cigs for example
trying to find reasons to take it out of my current bank to put it into BTC
Not that many merchants accept btc payment yet. So, I do not think you can buy cigs using btc.
But based on my experience on buying ASIC miner, it is usually cheaper to pay using wire transfer than btc.
Apart from the bitpay 50,000 ish merchants etc..
millions of merchants now accept bitcoin since 3 weeks ago...but may not know it yet
Xapo card can be used internationally at ANY merchant who accepts traditional debit/credit cards.
Although currently there is a 3% cost as time passes this will reduce ( to zero most probably) It is important to note that buying your cigs at home has a 3% extra cost but buying them when abroad is up to 5% cheaper ( exchange rate spread up to 5% in worst cases plus 2.5% +1% fees when buying in a foreign country)
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=736643.msg8323871#msg8323871