2017 Bitcoin Debit Card Reviews

[msukairi]

Is there any card for Middle East residents ? as I notice most of the cards are for EU residents or US

[operator55]

Advcash is dead as well. Now wavecrest don't even serve mastercard cards.

I assume all mastercard wavecrest? This means like 99% of bitcoin debit card services should be dead.

[Steven363]

Advcash is dead as well. Now wavecrest don't even serve mastercard cards.

I assume all mastercard wavecrest? This means like 99% of bitcoin debit card services should be dead.

I don't think any MasterCard is using Wavecrest. Only AdvCash did and they went down. It was expected after the shut down of their visa program as well. Either there is a crackdown again crypto-supporting pre-paid cards or (most possibly) Wavecrest was not compliant with EU rules and she went down.

[Veggie]

Hello everyone!!

Infinitum Flame has a perfectly working card, that can be loaded with bitcoins, and very soon with Qwarks as well.
To get the card you need to buy Distributor pack (Europe or World), and you can also buy some other Qwark's pack!

Withdraws happen smoothly and all is working very fine!

If you wish, you can also become a retailer for Infinitum Card or Infinitum Qwarks packs!

Please follow this link and get your card today:

https://members.infinitumflame.com/121346

Welcome to Infinitum Flame!

Any questions, just send me a message...

[European Central Bank]

I don't think any MasterCard is using Wavecrest. Only AdvCash did and they went down. It was expected after the shut down of their visa program as well. Either there is a crackdown again crypto-supporting pre-paid cards or (most possibly) Wavecrest was not compliant with EU rules and she went down.

wavecrest weren't satisfying visa's rules. that's the reason they got shut down. there was also new regulation in gibraltar that passed on january first relating to crypto but i'm not sure whether that's directly related.

as there is no other eu based visa issuer i'm wondering whether wavecrest were the only ones brave enough to try it or dumb enough to ignore something. it can't be visa as a whole as cards are still possible in america.

[aigeezer]

I don't think any MasterCard is using Wavecrest. Only AdvCash did and they went down. It was expected after the shut down of their visa program as well. Either there is a crackdown again crypto-supporting pre-paid cards or (most possibly) Wavecrest was not compliant with EU rules and she went down.

wavecrest weren't satisfying visa's rules. that's the reason they got shut down.

Certainly that's what Visa said, very cryptically. I'm struck by the silence otherwise from both Visa and Wavecrest on the matter. Which rule(s), if any, were violated? Why did the two parties not come to some agreement "oops, our bad, fixed now" as is usually the case when huge revenues are involved. Why has some third party not appeared yet to fill the vacuum? It's still very strange imho and feels like bankster mischief to me so far - I hope I'm wrong.

As for MC, I have some MC prepaid cards from non-Wavecrest sources. Sometimes they work. Sometimes they are declined by MC with no explanation. They are prepaid with fiat, from companies that comply with all the KYC/AML mumbo-jumbo and additional highly-invasive identification procedures (think Jumio). Something is fishy, and it's not the customers.     

[European Central Bank]

Certainly that's what Visa said, very cryptically. I'm struck by the silence otherwise from both Visa and Wavecrest on the matter. Which rule(s), if any, were violated? Why did the two parties not come to some agreement "oops, our bad, fixed now" as is usually the case when huge revenues are involved. Why has some third party not appeared yet to fill the vacuum? It's still very strange imho and feels like bankster mischief to me so far - I hope I'm wrong.

no idea, but the fact is that coinbase and bitpay visa cards continue to work without any issues for americans. if wavecrest were flouting something they're not gonna publicise it. if visa allowed that flouting to continue as long as it did they won't either.

[hoop]

Hello everyone!!

Infinitum Flame has a perfectly working card, that can be loaded with bitcoins, and very soon with Qwarks as well.
To get the card you need to buy Distributor pack (Europe or World), and you can also buy some other Qwark's pack!

Withdraws happen smoothly and all is working very fine!

If you wish, you can also become a retailer for Infinitum Card or Infinitum Qwarks packs!

Please follow this link and get your card today:

https://members.infinitumflame.com/121346

Welcome to Infinitum Flame!

Any questions, just send me a message...

