Frequently Asked Questions

A crypto card is an ordinary payment card whose balance you fund with cryptocurrency instead of a bank transfer. You send USDT, Bitcoin or another supported asset, it is converted into a spendable balance in ordinary currency, and the card then works at any merchant that takes cards — the shop sees a normal card payment and never knows crypto was involved. The card itself does not spend crypto directly; conversion happens on the way in, which is why the balance does not move in value between the moment you fund it and the moment you spend it.

No, and we are careful not to imply it. NELVOI is a financial technology company. Accounts and cards are provided through regulated partner institutions holding the relevant permissions; we build the product on top. Your balance is not a bank deposit and is not covered by deposit insurance — it is safeguarded instead by segregation, which is a different mechanism protecting against a different failure. The security page explains the distinction in full.

Because NELVOI issues real payment cards through regulated partners, and card schemes and financial regulators require every cardholder to be identified. That verification is also what allows a card to be accepted by banks and ATMs, and what lets us restore access to your funds if you lose your device.

A government-issued photo ID — passport, national ID card or driving licence — and a selfie. Some countries additionally require proof of address, such as a utility bill or bank statement from the last three months.

Usually a few minutes. It takes longer if the document photo is blurry, cropped, or taken at an angle. Manual review, when it happens, is typically within one business day.

Write to [email protected]. The most common causes are an expired document, a photo where the edges are cut off, or a name mismatch between the document and the account. All of them are fixable.

One account per person. You can issue multiple cards within it, which is what most people actually want — separate cards for subscriptions, travel and everyday spending.

Three things: that the document is genuine, that the face in front of the camera matches it, and that your name does not appear on sanctions or politically-exposed-person lists. It is not a credit check and it does not affect your credit file. The check is performed by a regulated verification provider that specialises in it — we receive the result and the data the law requires us to keep, not a copy of everything you uploaded.

No. Anonymous prepaid cards exist and they are a bad deal: they get declined by exactly the merchants people want them for, they cannot be recovered if you lose access, and there is no recourse when something goes wrong. Verification is what makes a card work at real banks and real merchants, and what lets us return your money if you lose your phone.

Enter it exactly as it appears on the document you will upload, including transliterations you would not normally use. Mismatches are the most common reason a check fails, and they are trivially fixable before submission and tedious afterwards.

Yes, in security settings. Both changes trigger a temporary restriction on withdrawals — an inconvenience for you once, and a serious obstacle for someone who has just stolen your credentials.

Write to [email protected] from the address on the account. There is no closing fee, and there never will be — it is on the pricing page as an explicit zero. Any remaining balance is returned to you; where it goes depends on how it arrived and on the checks that apply to withdrawals, and support will tell you which applies to your case before you commit to closing.

The card is designed to live in your phone through Apple Pay and Google Pay, and the account is managed from a dashboard that works in any browser on any device. A dedicated app follows; it is not the thing standing between you and using the card.

Corporate accounts are a separate product with their own onboarding — ownership and control structure, beneficial owners above the statutory threshold, and corporate documentation. The corporate accounts page describes what is involved. Running a business through a personal account is not permitted and is one of the few things that will close an account outright.

A virtual card is $9.99 one-time and the physical card is $499.99. There is no monthly fee on the Free plan. Top-ups carry a flat 2.5% conversion fee whatever you send. Full detail is on the pricing page.

No. The Free plan has no subscription and no time limit. Plans add cashback, free ATM withdrawals, included cards and subscription rebates — worth it only if those exceed the monthly price for how you actually spend.

No. One flat 2.5% whatever you send — stablecoins, Bitcoin, Ethereum. It covers converting your transfer into a spendable balance at the market rate, and there is no second markup hidden inside that rate.

No. There is no inactivity fee, no dormancy charge and no minimum spend, and there never will be — all three are listed on the pricing page as explicit zeroes. An inactivity fee is a charge for doing nothing, which is a strange thing to bill anyone for, and it is common enough in this industry that the absence is worth stating.

The live market rate at the moment of conversion, with no margin added on top. This matters more than it sounds: a provider can advertise 0% conversion and take two percent by quoting a rate slightly worse than the market one. The money leaves the same pocket, it just never appears as a line item. Our fee is the stated percentage and nothing else.

Monthly maintenance, inactivity, account closing, statements and proof-of-funds documents, declined transactions, and any spread on top of the exchange rate. All are set to zero and all are listed on the pricing page as explicit zeroes rather than left off the table.

Two. Blockchain network fees on deposits are set by the network you send from and go to its validators — we never see them. And some cash machines add their own surcharge, which appears on the machine's screen before you confirm. Everything NELVOI charges is in the tables on the pricing page.

