Bitcoin Forum

Hello,

I contacted WageCan support today asking if they guarantee that the card will be working on next year if I order now, they replied that can't guarantee.

When I replied the email asking if will get a refund if my card stop working, they become silent.

As we see, the card fee is a “bit” expensive if compare with the another cards packages such as $15.4 price for the Universe card.
Seems they are taking advantage for these restrictions for non-european residents and in addition can't guarantee that the card will work as expected.

I suggest that as have uncertainties regarding the service the card fee should be max 15 usd each.

Share your views.

Perhaps you should contact this person which seems to be the person in charge of PR on the bitcointalk forum: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=963014. He/she is pretty active and you should get a response from them.

The reaction you got was definitely strange. Maybe they know that the card is going to fail, or maybe they are just uncertain and wouldn't want to take responsibility if it does happen.

But nonetheless too early to assume anything, PM that profile first.

I will repeat what I wrote earlier as a form of caveat emptor for anyone considering buying this card:

If you are prepared to wait for your card to be loaded forever (ages in fact... days and days and days up to a week of waiting) then WageCan might be a card worth considering. I use the word "might" and not "should" because I had this and recently closed it.

For one, the card is extremely expensive. It has a lifetime of 3 years and you are allowed an annual ATM transaction limit of 25k USD. If you hit this limit after a few months, you can use the card for non-ATM transactions only (store purchases etc).

Then you have the ATM withdrawal fee of $3 (minimum) or 2.5% (whichever of both is higher). Have a look at it here:

https://wagecan.com/Pricing

If, for example, you withdraw $100, then the fee for that is $3 (since 2.5% would be the lower of both). The more you withdraw, the higher the fee. Taking $2000 as an example, you should expect to pay:

1) The acquiring bank's ATM usage fee (the bank that owns the ATM you withdraw money from) and
2) WageCan's bank's fee of 2.5% of $2000 (which equates to $50)

Compare this to Wave Crest's once-off fee of $3 regardless of whether you withdraw $100 or their max transaction limit.

All of the above might still be tolerable for those who do not care about fees. What you will definitely find inconvenient is WageCan's arbitrary requests for reverification. This is the reason for my decision to have the card terminated and my account closed. I was fully verified to KYC level 2 for their Golden card which is their highest verification level. Two months later while loading USD $2k worth of coins my card was abruptly downgraded to level 1 (lower level with shitty limits). And they did this 4 days after I loaded... while I was waiting and wondering what was going on with the bitcoins I loaded.

I then asked what was going on and why they downgraded the account, they told me to do the entire thing again. Reverify (which takes ages to complete). To me, it looks like a stall mechanism because the downgrade happened a few days after I loaded the card with bitcoins and while they were still processing it. It seems to be a way for them to further stall or delay the loading process. They had a similar card last year (with a company called Transforex) and they did this same exact thing to me too. Abruptly suspended my fully verified account and asked me to redo the KYC reverification thing. They then rejected the second verification.

So you are fully verified a few months back, then they reject the second verification. Extremely inconsistent.

So in summary: if you decide to use this card, be sure to have a back up card funding source (a second card with enough back up money). You might be shopping or on a long queue to pay for that coffee, then boom you get that email asking you to reverify the account. Just imagine the inconvenience. It can happen anytime without warning.

All in all, I do not recommend the card. I now use Localbitcoins to convert my coins to fiat. It's not inconvenient. I have local sources who deposit money to my bank account within minutes after I open an escrow transaction. True, a card offers a more private transaction and the convenience of loading anytime. But then again, this particular card is not loaded in real time. It takes forever.

Verdict: I do not recommend anyone to use this card. The card works, yes, but the service levels are extremely inconsistent. Level 2 verification is never a final KYC assessment. You can be downgraded anytime arbitrarily and told to redo the entire procedure and submit documents again.

Exactly. Seems they are uncertain about the service they are offering and wouldn’t want to take any responsibility if the card stop working.
I will contact this person to verify this fact. Thanks

This shouldn’t be expensive if is guaranteed that it will work for 3 years as expected
But they can’t guarantee. I don’t mind to pay it if not get a surprise later and the card suddenly stop working. I lose my xapo, cryptopay, uquid cards that they should work till 2019 / 2020!

And thanks for the advice, so I avoid such waste of time by having to try to get verified more than once. I think will try centra card. I will take a look on reviews.

First, no card is worth of that amount that Wagecan asks for their cards; Second, the cards are finally controlled by Visa and Mastercard. And if they tell Wagecan to stop the service (and they can do it at any time), you'll have trouble like many people have now when Wavecrest stopped servicing their bitcoin debit cards for people outside of the EU (like Xapo, Wirex, AdvCash etc)

They are insane, over 140 dollars for a single prepaid card, they dont even give us any privileges for buying their card, they are asking for a lot of money, you can just ask for a Wirex or Bitwala card and you are going to have better rates and you are not even going to be uploading or providing your ID to them, which is risky to give them to WageCan since there are not too many references about this company on here.
Anyway, i've never had good experiences with this kind of cards, i dont like btc cards at all, they all are shit.