Are you one of infinitumflame team or you just a infinitumflame member? in order to join this service we have to indicate a valid cell phone number, country of origin, Buy one of the available packages and To be able to withdraw Qwarks will be necessary to be verified with the ID document. it's many personal information you need to provide to this service.

[aigeezer]

Certainly that's what Visa said, very cryptically. I'm struck by the silence otherwise from both Visa and Wavecrest on the matter. Which rule(s), if any, were violated? Why did the two parties not come to some agreement "oops, our bad, fixed now" as is usually the case when huge revenues are involved. Why has some third party not appeared yet to fill the vacuum? It's still very strange imho and feels like bankster mischief to me so far - I hope I'm wrong.

no idea, but the fact is that coinbase and bitpay visa cards continue to work without any issues for americans. if wavecrest were flouting something they're not gonna publicise it. if visa allowed that flouting to continue as long as it did they won't either.

Good point, but why wouldn't Visa and Wavecrest just come to some agreement (asked rhetorically)? They've arguably both lost millions in revenue over some rule breach. Why wouldn't they just fix whatever it was? Even the governments affected may have lost millions in VAT or sales tax revenues. Bitpay cancelled its Visa card offering to Canadians, btw. I've forgotten whether it was a Wavecrest card but I think it was. Anyway, your U.S. example begs the question of why the Visa cards will only work now in the States? If Wavecrest did something so wrong that it lost the franchise, yet the solution is available for coinbase and Bitpay, then why isn't such a solution available for Visa worldwide, either to Wavecrest or some other provider?



 

[Samarkand]

...

Good point, but why wouldn't Visa and Wavecrest just come to some agreement (asked rhetorically)? They've arguably both lost millions in revenue over some rule breach. Why wouldn't they just fix whatever it was? ...

From my point of view it looks like the breach of rules was solely on the end of WaveCrest.
VISA therefore terminated their business relationship with them. Why would they want to continue
to work with a company that has violated their contractual agreements?

I think the whole situation is somehow related to the recent tightening of the Anti money laundering
regulations of the EU (e.g. one of the changes was another decrease of the lifetime withdrawal
limits for unverified debit cards). The timing of the announcement of the new rules and the shutdown
of the debit cards that were issued by WaveCrest is too suspicious to be coincidental.

[aigeezer]

...

Good point, but why wouldn't Visa and Wavecrest just come to some agreement (asked rhetorically)? They've arguably both lost millions in revenue over some rule breach. Why wouldn't they just fix whatever it was? ...

From my point of view it looks like the breach of rules was solely on the end of WaveCrest.
VISA therefore terminated their business relationship with them. Why would they want to continue
to work with a company that has violated their contractual agreements?

I think the whole situation is somehow related to the recent tightening of the Anti money laundering
regulations of the EU (e.g. one of the changes was another decrease of the lifetime withdrawal
limits for unverified debit cards). The timing of the announcement of the new rules and the shutdown
of the debit cards that were issued by WaveCrest is too suspicious to be coincidental.

Maybe, but Visa cut off Wavecrest cards outside the Eurozone months before it acted there. That was the initial puzzle for me. I lost access to my Wavecrest-based cards months before Europeans did, so the puzzle was "what was so special about the Eurozone that it could continue using Wavecrest cards when Canada could not?". At the time there was no explanation offered - none at all. When the Eurozone cards got the axe from Visa some months later, the reason given was that they had "broken a rule", but I've seen no explanation beyond that. Companies and governments break each others' rules all the time, but when large amounts of money are at stake they usually come to some accommodation. For example, when a large bank was caught money laundering, the accommodation was a fine rather than a loss of licence: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-hsbc-probe/hsbc-to-pay-1-9-billion-u-s-fine-in-money-laundering-case-idUSBRE8BA05M20121211

[NeuroticFish]

From my point of view it looks like the breach of rules was solely on the end of WaveCrest.

They broke the rules, it's clear. Mastercard is also stopping the collaboration with Wavecrest.

While VISA was unprofessional enough to do this overnight, at least Mastercard allows about a month period to get the funds from the cards sorted out (spent or whatever).
AdvCash and XMLgold.eu already announced about this.

