Bitpay Visa Prepaid Debit Card First Impressions.
I have to admit by the time the card arrived I was very excited to use it. I have been a Coinbase user for some time and thought this would be similar but with a debit card. At first there was a bit of disappointment but that was mostly due to lack of research.
The card arrives with some setup info and legal papers. I skimmed the contract and came to the fees section. I quickly noticed a $5 a month fee for inactivity of 90 days. This was frustrating to me because I did not intend to use the card that much. After some research I found a reddit post from a Bitpay employee. He stated that it is the law to require an inactivity fee but they have not and to not plan to charge anyone the fee.
After receiving the card there is some minimal account creation and setup. Then you deposit funds into your Bitpay address of a specified amount in USD. This is where I was let down a bit, I had anticipated just sending some BTC to this card to spend when needed.
The conversion is done when you load the card and not when you actually use it. I can see why this would be an issue due to the fluctuation in the price of BTC. The delay between the sale and the selling of BTC could be less or more than the actual amount.
However there is a third option which may have not been considered to solve this problem. This solution is simple, a minimal balance. For example $100, once a purchase is made a BTC transfer is done to bring the balance back up to exactly $100. I will make an effort to get this message to them but implementation may be a bit trickier.
My first purchase was lunch at the local Skyline. I was excited to cash out and even mentioned to the employee that it was a bitcoin credit card and she blankly looked at me confused. Obviously she had no idea what bitcoin was or that this card was different from any other she had seen that day.
The card itself was easy to use and I feel it will be used more than anticipated. The chip reader on my main card is broken so having this as a backup is nice. I also do not like to make small transactions on my main car for whatever reason, the card will be handy for those as well.
Halfway thought the meal I ended up at more of a philosophical angle. I was thinking about how I used the funds from my creative work here on steemit to purchase a chili dog and spaghetti. It left me with a few very important questions.
Is this the best use of these funds?
Would the community be proud of me for using their upvotes this way?
I started to wonder how obligated I was to to all of you reading my posts, upvoting, and leaving me comments. One would hope that your contributions are voluntary and you do not expect anything from me. Given that my success on steemit is based on your contributions, the need to spend the funds wisely is there.
This will be a subject for the later date as I have decided to be a steemit dolphin! All efforts moving forward will be to accomplish this goal of 5,000 SP. I have been able to acquire 2,038 SP since joining last month so this is a goal that can be achieved in a few months hopefully.
If you have any suggestions on what I should have spent my hard earned steem on, let me know in the comments.
Thanks!
Good article and I look forward to be able to have my own card as well. Soon I hope. thanks for the information, keep on Steeming. All for one and one for all! Namaste :)
Thank you for the wonderful comment!
Looks like somebody needs to go on a Whole30 with me! 😉
You have been inspirational for sticking with it. I will hold off until you get all the good recipes figured out. <3
I've been using one of these cards since August. I use it several times a week.
I believe your post on the card is what led me to get one, thanks!
https://steemit.com/steemit/@dwinblood/so-how-do-you-spend-money-from-steemit-tutorial-and-proof-that-i-have-done-so
Hahaha... I'm glad it helped you. I wrote that quite awhile ago, likely right after I got it and put it to the test.
I was talking to a @choreboy today about how some posts even though they may not make money will still have value later down the road, especially with new followers. This is a good example of an informative post being used well after the creation date.
You can spend you rewards however you like. You earned em.
Nice post good to see the system is working. Does it work Globally?
Globally is the super bonus if I ever need to travel. There is a 3% currency conversion fee though which is standard. It is basically a Visa card backed by a bank.
Thank you for the comment!
sweet
Sweet indeed, I want to get a passport now just to travel and use it!
haha. get one.
I seriously just want to move to iceland
Wirex, my only gripes are sometimes unreliable, card provider, wallet provider offline, and €2.25 cash out fee. I am a lottle concerned about the chip dying, actually.
It is your money. Sometimes you need a hot dog. I also fall a bit into this "obligation to the fans" thing... Brains can be extraordinarily creative at finding ways to make you nervous, for no reason.
