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

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

@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).

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.

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 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.

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

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