Crypto.com Visa Card

Pauline Hatch

Pauline is a personal finance expert at CreditCard.com.au, with 9 years in money, budgeting and property reporting under her belt. Ask Pauline a Question about this card.

The Crypto Visa card lets you spend your cryptocurrency like a regular debit card. It’s a physical card – a pure metal one, for a bit of quirk – that you can tap-and-go wherever Visa cards are accepted. You can earn rewards in CRO with up to 5% cashback on your spending, as well as reimbursements for popular streaming services like Netflix, and earn yields on staked CRO held in your Crypto.com wallet.

What we love

Crypto.com is one of many trading services for buying and selling cryptocurrency via their app, and the new credit card is an add-on that lets you spend your crypto tokens like regular cash just about anywhere Visa is accepted.

There’s a lot to unpack with crypto credit cards, which are a little different from credit or debit cards in terms of function and rewards. Like all crypto cards, the Crypto.com Visa card operates like a debit card, where you’ll preload it with currency before you can spend it and top it up as you go. You can move currency onto your card from your bank account, other debit cards, or cryptocurrency, which Crypto.com automatically converts into usable cash at transaction time.

Transfers are made via the Crypto.com app, which can store, buy and sell over 170 types of coins, including the big players like Bitcoin and Ethereum. There are no annual fees and no ATM transaction fees (limits do apply).

The best part of the Crypto.com Card is the perks, which can reward you every time you tap your card. Let’s take a look.

The CRO Rewards bounty

The Crypto.com Visa card comes in seven swanky colours across five tiers of rewards. You choose your card based on the amount you want to stake (more on that in a minute) and the rewards you want to earn. All rewards are paid out in CRO, which is Crypto.com’s token, and added to your Wallet. Here’s what you can get for each card tier:

Earning Rewards through staking

Ok, back to staking and how the Crypto.com Visa card rewards you for doing it. To apply for a card (and earn the full force of rewards on your spending), you’ll need to stake a specified amount of CRO, determined by the card tier.

For example, if you stake $5,000 worth of CRO for the Jade Green card, you’ll earn 2% CRO back instantly when you spend on your card (limits apply for Royal Indigo/Jade Green and Ruby Steel cards).

You may also earn interest for the CRO you’ve staked. NOTE: In June 2022, Crypto.com revised its rewards. If you staked CRO prior to June 1, your CRO rewards yield will be 10%, or 12% for private members with Obsidian and Royal Indigo/Jade Green cards until the 180 day staking term is up. Then, your yield will revert to the new rate:

• 8% p.a. for Private Members with an Obsidian, Icy White, or Frosted Rose Gold Card
• 4% p.a. for Jade Green or Royal Indigo cardholders

You can also bump your card to the next tier at any time by staking more CRO to reach the next level of card. So, for example, adding $4,500 CRO to the $500 you staked for the Ruby Steel card will take you to the Royal Indigo tier, where you'll earn more rewards and perks.

Subscription reimbursement rewards

• Expedia: Up to 10% of each purchase with a US$50 limit per month
• Airbnb: Up to 10% of each purchase with a US$100 limit per month
• Spotify: Up to 100% rebate of the standard subscription plan (US$13.99 equiv.)
• Netflix: Up to 100% rebate of the standard subscription plan (US$13.99 equiv.)
• Amazon Prime: Up to 100% rebate of the membership fee (US$14.99 equiv.)
• X Premium: Up to 100% rebate of the membership fee (US$8 equiv.)

You’ll be reimbursed for your subscription automatically each month, paid directly to your CRO Wallet in CRO Tokens. The only caveat is that you have to pay for your subscriptions using your Crypto.com Visa card. You may also earn CRO cashback on the portion of your subscription payment that wasn’t reimbursed, as a little icing on top.

Getting back all – or almost all – of the subscriptions you’d be paying for anyway is a great perk that’s not seen often in other debit or credit card offers. Sure, it’s all in CRO, but that might tickle you if you’re investing in cryptocurrency anyway.

Other freebies and perks

The top three tiers get Priority Pass™ membership, which accesses over 1,300 airport lounges around the world, plus a guest for Obsidian and Frosted Rose Gold/Icy White cardholders. These premium top two tiers also unlock membership with Crypto.com Private, which provides research reports, access to industry events, OTC block trades of CRO and priority customer service. And, you’ll get the Exclusive Merchandise Welcome Pack, which is an ever-changing collection of high-end shirts, hoodies, mugs and so on to welcome you to the Crypto.com Visa club.

Obsidian cardholders also get perks when travelling on any of Crypto.com’s nominated private jet services.

What’s not so great...

You need to have CRO staked for a minimum of six months when you sign up to the Crypto Visa card. Staking unlocks the features of the card, like cashback rewards and reimbursements for streaming services, but it’s also money you can’t access for at least 180 days - and really, forever if you want to keep earning rewards. To be clear: staking isn’t optional! You’ll need to stake the funds as part of the application process. One exception is the Midnight Blue Crypto Visa card, which doesn’t require staking but receives no cashback and has no other rewards or perks.

So, you’ll need to decide if you can afford to lock up $500 to $500,000 worth of your cash for that length of time. At the end of the term, your tokens are available at whatever the current CRO value is, meaning the market will decide whether you win or lose at the end of the staking term.

• Obsidian: 2%
• Icy White/Frosted Rose Gold: 1%
• Royal Indigo/Jade Green: 0%
• Ruby Steel: 0%
• Midnight Blue: 0%

I also mentioned earlier that you can bump your card up to the next tier whenever you like. However, you need to know your staking term will start from scratch, locking your money away for another six months.

