Topic: Coinbase Card (Visa Debit) (Read 179 times)

So my $1.00 in rewards is now worth $1.42 thanks to the 40% bump in XLM price since I got it.
This does in a way make the card more attractive. The downside is as we discussed, if XLM drops then you could have much lower then the 4% reward.

Like most things like the on the financial side of life YMMV and do what works for you.

-Dave

Take a read here: https://help.coinbase.com/en/coinbase/trading-and-funding/other/coinbase-card-faq
Since I am not in the EU / GB zone I have no idea how it works within there.
I think the US card with the cash back and stuff is it's own thing but not 100% sure.

Also keep in mind, the US card is new so they are pushing it, no idea if the cash back is forever (hope it is) or something that will eventually go away.

-Dave

If they have a UK version of the card, does it means it can be used in Europe or support EUR payments/withdrawals without fees (same as USDC) ? What about card limits ? I'm a Binance card user and it has 290 EUR withdrawal / 8700 EUR spending daily limits, but, not all ATMs accept this card for withdrawals. How is the situation with Coinbase card and ATM? About 2.49% fees - do you know what exchange rate they use ? Coinbase or Coinbase Pro?

The 2.49% is what Coinbase charges for automated trades. As you said, you can save money by pre-trading whatever coin through Coinbase pro to USDC and spending that.


They have, or at least had, a UK version.


From what was whispered at after a discussion panel, some of it is being backed by the Stellar Foundation. Coinbase is looking to do "promos" the same way Discover (and other) credit cards do with their extra cash back categories. So they do their regular cashback and make money on the regular CC interchange fees and for this promo Stellar kicks in the rest.  Supposedly eventually it will change. But nobody would confirm it.

[Side note to the above, for all the smaller businesses complaining about the higher fees that they may have to pay during higher cashback promos, for the most part people do spend more money during them. Humans are simple creatures, give us 2% cash back and we spend "X" and leave the store / restaurant, give us 5% cash back and we buy the entire place.]


Small point but that is not up to Coinbase. Metabank makes that choice.

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I have been using mine for a few weeks now, cashback (well cryptoback) is working. Did a few autotrades for purchases and some USDC.
Would like to have better rates then what Coinbase gives for selling some coins, but such is life.

But as I said before. Probably not a long term use card. I hoard most of my crypto....

-Dave

I put it in the atm first yes I think I missed a confirmation step but cards that don't work seem to restart pos systems as a security mechanism and I didn't want to have to unpack my stuff...

You can withdraw cash with it too - I just checked my balance (I think) to check the pin worked. But it works like an international card too so you get a choice of languages (the top four were English, Deutsch, Espaniol and Francais).

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They also don't participate with Google pay and it's probably cheaper and more stable to just transfer the money beforehand to a regular bank account.

I wonder how long the 4% rate on XLM will last for. It seems like a really good deal, given that 4% flat cashback is pretty much unheard of in the credit card market. Competitors like the Crypto.com card require you to stake $5k of their token to get 3% back. I'd definitely grab one if they come to Canada and have some kind of CAD stablecoin/balance.


I don't have a Coinbase card, but I believe it should work without issues in an ATM. ATMs don't use contactless; you have to actually insert your card.

@jackg have you made a chip + PIN transaction somewhere first? You'll need to do that with a new card to enable contactless.

Not useful for me at all since it doesn't support out of the USA. However, we can't ignore fees by the way even you use any other card with Bitcoin. Since they are selling BTC in every purchase then there is a few that we can't ignore that. But somehow it's useful for USA Bitcoin users, they could at least use direct Bitcoin during the purchase or they could cash out without hesitation from ATM. Whenever you sell Bitcoin there is a fee involved, but coinbase visa card fees quite high if you compare it with transaction fees. But something is better than nothing, we can say at least we are able to use direct Bitcoin in this way.

Does it mean coinbase card can't use in ATM?

When you use your card overseas, the merchant will receive their local currency in their account, and you will pay in your home country's currency. With the coinbase card, when you are paying with bitcoin, the merchant is receiving dollars credited to their account, and you are having bitcoin removed from your account.

coinbase backs USDC, and this is a coin that can be redeemed on a 1:1 ratio for dollars.

I don't know what's weird you see in the fact that you have to pay commission when paying crypto? As it is written in the rules, a commission is charged similar to that when you pay with your card in a different country, i.e. a different currency.
As for USDC, there are no fees, because as far as I know, you can't use it to pay with Coinbase VISA.

It makes very little sense to spend your bitcoin or etherum via the coinbase card. You are effectively paying 1.49% net of rewards to spend your coin this way.

If you can automate the selling of the XLM you receive as a reward, it is very attractive to use as a means to spend your USDC. With 4% back, you could potentially buy a prepaid credit card that you use to buy money orders that you can deposit into your bank account, and the fees you incur in buying these may be less than the amount you receive as rewards.

If you have access to coinbase pro, you can sell your XLM for 0.5%, which will lower your net rewards to 3.5%, which is still very good. If you can spend at least $250k per month (doing the above), you would be able to get your coinbase pro fees down to 0.35%, which would raise your net rewards to 3.65%.

In 2013/14, someone was able to make $300k doing the above via a amex card that had 5% rewards over about a year. This is probably not a long term winning strategy, as this will ultimately be unprofitable for coinbase or whatever card issuer you are receiving this level of rewards from.

According to what is being shown yes. You get back more xlm in rewards then you spend in fees.





With that being said I don't have any xlm to spend so I cannot verify.
So in theory you are getting 1.5% back so it puts it in an OK situation for CC rewards.
Going with xlm rewards and using USDC gets you 4% back which is just about unheard of in CC rewards.

Unless xlm tanks between your earning them and spending them.....

-Dave

@davef, wait so purchasing something with $1 in xlm charges you $1.029 but returns $1.04?

I got a coinbase card a while ago also and the contactless doesn't work so I'm stuck just using it online.

Also they were paying interest on usdc here and 2% isn't the worst interest you could get so it might be alright.
It does seem weird they haven't made it all fee free since it's a good ad for them (someone using a card with their name on it to pay).


Anonymous cards are even illegal in Europe. You won't get one unless you're a large company that has to do their own kyc and tracking anyway.


To be honest, I'm surprised they're not cheaper than using US cards because I remember Amex having high fees on the retailer, I expected them to have that on the user too (still paying cashback though).

these cards have high rates but to be honest they are practical in countries like mine because if i do compare card rates and withdrawal fees from Cex.io to my bank it has almost the same fees with the difference of the card being more Practically, when I used the wagecan card I paid absurd fees but as I wanted money immediately so I had no choice.

It's coinbase so you have KYC just to open an account.
There are no reliable anonymous reloadable ones.
You always have the Visa / MasterCard / American Express gift card options out there.

-Dave

If you use these cards that are on the market, and maybe let's discuss particularly the one from Coinbase/Visa, aren't they getting all the data you produce with that card? You surely have to undergo KYC before getting that card I assume and afterwards any purchase you ever do leaves a trail right?

Are there any anonymous versions in the market? Is that even allowed?

So the new Coinbase credit card is available. Just got an email about it.
For the USA anyway it's a Visa debit. 1% back in BTC or 4% back in XLM
However, the fees are stupid:



Looked a a few others all had the same fee.
The only exception that I saw was USDC with no fee.

Don't know if's its been discussed here before I did not see anyone talking about it.

Got the card since it's free. Probably not going to use it.

-Dave