While US cards works, while Mistertango works, while all tell they are in discussions with other card providers (and other solutions too), I also believe that it's not actual hostility against Bitcoin, it was something Wavecrest did terribly wrong. And I think that future providers will be extra careful to avoid this situation.

Maybe, but Visa cut off Wavecrest cards outside the Eurozone months before it acted there. That was the initial puzzle for me.

Interesting idea. Maybe Wavecrest sold cards in areas they were not allowed by VISA/MC (?!) and that was the beginning of the end.

[bitbunnny]

I don't think any MasterCard is using Wavecrest. Only AdvCash did and they went down. It was expected after the shut down of their visa program as well. Either there is a crackdown again crypto-supporting pre-paid cards or (most possibly) Wavecrest was not compliant with EU rules and she went down.

wavecrest weren't satisfying visa's rules. that's the reason they got shut down. there was also new regulation in gibraltar that passed on january first relating to crypto but i'm not sure whether that's directly related.

as there is no other eu based visa issuer i'm wondering whether wavecrest were the only ones brave enough to try it or dumb enough to ignore something. it can't be visa as a whole as cards are still possible in america.

Regulation in USA and Europe often differs so I beleive it's something that is unacceptable according to EU laws.
On the other hand really it's hard to beleive that someone would jeopardise so harsh their businesses knowing on heavy consequences.
In general, very strange situation.

[aigeezer]

From my point of view it looks like the breach of rules was solely on the end of WaveCrest.

They broke the rules, it's clear.

What are the rules? Which rules did they break? Of course, I agree they may have broken rules, and that if we knew what they had done we might all agree that they did something wrong. However, we have no idea what exactly they did and neither Visa nor Wavecrest is speaking publicly to the issue. Wavecrest has our identity documents, btw, so if they are Bad Guys, it would be nice if Visa told us some details.

An old saying comes to mind: "Rules are there for a reason, and the rulers know what that reason is".         

A lot of ordinary people wanted to use those cards. Visa doesn't want them to, perhaps with our best interests at heart, perhaps not.

Anyway, I've hogged the review thread too much. Sorry! I miss my Wavecrest-issued cards, but some of the others will do for now.

[bitbunnny]

From my point of view it looks like the breach of rules was solely on the end of WaveCrest.

They broke the rules, it's clear.

What are the rules? Which rules did they break? Of course, I agree they may have broken rules, and that if we knew what they had done we might all agree that they did something wrong. However, we have no idea what exactly they did and neither Visa nor Wavecrest is speaking publicly to the issue. Wavecrest has our identity documents, btw, so if they are Bad Guys, it would be nice if Visa told us some details.

An old saying comes to mind: "Rules are there for a reason, and the rulers know what that reason is".         

A lot of ordinary people wanted to use those cards. Visa doesn't want them to, perhaps with our best interests at heart, perhaps not.

Anyway, I've hogged the review thread too much. Sorry! I miss my Wavecrest-issued cards, but some of the others will do for now.

I don't think that Wave Crest are the bad guys or that our personal data are endangered.
In such cases nobody would open and public speak what terms are exactly broken, that is some business ethic and they will both try to keep their business reputation. So, the exact reason we will probably never know.

[stompix]

Good point, but why wouldn't Visa and Wavecrest just come to some agreement (asked rhetorically)? They've arguably both lost millions in revenue over some rule breach. Why wouldn't they just fix whatever it was? Even the governments affected may have lost millions in VAT or sales tax revenues. Bitpay cancelled its Visa card offering to Canadians, btw. I've forgotten whether it was a Wavecrest card but I think it was. Anyway, your U.S. example begs the question of why the Visa cards will only work now in the States? If Wavecrest did something so wrong that it lost the franchise, yet the solution is available for coinbase and Bitpay, then why isn't such a solution available for Visa worldwide, either to Wavecrest or some other provider?

Millions...do you have sources for this?
You're probably over inflating the numbers of users for those card.
In my case, and I live in Europe those card are useless for daily activity, even weekly. High fees, lower exchange rates, what's the point in using them as I can sell my coins for fiat and receive the money same day with a 1.5 euro bank transfer fee.

