Need an easy way to use your magic internet money in the real word without the use of a bank account? Try Steem.cards!

in #life6 years ago

Today I walked out to the mailbox and received a pleasant surprise!

An envelope with my Steemit handle on it!


I tore into it and realized that it was the Steemit decal that I had ordered, luckily it arrived with a pre-paid visa card to help apply it Visa debit card that I had recently ordered from Steem.cards, a website created by @xtrodinarypilot that allows the purchase of many different types of gift cards with STEEM, SBD, BTC or LTC.



The website was very easy to use, once I created a login, I added my card to the cart, picked how much I wanted it to come with and hit "Pay with SBD". From there, I was redirected to Steemconnect where I completed the transaction. I messaged Ryan (@extrodinarypilot) through the website's "contact us" tab to ask how long of a wait I could expect; he explained that it normally takes 7-10 business days, but so many people had ordered them that it had caused the printing company to get backed up with orders. He was very nice and incredibly professional in his replies. He let me know that if they hadn't been printed by a certain date, that he would be sending out non-custom ones, to fulfill orders, which was fine by me, as I'm not picky about how my cards look. Monday arrived and I got an email stating that my card had been shipped!



Then voila!




Exactly 5 days later, I received my card in the mail!




Not only did I receive my order, but @xtrodinarypilot had included a nice little surprise - A Steemit window decal!



Of course, it said Steemit with the Steem logo above it, so I took drastic measures to stay "legit"...by cutting off the "it".

I believe whole-heartedly that Steem, as a blockchain and a currency, will take us, as a community, places that we can't even begin to fathom!



Thank you, @xtrodinarypilot for making the transfer of STEEM/SBD to fiat much, much easier! You have a lifetime customer and I will be sharing my experience with all of my friends and family. Your website is something that the community has needed for quite some time, and now it is a reality!






I hope you all enjoyed this original content! If you have questions or advice for me, please leave them in the comments. Also, be sure to watch for my daily Holi-Art post to find out which wacky holidays that you should be celebrating today!

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It says ‘valid only in the United states’. Do they do European versions?

Visa cards, no, not at this time. But they do have others, such as giftcards for amazon.co.uk and amazon.de

I would rather use purse.io for amazon purchases as I can get a 25% discount. Hopefully they will resolve visa issues soon.

As he is a US based company, I'm not sure if European Visas will be a thing, as they would have to be shipped.
But maybe! Never know. :)

It seems that all issuers of prepaid Visa cards in Europe went through a company called wave crest and visa recently stopped doing business with them. Hopefully there will be an alternative soon.

Now that you mention it, I did read that a couple weeks ago.

Wao felicitaciones mi amigo.

Interesting. I got one of thoes cards at a local gas station, only its re loadable so I can put money on it. They work great, and the visa network is very reliable!

I'm looking forward to using it! Thanks for you reply, @oldmangainz!

So great! Thanks for sharing your experience.

US only?

The Visa giftcards, yes - but there are other giftcards on the website for a few other countries.

That sounds great. No more transaction fees to the exchanges. Waiting for vendors to accept payments by SBD now. We don't need centralized mediators charging fees for facilitating a transaction.
We are up for a revolution now.

Revolutions are fun. ;)

This one is changing our life along with some fun.
Steemit is another fun revolution changing social media platforms for ever.

This very good news.
However, for those not in the United State is there a way to make the transfer of STEEM/SBD to fiat much much easier?

I would take a minute a do a quick country based Google search, maybe there are businesses like this already in your country that you don't know of!

I am glad I stumbled onto this article! Thanks for the info. I will definitely be looking into whether or not these are available in Canada too. -Aimee

I happen to know that they offer Amazon.ca gift cards!

Nice, @xtrodinarypilot really stepped up and created a very useful service for the community. I am always torn between just buying more STEEM for the long run, or taking a bit of 'profit'

I knoooow...It's tough. lol

So far STEEM has always won though!

Hiw much do they charge for the card? Hiw much do they carge foe the transaction to swap out the steem to the card? If the card us a debit card how do you make a PIN number for it?
Who are these people? Thanks G. You got my upvote

Hey, @g755, thanks for the questions!

  • There is an activation fee of $7.95 plus S&H which was like $2.25 for me (...I think), then you just pay for whichever amount you want, they have $25, $50, $100, $250 and $500 cards available as of this moment.
  • There are zero transaction fees for Steem or SBD, so you will only be paying the above prices. As for BTC and LTC, you will still have network and miners fees.
  • Most readers will instantly swipe it as a credit card, but if you would rather it be used as debit, you just enter whatever you want your PIN to be on the first debit transaction and it will remain that number - That's how mine worked, but be sure to read the instructions that comes with the card if you end up ordering one!
  • His name is Ryan (@xtrodinarypilot and @steemgiftcards) and he is based out of Texas - His site/business, Steem.cards, is powered by Shopify (from what I can tell).

Hope these answers help! Have an awesome day. :)

Are the cards reloadable?

No, they are for one time use.

Okay, that's what I was assuming. Thanks!

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