The guru I listen to refers to it as your monkey brain and how it has to stay busy doing something. My diet has been a struggle for me for sometime and something I need to get under control. I have yet to though, so the community judgment may have been am attempt to motivate myself to eat better.
I could not deal well with site down time when it comes to my Bitcoin. That for me is a sign that all my BTC is about to dissapear.....And it's gone.....lol
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I'm a little confused by this. When you send the BTC to add to your card, it is automatically converted to U.S. Dollars upon receipt. So, you don't have to hold a balance and you can just send funds whenever you want to spend something. You don't have to worry about fluctuating BTC prices, since the money on the card is in U.S. Dollars. Or maybe I'm misunderstanding what it is that you don't like?
I actually got one of these cards a couple of weeks ago. I've used it a few times already and couldn't be happier with how easy the process is to spend money that I've earned here. I use @blocktrades to send the funds. The only issues I have is that VISA has to comply with the KYC laws and take your government identification info before issuing the cards. I don't like that trade-off, but there aren't really any easier alternatives to cashing out STEEM and SBD.
Anyway - I wouldn't worry about how you spend your money. It's your money. Do what you want with it. I think chili dogs and spaghetti are fine choices.
Ok, so the need to convert BTC to USD before spending is an extra step in my opinion. In theory I would like to just send BTC to the card and just use it when needed. How it is now I need to figure out what I am going to spend then send that amount in BTC to the card with a 15 minute timer for the transaction to go through.
I would prefer to leave my "money" in BTC as long as possible, though today that would not have been a good idea lol.
OK, I see what you're saying now. In my opinion, I'd rather just transfer to Dollars what I think I'll spend over a certain period before I want to recharge the card again. With the volatility of cryptos, I'd rather have a known balance instead of a fluctuating one. But then again, I'm using SBDs to charge the card anyway, so I'm already used to the Dollar peg and price stability.
And on days like today, I'm very glad that my balance wasn't in BTC and that we have the SBD option for our wallets. It is a huge advantage over the other alt-coins. Hopefully more people will realize this soon and migrate over to STEEM/SBDs. Then I'll be able to finally retire!
I am blown away by the SBD aspect of the site along with the built in exchange. I have noticed that the volume is lacking and there seems to be a difference between the current price on there and on coin market cap. I did some math and thought it was due to SBD being worth slightly less than a dollar at .95 which is relative I guess. This lead me down a rabbit hole of thought thinking of who would back SBD at one dollar creating a perfect conversion. Then that progressed into an actual country creating its own pegged currency to interact with crypto lol. Funny how the mind wonders some times. But yes, you would be able to retire. A little wallet envy I will be honest. I decided today that I want to reach Dolphin status!
Well, keep doing what you've been doing and your entire family will get there. Then I'll be the envious one!
So true! I might not even be the first one. I keep telling myself it is not a competition.
Going to check out bitpay. I use shift. Works well. $10 Creation Fee - disclosure.
That is the same fee as bitpay, thanks for the comment.
Welcome.
Very nice post. I too received my Bitpay Visa card. I though was shown all the fees etc. by a fellow steemin so I wasn't surprised. I shall be activating mine tomorrow. I've witnessed the ease and use of purchasing with this card firsthand. It's a whole new cryptocurrency world.
I agree to some extent but I have been a Coinbase user for a while now. I am able to store and sell BTC with Coinbase and can even set the sell price on their GDAX exchange. After the sale this can be directly depisited into my bank account, though it takes a few days. If Bitpay can integrate these kinds of features with the card it would be superior, especially with a minimum balance auto convert feature. So future! Thanks for the comment.
I have this card, shift card, and gold money card. The less fiat the better.
Which one is your favorite of the three?
My favorite is shift. It keeps your bitcoin as bitcoin and just drafts out fiat at the time of purchase. Bitpay and gold money you have to take that small step and convert to fiat yourself.
Oh wow, thank you! That is exactly what I am looking for. Is it available in the USA? I am pretty sure I looked into it at one time a while back.
Yes.
Awesome, will check it out.