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Having Options is Great, But What Option is Best For You When it Concerns Your Crypto and Your Cash Out Strategies In Crypto?

Lets face it, even myself who lives solely on Crypto and does a complete life choice to become FIAT free still comes with the bane of having to take my Crypto holdings to pay the bills. Personally I closed my traditional checking account over a year ago so how have I survived and how do I get bills covered you may ask? Well with the growth in crypto, thankfully in came many choices in the debit card area to save the day!

I am only experienced with two of these cards, due to being an American, our choices have vastly become pretty limited in the debit card crypto game. Thankfully we have Bitpay and Shift who I use and today I will try to pass on as best of info I can provide between the two in hopes it helps the new guys in Crypto make wise decisions on how to use their Crypto to their own benefits. Bills have to be paid, shopping must be done, so knowing what works for you best is always worth your own investigations.

BITPAY: The First Card I have Ever Held, Many Fails Though Lately

Bitpay (https://bitpay.com) is the first exit I had in crypto once I got out of my bank. You are very limited without going the traditional bank route, sure you can use gift cards for online purchases or you can sometimes use services like Coinbase to move funds into a Paypal account. But having that edge with a debit card, loadable from your Bitcoin holdings does tend to help you from the system a lot of us in Crypto are trying to move on from.

I went to Bitpay towards the beginning of the year. Due to many positive reviews and research on my end. Their service has held really positive remarks so I ended up paying the $10 fee in Bitcoin to secure my first crypto based debit card with them. On first few months usage, great....no complaints at all in way of this card being accepted anywhere (though I did find a small select group of retailers the card had issues), over all I could use this card just about anywhere and free myself a little better with my crypto holdings.

THE GOOD: For what it is, Bitpay serves its purpose quite well. If you want to separate your holdings and loads on a debit card, Bitpay is probably the answer for you in his area seeing they host their own Bitcoin wallet and you load your card separately on your own. There is no on the fly loads per purchase, its more like a traditional prepaid debit card so you can separate holdings and debit card funds on your own terms. Also for the most part, this card works anywhere. Online shopping has worked 100% for me with a year of usage almost but the few spots I did have issues tended to be mom and pop retailers in the public forum but I suspect its less Bitpay and more the systems they used. Overall its easy to get used to using the Bitpay system for bill paying and using your crypto, not too complicated and pretty freeing at first when you move from a traditional bank to Bitpay.

THE BAD: Sadly after some time with Bitpay and now with another debit card I am about to move onto after this paragraph, I had no clue how screwed I was getting on fees and also some issues with my wallet I have yet to hear back from SUPPORT on a month now later. First issue, the fees...every move you make it appears on this card will cost you. You get miner fees for loading, plus their fees for loading. (NOTE: For Bitpay Fee info, click here: https://bitpay.com/card/resources/Fees.pdf) Moving funds out and in come with the usual miner fees and I have noticed, at least on my end it fluctuates so much its hard to really know what you are paying out. Most crypto debit cards now a days don't work this way so that load fee option to me feels kind of dated at this stage. Issue 2, and a big one for me that is probably going to make me completely move on from Bitpay, SUPPORT simply does not respond to tickets and that is a killer for me with an issue I lately am having since a few updates back. I have a lingering $30 in my Bitcoin wallet I can not move, cannot load nor move out of my wallet to other wallets. My fiance also holds a Bitpay card and having a similar issue but less money involved. All I get is insufficient funds and a notice if I move this $30 out it will come with higher miner fees than I hold. Sorry I am a Bitcoin mempool watcher and miner fee one as well, no way it would ever cost that much to load or move. So I have dead holdings and I think Bitpay needs to get that one in check. Sadly due to this, I am have already begun a move on to another card until I get a response or updated fix.

Over all, my bad recent experience lately does not make me fully hate on Bitpay, I still hold the card and do small payments to keep that active. I have hopes that eventually these recent issues will clear up but out of financial responsibility, I just don't use them so much anymore until they get their act together on these growing issues I am seeing. Like I say, research for yourself and maybe what I am having issues with is less widespread than I think.

SHIFT: Going back to Coinbase Was Sketchy But Worth It

Shift (https://www.shiftpayments.com/card) right now to be dead honest is a life saver for my family. With the recent headaches going on for me with Bitpay its great to find something to be even more less of a hassle and more fair for users. Gaining financial freedom takes making choices and leaving Bitpay for Shift who is very attached to Coinbase (https://www.coinbase.com) did take some thought for me.

Coinbase was one of the first online wallets/exchanges I ever used in this space. And last year these guys had a lot of issues going on so bad that I honestly forgot a few months ago I still had an account with them. I hauled ass from them like so many so when I seen my limited options in the debit card area, I avoided Shift a lot due to them needing you to host your holdings in Coinbase for usage with their card. The reviews though were so highly spoke of about SHIFT that I decided to fire back up the Coinbase account and order their card.

SHIFT does things a little different than Bitpay. Instead of constant fees for load ups, I am finding it way more beneficial for their way of doing things. Instead of you loading a debit card like a prepaid card, Shift will actually do a 1 for 1 style transaction in exact equivalent amount for what you pay for. Also a bigger plus, while Bitpay is stuck on just Bitcoin, you can actually tie either Bitcoin/ETH/LTC to your card. I went with the LTC option, price doesn't go nuts on me for bills so I am feeling pretty free now using LTC in the real world. Keep the Bitcoins as savings now and LTC as cheap transactional micro payment solutions which is reminding me of the old days again.

THE GOOD: After about 2 months now with SHIFT, I can safely say this probably is one of the best options we have here in the USA for crypto based debit cards that I have held. I am sure there are more out there for me to test out but right now I think this is number one in my wallet and most used. SUPPORT is amazing, I had an issue tying my LTC wallet to my card with the mobile app and I kid you not, a response hit me in 2 minutes flat. They walked me through a fix and a few hours later I had an issue with an international payment and once again the support responded in a few minutes and activated my card to international usage in seconds. No issues since, no merchants I have found don't accept this card and I see no fees at all for spending my Litecoin in the real world. I haven't had need to use an ATM yet but that is about the only fee I have found on their site, which to me is reasonable seeing its an occasional thing for me when most of my expenditures are direct off the debit system.

THE BAD: Honestly the bad has faded but I did take a lot of pains to trust Coinbase again coming into using them a second time. I had some minor issues last year with funds not showing up and really slow support responses but it appears they have really cleaned up the place since my last use of my account there. I am still watching them hard lol but I am starting to believe they have done a lot of work to be a better service so maybe I can trust them again. I do wish Shift had their own wallet, a desktop one like Bitpay so I can control my own keys and keep my holdings offline but I think they will head that way if more of us adopt them and voice that concern. Overall the Good outways the Bad for me and I think I am getting comfortable with moving my LTC holdings again on Coinbase, for now!

Overall, I think the Shift card was a godsend to me. I have saved so much money in fees by getting their card, I am even thinking about upping my daily limit of $1000 to spend after a little more time with them. I hate to have to turn my back on Bitpay but they just aren't providing what I need anymore and that is a tragedy as much as I have backed them for quite awhile. So between the 2, I would say I trust on SHIFT more at this stage, feel better using LTC for payouts and use Bitcoin as savings thanks to this option. I recommend on my name to check more into SHIFT and those of us who dealt with the issues at Coinbase last year, I am here to say maybe they got their act together lately, seems to flow with less issues over there the last month I been back.

~sflaherty

Follow me @sflaherty