I think they priced their cards based on the current state of affairs about Visa and MasterCard refusing to allow Wave Crest to offer their cards worldwide.

They know they are one of the few, if not even the sole provider of a bitcoin debit card which knows no geographic restrictions, apart from North Korea, Iran, Afghanistan and a few other countries.

So if you don't mind the low ATM limits (25k per year max), the high cost of applying for the card, the horrible ATM charges (acquiring bank's fee + WageCan's bank's 2.5% nightmare fee) and... (drum roll)... their super long loading time (several days up to a week or longer during Taiwan/HK holidays) then this is a card to consider for those who desperately need a way to convert their bitcoins to cash.

Don't forget that they arbitrarily downgrade account limits and they do this without warning. You could be shopping or having dinner with friends or family, about to pay the bill and you get an email on your phone letting you know that you need to reverify yourself (even if you were fully verified earlier). Always have a back up card to avoid embarrassment.

Does Wirex and Bitwala offers "anonymous" virtual cards?

It seemss like ALL cards that accept cryptocurrencies have a chance  to get locked (no matter what their support will tell you). Those kind of cards might have problems with the service providers (like Vise or MasterCard) so the only chance to get a refund would be if this service will refund you from their own money. It doesn't seems to be real in case of the global shutdown so i think that people are risking while using those cryptocards.

In the current situation, I wouldn't invest into any bitcoin debit card provider. All of them are at the mercy of banks or Visa/Mastercard. If the banks/Visa/Mastercard decide to cancel or downgrade your card, no provider like WageCan, Wavecrest etc can do anything about it. They'll lament, be sorry, waive their hands etc, but will not reimburse your blocked funds blaming the banks/Visa/Mastercard.

The risks of being blocked or inconvenienced in some way are significant and it's better IMHO, at least for this moment, to keep your BTC wallet separate from the debit card account. If you need some cash, just use an exchange service from BTC to cash/traditional credit card/paypal and enjoy your money for 100%.

I'd be confident of being made whole by Bitpay or Xapo if their cards were shut down. I wouldn't be inclined to trust the majority of crypto card providers including the subject of this thread. Any prick can become one. Visa and Mastercard don't seem to give much of a shit about who issues them.

If it wasn't a hack of some sort then it's safe to assume that the bigger providers would still be issuing worldwide cards. This tells us that either that Wagecan has a unique provider or they or their provider is lying to Visa somewhere along the line and it's only a matter of time before they're found out.

@servsec thanks for pm me about this thread, somehow I haven't seen this one before.
For your question, no, we don't offer a refund if the card stops working under the circumstances beyond our control, e.g. card issuer terminates the contract with us, like what the Gibraltar-based company did to all the players recently.
But we've been trying our best to keep that thing from happening (because it'll also hurt our bottom line. It makes no sense for us to let that happen purposely).

In the worst-case scenario, we'll find an alternative card issuer for our current customer. Just to be clear, this doesn't necessarily mean that we'll give a new card for free.

Thanks for the anwer, but everybody in this thread being your potential customer would really appreciate your answer why you charge so much like $150+ minimum for issuing the card?

There is no clear justificative to charge this for a card that is even not guaranteed to work in long term.
I got mine for free on monaco pre order. https://mona.co/cards

If Wagecan reduce the price for 10$ will be fair.

Because for a large swathe of the world it's now the only game in town? If they're continuing to ask it then they must be getting enough of it to keep the price at that level. I wouldn't be confident holding such a card myself.

Hi bptovtmg,
thanks for asking me this question.
The answer is simple - the cost of the card itself is much more expensive than another card, and the price includes DHL shipping fee.

As a product manager, I know the price is much more expensive than what we offered before (and I have no power to change it).
That's why I intentionally put 'Use WageCan referral code to get 20% off' on the pricing page and use our referral code to promote our card in this forum.

And there is one thing I would like to point out is that we've been selling Golden card with that price tag way before the whole incident happened. So the whole 'WageCan took advantage the situation to increase the price' argument doesn't hold.
You all could check wayback machine to see our pricing page yourself.

Hope this clear things up a little bit.

Yeah DHL shipping is included in the fee so actual card cost is around 80$ without shipping fee because DHL cost around $50.

Why you guys want 1-7 working days to top up cards with bitcoin? Can't you make that instant, also which exchange rates will be used when converting bitcoin into fiat? It will be converted on the day of deposit or when you guys will manually upload balance to our card?

