Cryptopay provides an easy way to spend your bitcoins worldwide. Users can benefit from the advantages of the bitcoin network while streamlining currency translations and hedging against market movements. The services offered by Cryptopay gives the users quick and comfortable access to bitcoin payments. The VISA debit card issued by the company is backed with bitcoin amounts that people can use up in online purchases or withdrawals from ATMs.
Bitcoin Debit Card Cryptopay
Services provided Cryptopay
Users can buy, sell and store bitcoins in Cryptopay’s bitcoin wallet on FLEX accounts. After connecting the bank account to the platform, users can convert EUR, GBP or USD amounts into bitcoins. The wallet is designed in a way to let the customers store the various currency amounts within the same account. This makes sending and receiving money from abroad a lot more comfortable experience.
Cryptopay issues VISA debit cards to offer offline spending opportunities for those owning bitcoins. The cards are accepted at all POS terminals where VISA cards are accepted. This means customers can either pay online or offline at millions of merchants world-wide. Besides the traditional VISA cards that have chips and pins, users can also order virtual cards, which are accepted as widely as the plastic cards.
The accounts balances can be topped up with ordinary bank account transfers. Bank accounts eligible within the 28 SEPA countries in Europe, but cards can be ordered outside of the Eurozone too. At this point, customers in the United States or India are not able to order the debit card issued by Cryptopay. Besides the United States, the company excludes an additional 120 countries from their services, including couple of countries in Africa and in the Middle-East.
The VISA debit cards are shipped internationally free if the standard service is selected. After the order is made through the website, customer receives the debit card within 2-3 weeks in Europe and 3-5 weeks in the rest of the word. In case of the express delivery option is chosen, clients can receive the ordered cards within 3-10 days for an excess fee of 75 USD.
Pricing and Fees
Plastic cards cost 15 USD, virtual cards are 2.5 USD. The plastic cards allow verified users to withdraw daily 2,000 USD from ATMs and there is 10,000 USD limit on single top ups. However there is no limit neither in total withdrawals, nor in top up amounts on loading the balance.
Cryptopay offers it’s user base the option to use its services without verification too. In that case however the limits for ATM withdrawals and topups are significantly smaller. Unverified users may withdraw 400 USD daily from ATMs, but only in a total amount of 1,000 USD throughout the lifetime of the access.
For both verified and unverified users, customers are able to withdraw cash from ATM only two times a day. On the other side, both type of users may use Cryptopay debit cards unlimited time for online purchases.
Cryptopay charges 1% on all bitcoin conversion from and into fiat currencies. The cheapest way is to load the account balance with the on-site Cryptopay loading tool, because otherwise the platform charges an additional 0.99% for using third-party services. For unloading cards there is an extra fee of $/€/£ 0.10 beside the 1% charge.
Users must pay attention to the base currency of the Cryptopay card as there is an additional 3% charge on foreign transactions. If the customers wants to pay or withdraw money in a different currency than the base currency of the card this 3% foreign transaction fee is charged.
The fee of ATM withdrawals for domestic and international transactions in euros are the same € 2.25. However if the base currency of the Cryptopay card is different than what the ATM provides, there is a higher fee for international transactions in GBP and USD.
The bitcoin prices are not traded at much premium and the bid/offer margin is reasonable. For example, Cryptopay offered bitcoins for 775.84 – 783.49 USD bid-ask, while the BTCUSD price was 785.94 at Coinbase and 779.67 at Bitstamp.
There are a number of fees that are applicable for utilizing and loading Cryptopay debit card.