And how have the government lost millions in taxes?
You are not going to shop at Tesco, the government is losing taxes? what are you going to do for food...shop at the other stores, the government is getting his money in VAT.
Same with the cards, just because you don't have the plastic, you;re not going to spend your coins anymore?

Anyhow I would recommend everybody to stay away from shady companies issuing cards.
I've lost 2500$ when Epassporte went down and I barely managed to avoid other fiasco by withdrawing my money by chance 3 days earlier.

What are the rules? Which rules did they break? Of course, I agree they may have broken rules, and that if we knew what they had done we might all agree that they did something wrong. However, we have no idea what exactly they did and neither Visa nor Wavecrest is speaking publicly to the issue. Wavecrest has our identity documents, btw, so if they are Bad Guys, it would be nice if Visa told us some details.

If Wavecrest who is the major loser of this is keeping quiet, is this because they don't want to scare the other customers, knowing that a ban in the US is closer than ever?


Back on the subject..the reviews..

I also need a card but I want it just for small online purchases.
I don't want the plastic, and I don't want to pay that 40$ fee, especially since I'm going to purchase stuff under <100 and only one time.
Also, I'm OK with any verification whatsoever
Suggestions?

[aigeezer]

Millions...do you have sources for this?

Of course. For example: "Users of Xapo, TenX, BitWala, and BitPay, which amount to several millions, have been told that they will no longer be able to utilize their cryptocurrency debit cards. "

https://www.ccn.com/visa-crackdown-on-bitcoin-and-cryptocurrency-debit-cards-no-big-impact/

[stompix]

Millions...do you have sources for this?

Of course. For example: "Users of Xapo, TenX, BitWala, and BitPay, which amount to several millions, have been told that they will no longer be able to utilize their cryptocurrency debit cards. "

https://www.ccn.com/visa-crackdown-on-bitcoin-and-cryptocurrency-debit-cards-no-big-impact/

Sorry but just saying that in an article is not a source, I was looking more for a visa statements on how many they have cancelled. Small business have a habit of overestimating their customers.

Besides not all users of Bitpay and the others have been affected.
I was not sure about those "millions" because with less than 30 millions addresses with a balance on the blockchain, it's kind of hard to think there are 10 or 5 million bitcoin card users....isn't it?

But let's drop it, we're getting off topic.
Any suggestion for what I need (post above)  

[Samarkand]

...
I also need a card but I want it just for small online purchases.
I don't want the plastic, and I don't want to pay that 40$ fee, especially since I'm going to purchase stuff under <100 and only one time.
Also, I'm OK with any verification whatsoever
Suggestions?

The virtual debit cards that are offered by Neteller could be an option for you.
They are valid Mastercards and can be used at any online shop that
accepts Mastercard.

You can fund your Neteller account with Bitcoin for a 1 % fee (on top of the Bitcoin
transaction fee).

If you never order the physical Net+ Mastercard, you won´t need to
pay any additional fees apart from the Bitcoin deposit fee.

[aigeezer]

Millions...do you have sources for this?

Of course. For example: "Users of Xapo, TenX, BitWala, and BitPay, which amount to several millions, have been told that they will no longer be able to utilize their cryptocurrency debit cards. "

https://www.ccn.com/visa-crackdown-on-bitcoin-and-cryptocurrency-debit-cards-no-big-impact/

Sorry but just saying that in an article is not a source, I was looking more for a visa statements on how many they have cancelled. Small business have a habit of overestimating their customers.

You asked for a source. The one I offered did not satisfy you. Fair enough. Neither Wavecrest nor Visa have offered any information on how much money or how many people were affected, afaik. There is now the possibility that we are talking about millions of people rather than millions of dollars or Euros. Try coming at it this way - imagine one hundred people, each spending one BTC a year on their debit cards. At present BTC value on CMC that would be $1,116,200 in annual transactions. I find it easy to infer that millions of dollars (Euros) in transactions were affected by the Wavecrest cancellation. Millions of people, not so much, but that was never my claim.

Any suggestion for what I need (post above) 

Sorry, I don't. Your situation is very different from mine, but any non-Wavecrest virtual prepaid cards I have stopped working at about the same time as the latest Wavecrest shutdown, no reasons given.
C'est la vie. Looks like Samarkand has a suggestion for you though. Good luck in any case.