What's the point of using a referral code instead of you lowering the price?

About the situation, it's either they didn't find the time to answer you yet, or they are uncertain that there card is going to be fully working.

Anyway, Wagecan issuer is Visa, and I am pretty sure that if they were able to get all the documents to get approved( so they can make credit cards behalf visa), then there will be no problem.

Just keep in your mind that after you reach the limit of 2000$ you are no longer able to use the card anymore, so if you gave it to company as a recycling payment, then you will spend some time to change it.

2000$ lifetime limit? Seems that they do not forward the clients documents for verification to their card provider. Look here per sample: https://help.wirexapp.com/hc/en-us/articles/115001824585-Wirex-unverified-account-limits
Maximum lifetime transactions value: 2000$

Seems it is done manually. Very strange this "company" anyway.

Hello
Is this card working with PP and i can withdraw money from PP to it ?
Is this card not blocked by Crest and working now ?
Is this card have support secure online payment technology Mastercard® SecureCode™ or Verified by Visa. ?

i have already registered and planing to buy this card - it is expensive 225$ it is a lot ... so i need answers

Thank You

Forget this card. Let's see about uquid. Their system is under maintenance but I received my card already.

Not sure, but it should works as I've tried this with other card provider before

Wagecan card provider is not Wavecrest, hence the reason why  they can still distribute cards outside EU

Not sure, you have to ask their support, but most Bitcoin Debit Card doesn't have mastercard securecode for sure

You must be so desperate to waste $225 on plastic debit card

This is my main reason why I won't buy Wagecan, ridiculous price and the fact that they didn't have Virtual Card available
I'm using most of my money for online payment, it's not worth it to have physical card for this reason alone

My friend, thank You very much
but today they just stoped to work too (((((((((((

Okay im will use wagecan can anyone say it works now or not ???

Haha how can't they guarantee??
It's a CARD. Really unusual. Do they work outside EEA?
Although i don't recommend them!

Would advise to check other options.

Where is WageCan incorporated?

Wagecan is great service - for very long time.

Now one of very few that works.

Despite fees, conversion rates and load delay - its a no brainer.

Seriously - Wagecan rocks.

Cheers - usukan

That's the price you need to pay if you want a Bitcoin debit card outside the USA. WageCan card isn't provided by Wave Crest (which is probably why they cost so much), so they weren't blocked by the recent rule that killed 95% of the Bitcoin debit card ecosystem.

The other way is to order the one from Bitpay. But those are only issued in the USA (by Metropolitan Commercial Bank) since the card for non-USA users was also provided by WaveCrest.

For the user talking about UQUID, they also stopped working: https://uquid.com/blog/2018/01/uquid-update-17-1-2018

Such price can’t be justified as the service can’t be guaranteed.
If they guarantee the card will be working during all time I really don’t mind to pay even a higher fee.

I also asked them the same question and after talking to them I realized that they did not have to guarantee it because they are not the ones who make the cards, if they do not make the cards, how do you want them to make such guarantees?
we are at the mercy of the goodwill of the visa and the mastercard


you are right, this is one of those situations where people should not complain about the few options they have

Like many of you, I'm looking for an alternative after my btc cards got blocked due to the WaveCrest fiasco, seems that WageCan is the only viable solution for now.

Can any report if top-up (loading) process is still being processed manually and take up to a few days? Read about it before and seemed strange considering that all other cards are loaded near instantly.

There is another option, Mistertango:  

https://mistertango.com/en/

The account is free and it is an IBAN account. It comes with a MasterCard which is vastly cheaper than the WageCan card.

The MasterCard is directly linked to the IBAN account which can be loaded with bitcoins. The account comes with a dedicated bitcoin address. When you send coins to that address, it is converted at best available rate on this exchange:  http://btc-exchange.com/

And their ANN thread:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1972805.0

For a clear picture of their card's charges, check their fee prospectus:

https://mistertango.com/en/mastercard

This is what I see on my own account:

How to deposit money to this account with BTC
Transfer your Bitcoin to given BTC address and they will be automatically changed into Euros. If the obtained value will be more than 5% lower than market value, your Bitcoin will not be changed. At your convenience you will be able to sell your Bitcoins by yourself at Bitmarket.
Note: Bitcoin will be changed into Euros after 1 network confirmation. This service is provided by Bitmarket.
Deposit fee: 1 % (minimum 0.0025 BTC)

Thanks for info, I've never heard of Mistertango before  ;D
Too bad it seems only folks residing in EEA (European Economic Area) countries can get the card, I don't so I'll have to keep searching for another solution.

Nope.. I live in Asia. And I have the account and the card.

Works perfectly here. I convert my bitcoins into Euros on the account and from that account, I transfer some of the money to my regular bank account via SEPA. I also use the card at ATMs and for paying in stores/shops  and restaurants here. Never declined. It's a really good card.

