Spectrocoin.com aims to provide all-in-one services for bitcoin users. Beside a bitcoin wallet, they provide exchange services, a bitcoin debit card, and a solution for merchants accepting bitcoin in their daily business activities. Spectrocoin combined technological reliability with infrastructural comprehensiveness in order to create a high-quality bitcoin service for its clients.
Bitcoin Debit Card Spectrocoin
Services Provided Spectrocoin
Spectrocoin provides front-to-back services for anyone who would to use bitcoin around the world. They have a bitcoin e-wallet that can be directly funded by the bitcoins purchased on their own exchange. The bitcoin debit card makes spending bitcoins as easy as fiat currencies. The company also provides a solution for merchant so they can accept bitcoin through their business activities. In order to make the integration as easy as possible for everyone beside an API, Spectrocoin provides eCommerce plugins and Libraries for merchants and for the wallet.
Bitcoin debit card is funded instantly with bitcoin, so no need to exchange the cryptocurrency in advance of payment. The VISA and plastic cards can be used at any ATM around the world, the denominated base currencies are USD, EUR and GBP. Both the plastic and the virtual cards are accepted at the more than 20 million sites and online shops across the internet. They also provide an option for business owners to switch to bitcoin payment for operations. Spectrocoin offers company cards as a solution for those who are one step ahead in the digital world.
Spectrocoin card – unlike many other bitcoin debit card – is shipped to any country of the world, including the India and China too and available for US citizens as well. Normal shipping if free and the card arrives in 3-4 weeks. If anyone would like to speed up the shipping, for an extra fee of $75/69/£50 the expedited shipping option is available. In this case the card can be the users hand in 4-5 days.
Spectrocoin created smartphone apps for those who need to reach their finances on the go. And who wouldt need that? The Spectrocoin wallet is reachable in the Google Play, App Store and also in the Windows Store.
The service uses two factor authorization for login. The verification process is not detailed thoroughly on their website. In order to verify the users themselves, they must provide a valid passport or ID card and a utility bill. The AML policy provides details on the documents, but has no information on how much the process itself takes if everything goes well.
Verified users can load their Spectrocoin card with maximum 10000 USD at once. Spectrocoin allows max 2 ATM transactions per day, in a total amount of 2000 USD. There is no limit for POS usage and for verified users Spectrocoin offers POS load services too. If the Spectrocoin card is verified, it is able to receive funds from third party merchants like PayPal and Gambling sites. If any funds is received by an unverified card, these funds are blocked until the card is being verified.
Unverified users may also use Spectrocoin services, however they are then exposed to certain limits. The maximum top-up amount is only 2500 USD. At ATMs unverified users are only able to withdraw 200 USD at a single time, 400 USD daily from maximum 2 transactions. Total ATM withdrawal limit for unverified users is 1000 USD. On the other hand, even unverified users can shop online or pay at POS terminals unlimited amount of money from their bitcoin debit card. POS load service is not available for unverified users.
About Spectrocoin.com
The UK based Spectrocoin has been launched in 2013. The company has its headquarter in Landsdowne Row, London. They started to issue bitcoin debit cards in May, 2015.
Although Spectrocoin does not list their owners directly on the website, according to Pitchbook and Linkedin the bitcoin service provider is owned by three individuals from Lithuania.
Vytautas Karalevičius before funding Spectrocoin, had various roles as financial analyst in the industry. The third owner is Mantas Mockevicius who has multiple degrees in international business studies. Justas Dobiliauskas is the chief technology officer at the startup due to his 6+ years experience s a developer at enterprise software designing companies.
Pricing and Fees
Spectrocoin plastic bitcoin card costs $9.00/8.00/£6.00, while the virtual card is only $0.50/0.50/£0.50. There is also a monthly service charge fee of 1 USD for both plastic and virtual cards. However this fee is not charged if the balance of the account is zero. Also, there is no inactivity fee, so users can try out the card relatively easy and cheap.
Loading costs of the cards are free if the funds are coming from a Spectrocoin account. Otherwise the loading costs depends on the method used: transfers from bank is free but via credit card they charge up to 5%. If the card is unloaded to a bitcoin wallet, it costs 0.5% with a minimum charge of $1.00/1.00/£1.00 at each bitcoin purchase transactions. So multiple transfers with small amounts may cost a lot at the end for a user.