Cryptopay Plastic Prepaid Card – Price and Fees
| Card price and fees | EUR Card | GBP Card | USD Card |
|---|---|---|---|
| Card price | €15.00 | £15.00 | $15.00 |
| Standard worldwide delivery | Free | Free | Free |
| Express worldwide delivery | €70.00 | £50.00 | $75.00 |
| Domestic ATM Transaction | €2.25 | £1.75 | $2.50 |
| International ATM Transaction | €2.75 | £2.25 | $3.50 |
| Foreign transaction fee | 3% | 3% | 3% |
| Monthly service fee | €1.00 | £1.00 | $1.00 |
| Loading fee | 1% | 1% | 1% |
| Third-party loading fee | 1.99% | 1.99% | 1.99% |
Cryptopay Virtual Prepaid Card – Price and Fees
| Card price and fees | EUR Card | GBP Card | USD Card |
|---|---|---|---|
| Card price | €2.50 | £2.50 | $2.50 |
| Foreign Transaction Fee | 3% | 3% | 3% |
| Monthly service fee | €1.00 | £1.00 | $1.00 |
| Loading fee | 1% | 1% | 1% |
| Third-party loading fee | 1.99% | 1.99% | 1.99% |
User experience
Cryptopay’s website has a neat, unified blue look. The navigation is fairly straightforward on the site.
The registration only takes one minute. After providing the name, email address and password, users can login into the platform. In order to verify the account users must present a government issued ID card (passport, national ID or driving license) and a proof of residency. For proof of residency bank statement, utility bill, tax return or government issued certificate of residency is accepted. Verification takes just a few hours.
After login, users can view the balance of the accounts. Each currency (EUR/GBP/USD) is given a separate bitcoin address where the customers can load the bitcoin balances. There are separate tabs for transferring money to bitcoin addresses, for loading and unloading cards. The balances can be withdrawn to another bitcoin wallet or to linked bank accounts under Send section. Referral tab let’s the users to invite friends to the service in order to receive a 10% revenue share while the friends can use Cryptopay debit card for a 25% discount.
In case any question arise, there is a search function in the FAQ section. Cryptopay also offers live chat support if any issues cannot be resolved by email.
Users seems to like Cryptopay very much. They praise the business idea along with the website. The only negative feedback mentioned was that the customer support works in UK time zone only that could be a headache for overseas clients.
| Cryptopay Account limits | EUR Card | GBP Card | USD Card |
|---|---|---|---|
| Value of online transactions Unverified / Verified |
€1,000.00 / Unlimited | £800.00 / Unlimited | $1,000.00 / Unlimited |
| Third-party loads available Unverified / Verified |
No / Yes | No / Yes | No / Yes |
| Max single top-up value Unverified / Verified |
€1,000.00 / €10,000.00 | £800.00 / £8,000.00 | $1,000.00 / $10,000.00 |
| Max daily load Unverified / Verified |
€1,000.00 / €20,000.00 | £800.00 / £16,000.00 | $1,000.00 / $20,000.00 |
| Max lifetime load Unverified / Verified |
€1,000.00 / Unlimited | £800.00 / Unlimited | $1,000.00 / Unlimited |
| Max lifetime unload Unverified / Verified |
€1,000.00 / Unlimited | £800.00 / Unlimited | $1,000.00 / Unlimited |
| Loads per day Unverified / Verified |
2 / Unlimited | 2 / Unlimited | 2 / Unlimited |
About Cryptopay.me
Cryptopay.me has been founded in October 2013 with two young bitcoin enthusiastic. George Basiladze has an MsC in finance, had several research analyst experience at Russian investment firms with an in-depth knowledge of the financial systems. Dmitry Gunyashov has a 7+ years history in building e-commerce businesses and successfully managed the development work of multiple payment systems in the past. The company’s headquarter is based in London, the guys are managing the business from the UK nowadays. The company has already issued more than 37,000 debit card, they have 167,000 active users word-wide who conduct 100,000 transactions per month with Cryptopay’s services.
Conclusion
The biggest benefit of Cryptopay is that they offer services for three major currencies EUR, GBP and USD and they are shipping the VISA card free world-wide. The website is built well designed. However because the prices schedule is slightly above average compared to competitors, users should consider whether they will use all three currencies and whether it worth to do so via Cryptopay.
