What a Crypto Card Actually Costs
The number in the fee table is the part they want you to compare. The part that costs you more is usually somewhere else.
There are two honest ways to charge for turning crypto into spendable money. One is a stated fee: you see it, you can compare it. The other is a worse exchange rate: you do not see it, and you cannot compare it without doing arithmetic nobody does at checkout.
Most of the industry uses the second. That is why cards advertising "0% fees" exist and stay in business.
How the spread hides
Suppose the market rate is 1 USDT = 1.00 USD. A card advertising no conversion fee credits you 0.97 USD per USDT. Nothing in the fee table is untrue: the conversion fee really is zero. You have simply paid 3% in a place with no label on it.
The way to see it is to compare the credited amount against the mid-market rate at that moment. If $100 of USDT becomes $97 of balance, the cost is 3% regardless of what the table says.
A stated fee is not automatically cheaper. A card charging 2.5% openly and converting at the real rate costs less than one charging nothing and converting at 3% worse. The point is not that fees are good — it is that a fee you can see is a fee you can compare.
Where cards actually charge
| Charge | Usually visible? | Typical range |
|---|---|---|
| Card issuance | Yes | $0–500 once |
| Monthly or plan fee | Yes | $0–20 per month |
| Crypto conversion fee | Yes | 0–3% |
| Exchange rate spread | No | 0–4% |
| Foreign currency markup | Sometimes | 0–3% |
| ATM withdrawal | Yes | 1–4% or fixed |
| Inactivity fee | Rarely | $0–10 per month |
| Declined payment | Rarely | $0–1 per attempt |
The two lines that are hardest to see are the two that usually cost the most.
The arithmetic worth doing once
Take the amount you expect to move in a year. Multiply by the conversion fee, then by the spread you measured. Add the monthly fee times twelve, and the issuance fee once.
For $500 a month, a card at 2.5% with no spread and no monthly fee costs $150 a year. A card at 0% with a 3% spread and $10 a month costs $300. The second one advertises better.
What we charge, for comparison
Conversion is 2.5% at the market rate, with no spread added inside it, whichever coin you send — which crypto to top up with covers what changes and what does not. There is no monthly fee, no inactivity fee and no charge for a declined payment. Cash at a machine costs 1%, and whatever the machine's own operator adds is shown on its screen before you confirm.
Issuance is $9.99 for a virtual card and $499.99 for a physical one, charged once; which one you actually need is a separate question from what it costs. Cash at a machine is 1%, and the fees the machine itself adds are in getting cash from a crypto card. The full table is on the pricing page, and it is the whole list — if a charge is not there, it does not exist.
Common questions
Convert a small amount, note what lands on the card, and compare with the mid-market rate at that minute from any independent source. The difference, minus any stated fee, is the spread.
Yes, if it buys a materially better rate and you move enough volume. Do the arithmetic with your own numbers — at low volume the monthly fee usually wins the wrong way.
Producing and shipping a physical card has a real cost, and so does the bank relationship behind a virtual one. A one-time charge is more honest than recovering it monthly from people who barely use the card.
Ready to try it?
Every fee is on one page, and there is no monthly charge to work around.
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