When using ATMs, Spectrocoin charges 2.5 USD for domestic currency withdrawal and 3.5 USD for other currency withdrawal. There is also a 3% currency exchange fee that is charged if the payment is made in other than the default currency. When receiving funds to the card, the POS load fee is 1.99%.
Spectrocoin provides the available average bitcoin exchange price at their site. The bitcoin price is given in 26 currencies, including the price in gold and altcoins like dash too. The Spectrocoin bitcoin price is within the acceptable bid-offer range of the average bitcoin price on the market.
| PHYSICAL USD/EUR/GBP |
VIRTUAL USD/EUR/GBP |
|
|---|---|---|
| Price | $9.00/€8.00/£6.00 | $0.50/€0.50/£0.50 |
| Delivery | 3-4 weeks | Instant |
| Monthly service charge fee** | $1.00/€1.00/£1.00 | $1.00/€1.00/£1.00 |
| Inactivity fee | FREE/FREE/FREE | FREE/FREE/FREE |
| Card top up from SpectroCoin account | 0% | 0% |
| Card to Bitcoin wallet (Buying bitcoin) | 0.5% + $1.00/€1.00/£1.00 | 0.5% + $1.00/€1.00/£1.00 |
| ATM withdrawal in domestic currency | $2.5/€2.25/£1.75 | – |
| ATM withdrawal in other currencies | $3.50/€2.75/£2.25 | – |
| 3rd party load | 1.99% | 1.99% |
| Currency exchange*** | 3% | 3% |
| Normal shipping (up to 3-4 weeks) | Free | – |
| Expedited shipping (4-5 days) | $75/€69/£50 | – |
User Experience Spectrocoin
The platform of Spectrocoin has a blue and yellow style with a spotless design. In order to ease the reading of tables like the pricing schedule, the pointed rows are emphasized with highlighting. Small thing, but helps a lot if a user is looking a hug table with multiple rows.
At the bitcoin price section, there is a chart showing the bitcoin price for a given timeframe. Users can easily read the historic prices directly from the chart in any of the 26 currencies.
Spectrocoin website although provides a lot of information on the services, still does not include everything handy that a possible future user may need. The FAQ does not offer a search function. The verification timeline is not detailed. The owners of the company are not listed on the site. These information alone doesn’t seem too important, but when a user is looking for something and cannot find, it can be frustrating. For these situations however the Hot Line and the Support should be able to suffice.
An interesting important point to add is the Google search results of Spectroin. It looks like some users had issues with the company as the bitcoin forum has some open topics about people complaining about Spectrocoin locking bitcoins and not responding to queries. Spectrocoin by so far have not defended themselves on these charges. It is well-known that at a bitcoin exchange accounts the bitcoins are never safe, so we encourage everyone to store their bitcoins safely.
Bitcoin Prepaid Card Limits
| VERIFIED USD/EUR/GBP |
|
|---|---|
| Max number of Top-ups per day | 2 |
| Max Top-up amount per purchase | $10,000/€10,000/£8,000 |
| Max Top-up amount per day | $20,000/€20,000/£16,000 |
| POS load*** | No limit |
| Max lifetime load | No limit |
| Max number of ATM transactions per day | 5 |
| Max single ATM withdrawal | $1,000/€1,000/£800 |
| Max ATM withdrawal per day | $2,000/€2,000/£1,600 |
| Total ATM withdrawal limit | No limit |
| Max POS amount per day (shops) | No limit |
| Max number unload to Bitcoin wallet transactions per day | 2 |
| Min unload to Bitcoin wallet | $2/€2/£2 |
| Max unload to Bitcoin wallet | $2,250/€2,250/£2,000 |
| Total lifetime unload from card | No limit |
Conclusion
Spectrocoin provide complex services for bitcoin users. The bitcoin debit cards are available for all users world-wide which is a big pro as most bitcoin debit card companies does not support US citizens. The user base is also expanded to the Windows mobile users that is not likely at other bitcoin debit card providers. Although the service and the pricing is relatively decent, the shipping is expensive and the complaints around the internet may scare furure users from the platform.