At any time, and you drop back to the Free plan without losing your card, your number or your balance. There is no minimum term and no cancellation fee.

Paid plans return a percentage of what you spend: 1% on GOLD and 2% on BLACK, up to a monthly cap of $20 and $60 respectively. Cashback is paid in USDC to your card balance at the start of the following month. The cap exists because a percentage without one is a promise no card programme can keep — the providers who advertise uncapped cashback either cap it quietly or withdraw it later.

Arithmetic rather than advice. A paid plan is worth it when the cashback and free ATM allowance you will actually use exceed the monthly price. GOLD costs $9.99 and returns 1% capped at $20, so it pays for itself at about $1,000 of monthly spending. BLACK costs $19.99 and returns 2% capped at $60, so it pays for itself at about $1,000 as well but keeps earning up to $3,000. Below roughly $1,000 a month, the Free plan is the better deal and we would rather say so.

The issuance fee covers producing and shipping a card and is not refundable once the card has been issued, except where the law gives you a right of withdrawal or where we failed to deliver through our own fault. Nothing else about closing an account costs anything: there is no closing fee, and it is listed on the pricing page as an explicit zero.

USDT, USDC, Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana and BNB, across the TRC20, ERC20, BEP20 and Solana networks. Stablecoins are the sensible default for a spending balance: their value does not move between the moment you send and the moment you spend.

As long as the network takes to confirm, which is usually minutes and occasionally longer when a network is congested. The blockchain governs this, not us. Bank transfers follow banking hours and can take a business day or more.

In most cases the funds are unrecoverable, and this is the most common way people lose money in crypto. Check the network on the deposit screen before you send. Where recovery is technically possible we will attempt it and will not charge you for the attempt, but we cannot promise it.

There is a practical one: a top-up smaller than the network fee to send it costs you more than it delivers. The exact minimum per asset is shown on the deposit screen, because it moves with network conditions.

Yes, in USD and EUR, and it is free — no percentage on the way in. It is slower than crypto and follows banking hours, which is the trade-off.

The card spends fiat, so crypto is converted on the way in rather than held as an investment position. That is a deliberate design choice: a card balance that moves twenty percent overnight is not a spending balance, it is exposure you did not ask for at the till.

Yes. Both cards can be added to Apple Pay and Google Pay, after which the card taps at any contactless terminal exactly like any other. The wallet hands the merchant a one-time token rather than your real card number, so a shop that is later breached cannot leak your card. For most people the virtual card in a phone wallet covers everything except cash machines.

With the physical card, yes, at any cash machine. Withdrawals cost 1%, with a free monthly allowance on paid plans — $500 on GOLD and $2,000 on BLACK. Whatever the machine's own operator adds is shown on its screen before you confirm, and that surcharge is not ours.

Any merchant that accepts the card network. In practice that includes ChatGPT, Claude, Netflix, Spotify, YouTube Premium, Steam, Google and Meta advertising, and most SaaS.

Most often insufficient balance including the conversion fee, a monthly limit reached, or automated fraud monitoring holding an unusual transaction. The dashboard shows the reason for each declined payment.

Yes. Merchant refunds return to your card balance in the currency of the original transaction. Timing depends on the merchant, typically five to ten business days.

The virtual card lives in your phone: it works online and, through Apple Pay or Google Pay, at any contactless terminal. The physical card additionally works where plastic is still required — cash machines, and the occasional terminal that will not take a phone. Both draw on the same balance and cost the same to top up. Most people need only the virtual one; the physical card is for cash and for edge cases.

Yes, on the same account and the same balance. Some people keep the virtual card for subscriptions and the physical one for travel, so that replacing one does not disturb the other.

Freeze it in one tap from the dashboard — new payments decline immediately and your balance stays where it is, because it is attached to your verified account rather than to the card. Then order a replacement. On the Free plan a replacement physical card is $499.99; on GOLD and above one a year is free.

Yes. A subscription bills the card the same way any other merchant does. Keep enough balance to cover the renewal — a subscription that fails for insufficient funds is usually cancelled by the merchant rather than retried indefinitely.

Usually, with a caveat that applies to every prepaid and debit card: those merchants place a hold for more than the final amount, sometimes considerably more, and the held amount is unavailable until they release it — which can take several days after you check out. That is the merchant's process, not ours. If you rely on the card for a large deposit, keep headroom in the balance.

The product is a spending card, not a money-transfer service. What it does is let you fund a balance and spend it. If your question is really «can I pay someone abroad», the answer depends on whether they can accept a card payment.

That is much of the point. Subscriptions like ChatGPT, Claude, Netflix, Spotify, Adobe and Steam accept ordinary card payments and have no way of knowing how the balance behind the card was funded. What they refuse is a payment from an unverified prepaid card that fails their own risk checks — which is precisely why this card is verified rather than anonymous.

