.1% rewards in PAY (TenX token) for card holders, all rewards being done monthly.
MONACO
The Monaco technology uses a Mastercard and Visa payment processor that is built on the Ethereum network. They offer both credit and debit card services. Users are also required to deposit funds into their Monaco account then spend using the Monaco card. Monaco cards are visa cards too so users can spend their crypto at any store that accepts Visa payments. Monaco offers four different types of cards with different limits and requirements. Monthly ATM withdrawal limits range from $1000 USD to $200 USD and users are required to hold a certain amount of Monaco tokens for each type of card ranging from 50,000 MCO down to 0 MCO. They also have a 2% cashback reward incentive and cashback on referral transactions up to 25%,
BITPAY
Bitpay is one of the reliable crypto payment cards that is mainly for accepting payments in bitcoin for goods and services. With Bitpay, online sellers can sell anything, anywhere in the world and accept payments in bitcoin. Bitpay lets users accept payments in bitcoin and deposit funds right into their bank accounts. Any shop that accepts a Visa debit card would accept the bitpay debit card. KYC is not required to setup an account. They charge $9.95 for card issuance, $2.25 ATM fee and 2.89% overall fee. The ATM surcharge can be avoided using a PoS (Point of Sale) terminal. They also have a 3% foreign currency conversion rate and international ATM withdrawal fee of $3.25. Bitpay operates in over 38 countries including Europe and U.S.A
WIREX
This is one of the crypto debit cards that was not affected by Visa’s suspension of Wavecrest membership. Wirex is a free crypto debit card and is easy to sign up. KYC is not required unless you exceed $5000 USD. The available crypto options on Wirex are Bitcoin, Litecoin and Ripple. The wallet is also easy to use and is connected to an app that works fine on android and iOS. They do not charge conversion fees. Wirex charges $1.5 monthly for maintenance, $1.5 on ATM withdrawals, $0.28 for PoS transactions, $2.5 transaction fee within Europe and $3.5 transaction fee outside Europe. They also have a 0.5% cashback on every successful transaction.
CRYPTOPAY
Cryptopay card services make it easy to buy goods and services online and offline. They offer both plastic cards and virtual bitcoin cards. When signing up, ID verification is only required for large debit card limits. Cryptopay charges $15 for card issuance, $3.5 ATM fee, $1.00 monthly fee and 1.00% - 1.99% deposit fee. They also operate in U.S.A.
I'm particularly interested in TenX because the team is very dedicated and they already issued cards so they have a working product regardless of the wavecrest issue. I did background research about them and I invested in TenX tokens (PAY) sometime during Q2 this year. To find out more about TenX, I have included their website and social media links below.
· TenX Website: https://tenx.tech/en/
· Products & Services: https://tenx.tech/en/wallet and https://tenx.tech/en/card
· TenX Team: https://tenx.tech/en/our-team/
· TenX Story:
· TenX Official Chat: https://chat.tenx.tech/home
· Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tenxwallet/
· Medium: https://blog.tenx.tech/
· TenX Twitter: https://twitter.com/tenxwallet
· TenX Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tenxofficial/