Bitpay Visa Card Has Forced Me to Use Their Wallet App: So Far, It's a Dreadful Piece of Crap
First, I really like my Bitpay card. Once I learned how to copy and paste the addresses and amounts, it worked beautifully, and a long and prosperous relationship was anticipated.
The Protocol
On their Facebook page, Bitpay announced last month that they were going to be adding features that would help their users to quit making "common bitcoin payment errors".
Upon enacting this protocol, Bitpay has now arranged it so that users can no longer just copy the address and send funds to the card. The bitcoin funds must now go through their wallet, or one that they have approved.
Now, a special address appears, and will only work in their app and maybe a couple of other approved wallets.
Desperate, I Downloaded their App
Previously, one could 'copy' the Bitpay address, by clicking 'I understand the risk':
Now, that page opens and shows-- not a coin address, but a web address:
Problems Right Away
I sent some funds to the Bitpay wallet app, and immediately somehow 'moved' the funds to "Personal Wallet". (I still don't know how I did that, but the fact remains that I can't access those funds now, they are there, but not there.)
Not Mac Friendly
Support. I needed customer support to find out how those 'moved' funds could be recovered. On a Mac, 'support' means a new Google window will open with a page that offers pdf converters or something, but it's not Bitpay's site, and it's not support.
Lots of Complaints
On Bitpay's Facebook page, their announcement about how they were going to make things easier for their customers is followed by dozens of complaints, people screaming about missing funds and slow or non-existant customer support responses, and the Bitpay representative who is fielding the complaints has repeatedly offered them the links to those same support pages that I can't access on this Mac.
Still not sure about how this all works yet, but I feel like I'm spending fees to move bitcoin to the Bitpay wallet, and then I'm being charged again to move those funds to the card itself. By the time it's on the card, how much have I paid? I don't want to think about it-- I'm still trying to recover the coins that I 'moved' inside the wallet for a $28 fee.
Verification Number?
When I finally found my way to a support page, it asked for a "verification number", but I didn't have one. Maybe customer support gives out these numbers to the users who aren't crippled with a Mac OS like me.
The Situation I'm In Now
When I got this Bitpay card earlier this year, I learned how to load funds onto it, and then I never bothered to learn any other ways to turn bitcoin into spending money, the card worked everywhere, and things were good. Now, I'm terrified to try to send money into this card through the Bitpay wallet app. Sending small test amounts used to work, but now with all of the fees, it costs more to test the system than I am willing to throw away right now.
Someday, all of us crypto-pioneers will be bragging about all of the arrows that were in our backs during these times. For now though, when I see that I sent myself $300 worth of Bitcoin but it's now only $256, and I can't even access it in that clunky Bitpay wallet, I'm basically just complaining here now.
so it does has any affect with the prices of bitcoin had no idea on this
The Bitpay wallet may not recognize changes in prices, but I'm not certain.
This app sucks no use at all
That does seem to be the word, but it will change, no doubt.
wow. was considering BitPay but now i'll wait til we can get a hold of TenX or Monaco card..
Yes I'll be on the lookout for something better now.
does it really work flawlessly huhh ?
Not exactly flawless!
For all its faults, I used to love my Bitpay card. But now with these insane fees, bitcoin is sadly just not usable for this kind of thing. Bitpay would do better to allow other alt coins to fund the card, altcoins with low transfer fees such as litecoin, dash, or bitcoin cash.
As things stand, the card is worthless.
They say they are going to add bitcoin cash, that might be how they save this mess. Now I have to figure out how to turn this crypto into groceries some other way, which I needed to learn anyway I suppose.
And you have every right to complain.
This appears to be a quickly thrown together effort due to bitcoin miner fees.
I do hope they make it better
Yeah they made it so that instead of paying miner fees, why not 'just give that money to us!' Seeing all of the complaints so far about lost funds and such, I feel like they will fix it, while I figure out a different way to access my coins. It probably won't be the last time I have to change and learn something new to get by in this world! I just want to get my $300, or $200 or whatever it is now, out of that wallet.
I was going to use bitcoin to make a $400 purchase from egifter.com the other day. But this new "feature" drove me away, so the merchant lost $400, although they'll probably never know it. They only have bitpay to thank.
It's bad enough paying transaction fees once, but I would have had to pay a transaction fee to move funds from wallet-A to wallet-B, then another transaction fee to make the purchase. Sorry. Not happening.
Yeah it's this double fee thing that's really changed things-- even if they get the app working better, those fees are impossible.
Right now there's around $130 on my wallet's balance, with a notice suggesting that it will cost too much to spend, or something:
You would think with so much money at stake they spend some time and resources not only in producing a great quality product but hiring some temps/allowing excess overtime to deal with customers needing help dealing with a major product usage change.
Man those are some crazy fees. That's going hurt them f not dealt with fast. While I do not use it, and I would be a little more than just very angry if funds became in a trapped/unusable state.
I hope to get the trapped funds back eventually, but the $30 I spent so far in misplacing it is gone forever I'm afraid. Frustrating tho, that the card is now pretty useless with that fee rate.
❤You should complain about it
Now we see even the bitcoin transactions
It has become more difficult given the many russia and this
The fees keep going up on bitcoin transactions, something will change soon, always does!
The majority are reluctant to use alternative currencies with lower fees such as Doge
Excellent post about Cryptocurrency and bitcoin. Follow and upvoted you. Thanks for sharing such a good post
"I want bitpay card." I'm thinking you didn't read the article. If you read it, and still want a bitpay card, can you explain why? Thanks!
I understand. Thanks