Yes. The conversion happens at the market rate with the fee for your plan stated separately, rather than hidden in a worse rate. Some merchants offer to charge you in your home currency instead — «dynamic currency conversion». Decline it: the merchant's rate is almost always worse than the one your card would have used.

From $5,000 a month on the Free plan, $10,000 on GOLD and $50,000 on BLACK. Your actual limit depends on your verification level and country of residence: the plan sets the ceiling, verification and local rules decide how much of it is available to you. Limits are not a feature we sell — most people never approach them — and where a limit is lower than the plan suggests, it is because a rule outside our control says so.

Coverage depends on our issuing partners and changes as we expand. Write to us with your country and we will tell you exactly when it opens rather than guessing.

Yes, wherever the major card networks are accepted across 180+ countries. Currency conversion is charged at the rate for your plan — 1% on Free, 0.7% on GOLD, 0.5% on BLACK — applied to the live market rate with no second markup hidden inside it. There is no separate foreign transaction fee on top.

Because the permissions our issuing partner holds differ by country, and because sanctions and local financial regulation apply regardless of what we would prefer. A limit that is available in one market may be unavailable or lower in another for reasons that are not ours to overrule.

Spending abroad and being resident abroad are different questions. The card is designed to work at merchants across 180+ countries, while the account itself is available only where our partner is permitted to offer it. A short trip is not the same as moving — if you relocate, tell us, because your residence affects which rules apply to your account.

Yes. Countries and entities under international sanctions cannot be served, by us or by any regulated provider, and there are additional countries where our issuing partner is not permitted to operate. The list changes as sanctions change; the terms and conditions carry the current position.

No, and the distinction matters. Deposit guarantee schemes cover deposits at licensed banks. Card balances at a regulated issuing partner are protected instead by segregation: kept separate from the company's own money, so they remain yours rather than becoming an asset of the business. Crypto is covered by no scheme anywhere. The security page explains how each part is held.

The regulated verification provider that performs the check, and our issuing partner where the law requires it. We receive the result and the data we are obliged to keep — not a copy of everything you uploaded.

Never. Not by email, not by phone, not in chat. Anyone who does is impersonating us. Our only support address is [email protected] and our only website is nelvoi.com.

Yes, and in defined circumstances regulated firms are legally required to freeze one — and sometimes forbidden from explaining why at the time. It is the part of financial regulation people find most frustrating, and pretending it does not exist would not help. The anti-money-laundering policy sets out what triggers a review and what we are able to tell you.

No. Data goes to the parties needed to run the service — verification, issuing and banking partners, card networks — and to authorities where the law requires. The privacy policy lists the categories and the reasons.

Segregated customer funds are not company assets, which is the entire purpose of segregating them. In an insolvency they are identified as customer money and returned through the process applying in the partner's jurisdiction. That process takes weeks or months rather than hours, and we would rather you knew that now than discovered it at the worst possible moment. Crypto held with a custody partner follows that partner's own arrangements and is covered by no guarantee scheme.

Write to [email protected] with «Complaint» in the subject. We acknowledge within two business days and respond substantively within fifteen. If the answer does not satisfy you, ask for a senior review by someone not involved in the original decision. You may also complain to a financial regulator or to the data protection authority in your country independently of us, at any point, and we will not treat that as a reason to stop working on your case.

Regulated financial providers are subject to automatic exchange of information regimes in many jurisdictions, and where those apply we comply with them. We do not volunteer information beyond what the law requires, and we do not provide tax advice — what you owe and where is between you and your own adviser.

No. NELVOI is pre-launch: accounts are not open and no card has been issued. Any site offering you a NELVOI card right now is not us — report it to [email protected].

We are not giving a date. Launch depends on partner and regulatory arrangements that are not entirely in our hands, and a missed date is worse than no date. Write to us with your country; that is the queue we prioritise by.

No, none of them, and none planned. There is no NELVOI token. Brand impersonation in this industry usually starts with a fake one, so it is worth stating flatly: if you see a NELVOI token anywhere, it is not ours.

They are the prices we intend to open with. If anything moves, the pricing page moves with it — it is the single place we keep fees, and there is no second version of them elsewhere.

Write to [email protected] with your country. We do not run a mailing list that sends you weekly nothing; you will hear from us when there is something real to say.

Not yet, and we will not pretend otherwise. NELVOI does not currently hold, and does not claim to hold, any financial licence, registration or authorisation. Card programmes of this kind are normally structured with a licensed issuing institution holding the permissions; the specific partner, the licences relied on and our legal entity details will be published on the licensing page before accounts open, with links to the public registers where you can verify them yourself.