Cautions about reimbursements

To be reimbursed for eligible streaming services, you’ll need to pay for the service using your Cypto.com Visa card. There’s a maximum of one reimbursement per merchant per month, so if you have multiple Spotify accounts, for example, you’ll only receive a refund for one.

Depending on your subscription tier, you may not receive a full amount back on your subscriptions. Reimbursements are calculated in US dollars and paid out in CRO, so your reimbursement in terms of Aussie fiat currency will fluctuate. Generally speaking, you’ll be fairly well covered with maybe a few dollars difference between what you pay and what you earn back.

• Expedia: Up to 10% of each purchase with a US$50 limit per month
• Airbnb: Up to 10% of each purchase with a US$100 limit per month
• Spotify: Up to US$13.99 per month
• Netflix: Up to US$13.99 per month
• Amazon Prime: Up to US$14.99 per month rebate of the membership fee

But wait, because there’s a big point to make here: if you subscribe to a yearly plan, you’ll only receive a reimbursement for one month of that year. To get maximum reimbursement rewards, you’ll need to switch to monthly subscriptions.

CRO Rewards compared to credit card rewards

All cashback rewards, reimbursements and interest earned from the Crypto Visa card are paid out in CRO Tokens, not fiat cash. That can be a good thing if you’re looking to build your crypto portfolio, but digital currencies rise and fall in value multiple times a day. There’s no guarantee of a token’s success, and the crypto market in general is a high-risk, volatile investment. By comparison, rewards earned through credit cards like cashback, frequent flyer points and rewards points hold reliable dollar values and turn into tangible items, like free flights or a slick new toaster.

You'll need to decide if you're best rewarded through cryptocurrency, or more tangible rewards programs.

Downsides to using it for purchases

It’s an unregulated industry. The world of crypto is still new and there’s a lot of innovation going on while regulatory boards scramble to keep up. Visa coming on board with Crypto.com gives crypto cards some good street cred, but we don’t know what kind of restrictions might be on the horizon around how and when you can use your card.

No digital wallet access. In Australia, you can’t connect your Crypto.com Visa card with a digital wallet, so you won’t be able to pay using Apple Pay, Google Pay or Samsung Pay. This option is available in the US, so it’s likely to be rolled out in the future for us over here. As a hack, a few people I know have been popping their card inside the phone cover, so they can still tap-and-go with the card using the back of the phone.

ATM fees aren’t 100% free. Fees for ATM withdrawal are touted as free by Crypto.com, but a 2% charge applies after certain limits per month. And of course, you might be charged a fee by the issuing bank as well. You'll want to check the terms for ATM withdrawals as other limits apply.

• Obsidian: $1,000 AUD
• Frosted Rose Gold & Icy White: $1,000 AUD
• Royal Indigo & Jade Green: $800 AUD
• Ruby Steel: $400 AUD
• Midnight Blue: $200 AUD

A number of fees apply.If you cancel your card or need a reissue, you'll pay $10 for Midnight Blue or $70 for all other cards. You'll also pay 1% when topping up your card via debit card, or 2% via credit card (a 2% charge applies for topups using ApplePay as well). And, if you don't use your card for 12 months, you'll be charged a $5 per month inactivity fee.

Not all purchases earn rewards. You won’t receive rewards on these transactions: digital wallets, digital banking services, crypto exchanges, stored value products, money remittance services, security brokers/dealers, insurance sales, underwriting and premiums, tax payments, government services, financial institutions, POI funding transactions, quasi cash, money orders - wire transfers.

Why should you choose this card?

If you trade in cryptocurrency and want to earn tokens for your everyday spending, the Crypto.com Visa card is an excellent option. That said, you’ll have to be ok with earning CRO as your rewards, so do your research on the currency before you apply.

The Midnight Blue card doesn’t require a staked amount, which gives you a chance to test run a crypto card without a large sum of cash required upfront.

The top tiered cards come with great perks that could see you being reimbursed around US$43 CRO per month for a standard Netflix, Spotify and Amazon Prime account. There are no ongoing fees involved besides the required staked amount, and a 2% charge if you go over the card's ATM withdrawal limit.

Crypto’s card is backed by Visa, which lends a lot of power to the card’s integrity. The Crypto.com app has 65K+ reviews that have earned it 4.3 out of 5 stars on the app store, and generally seems to be touted as easy to use and with good customer service.

And, if you get a buzz out of checking your Wallet values every day (or, let’s face it, hourly), you’ll probably like seeing your CRO quietly growing while you spend.

Overall Rating

As far as crypto cards go, the Crypto.com Visa card gives some solid reasons to sign up. The cashback rewards on your spending are some of the highest on offer, especially in the top-tiered cards. The reimbursement perks on subscriptions are a great way to invest in more crypto tokens without taking more cash out of your account to do it.

Of course, it needs to be said again that the crypto market is volatile. Be sure you’re ok with fluctuating values, and the hit-or-miss nature of cryptocurrency. The top-tier cards require a hefty staking amount, but the lower-tier cards still earn good rewards without too much of your cash being locked away.

You’ll need to be sure you want to earn CRO, and that you can afford the six-month lockup of your staked amount for the card tier you choose, and longer if you want to keep earning rewards. The Crypto.com Visa card is beginner-friendly, a great way to boost your crypto wallet, and has a range of tiers so you can start wherever you're comfortable.