That's great to know, but maybe they mean only EEA citizens can apply? (I'm not an EEA citizen)

No, I'm a non-EEA national. I live in Asia and I hold a passport of an Asian country. It's the same passport I used to apply for and verify my Mistertango account.

Try to apply. It won't cost a thing and no harm in trying. You need to download their app on the Google playstore or on the iOS app store. The identity verification system is integrated within the app. When you pass the verification stage, the account is instantly created and active. You can then order the card. They DHL'd me the card (on my request and at additional cost which I paid as I was really excited to get it quickly!).

Fantastic, thanks warningsigns! That was much appreciated  :D

I'll definitely give it a try soon.

Can anyone confirm if wagecan cars still works as i have been trying ro reach their support but i have bit received any response from them so far. Payza card has already been suspended along with many ither Cryptocurrency cards. I think wagecan is the last one. Please confirm if it still works so I can place my order.  Thanks

How did you ask them to send you through DHL. In the app they mentioned that they do not support my country. What should I do?

I asked for the card in September last year and the card never came to my country.



I am also waiting for them to verify my account, but it is taking some time (6 days already) and I will try to contact their support.



It was sad, I think okpay might be another option.

I have just placed an order for MisterTango card to get it delivered to UK. Lets see if it gets delivered.

Can Okpay be used to cash out bitcoin in aisa too?

Okpay does not accept bitcoin, but you can use this:  https://www.alfacashier.com/exchange/bitcoin/okpay
in times of crisis we have to use the option we have, is annoying can not have many options. okpay has created many barriers to approve documents for verification of account, I have been trying to verify my account for 3 years and even last year I gave up, it seems that okpay is under management from another company so I am giving an attempt to see if this time I can verify my account and who knows now i can have a card.

Tried it and unfortunately they only ship cards to EEA countries.
Might have to give WageCan a try...

Hey friend which card did you try exactly that only ships to EEA countries? Because just above warningsigns a non-EEA national received his/her WageCan card after passing verification

Warningsigns and I were talking about the Mistertango card，which when I tried to apply stated they would only send cards to EEA countries.
There is no such limitation with WageCan.

Would you care to elaborate a little further?

As far as I can tell Wagecan is the one and only option for GBP these days. If it was $20-30 to obtain I'd sample it. There's no way I'd bother in the hundreds. These things can disappear in seconds.

I use the wagecan card and I had no problems, they have a very expensive card, but as you said, they are the only option we have at the moment, so I'm not complaining at all, I asked the OP in another thread that he opened what had happened and OP did not answer me, so I sent PM to the OP asking what happened because this situation is also making me worried since I also use wagecan and OP so far did not answer me.

What are the requirements to be verified ?   and is it true that they will ask time to time for re-verification ?

Requirement is a valid passport and a utility bill or bank statement issued recently. After submitting the documents, you need to wait for pass KYC step 1. Step 2 involves signing, scanning and returning to them a document certifying certain KYC-related things.

As for re-verification, I was required to submit documents again after a few months. The inconvenient part is it comes without warning. Loading the card takes ages. During the loading process, you might get that unexpected email instructing you to resubmit your KYC documents again. In essence, to do the entire verification process again while your card is downgraded to minimum limits.

So you spend $200+ for the card and you wait forever for your card to be loaded and you have that extra bonus of being surprised with KYC inconveniences every now and then.

 

Thanks for clarifying, can you give use more information about step 2 so what kind of documents we will sign.

I don't want to pay 200$ to have unnecessary verification process.

It's a single-page document that they send in PDF format. You are required to print it, sign it, then scan it and send it back to them (signed and dated). If I remember correctly, it was a document certifying that you will be operating the account for legal purposes and not on behalf of someone else. You also certify that the KYC information you provided are true and correct.

Step 1 is the actual KYC procedure. You will need to provide your passport and proof of residence or address.

When you complete both steps, your card limits will be increased.

On average, how long has the loading process been taking recently?

Since I'm on the road often that could be a deal breaker for me.

If you read through feedback here:

WageCan TrustPilot reviews (https://www.trustpilot.com/review/wagecan.com)

you should have an idea of what to expect.

Generally you should allow a week to 2 weeks.

When I had the card, it averaged a week. If you happen to load during holidays in Taiwan and Hong Kong, you should add those holidays on top of the average loading time.

It is really annoying to have to wait many days for the money to be in the card, but they are the only options that we have now, when more services offer cards that can be used all over the world so we will have a great competitiveness and the prices will also be low . At the moment the situation is not good and I do not even see short term solutions.



if you have a lot of money then you will not have many problems, for example you can add a lot of money to the card and it will take days to be available in the card, but then you will have a lot of time using the card and you will have more time to add more funds to the card.