Good
- No monthly fee, and both virtual and physical cards are free
- 1% FX fee on the card for Latin America and the Caribbean
- No conversion fee when spending USDC, USDT or AVAX
- Collateral stays in your own wallet, not with Rain
Watch out
- US card charges 2% on foreign-currency payments
- Points lose 30% of their value as a statement credit
- Not offered in 16 US states, including Ohio and Washington
- The card for Latin America can't withdraw cash at ATMs
Avalanche Card is a free Visa credit card from Rain Liquidity that you secure with USDC, USDT, AVAX or WAVAX held in your own wallet. It has no monthly, card or conversion fee, charges 1% on foreign payments outside the US and 2% in the US, and pays rewards in Avax Points.
The name comes from the Avalanche blockchain, but Ava Labs doesn't run the card: Rain operates it and Third National issues it on the Visa network. There are two versions with slightly different terms, one for US residents and one for Latin America and the Caribbean, so pick your country at the top of the page to see the right one.
Avalanche Card cashback
Avalanche Card pays rewards in Avax Points, but Rain shows the earn rates only inside the app, so there is no public cashback rate to compare with other cards.
Points are earned on posted purchases, either at a flat rate or at rates that vary by merchant category, based on the code Visa assigns to each shop. Fees, cash advances, refunds and disputed payments don't earn points, and Rain can change the rates with 30 days' notice in the app.
Each Avax Point has a face value of one cent. You get the full $0.01 when you spend points on hotels, flights or event tickets in the travel portal inside the app, but only $0.007 when you take a statement credit, so cashing out loses 30% of the value. Points can't be sold or sent to another person, and they sit in the same smart contract as your collateral.
Avalanche Card fees
Avalanche Card has no annual fee, no monthly fee and no charge for the virtual card, the physical card or shipping, so the main cost is the fee on payments in other currencies.
On the card for Latin America and the Caribbean that fee is 1%. The account runs in US dollars, so the fee applies to purchases in pesos, reais or any other local currency, and a $100 grocery bill paid in local money costs about $101. The US card charges 2% on transactions outside the dollar, which makes it an expensive card to take abroad.
Rain doesn't charge a conversion fee when you spend crypto, and card payments carry no gas fee, though moving funds on chain can cost network gas. Your spending limit equals the dollar value of the collateral you deposit, so $500 of USDC lets you spend $500, while the same amount in AVAX rises and falls with the token price.
Avalanche Card is a credit card with 0% interest. Purchases build a balance that is repaid from your collateral, and on the US card a late payment can cost up to 2% of the outstanding balance.
Avalanche Card ATM withdrawal fees
The international Avalanche Card can't be used to withdraw cash at ATMs, because its card terms say cash advances aren't available.
The US card agreement allows ATM use only where Rain enables it, and Rain doesn't publish ATM fees for the US card, so neither version is a good choice if you rely on cash. A card with a free monthly ATM allowance will serve that need better, and the comparison further down shows some options in your country.
Is Avalanche Card safe?
Avalanche Card is self-custody: the crypto that secures the card stays in a wallet you control, and the card terms say neither Rain nor the issuer ever holds it.
The main risk with a collateral card is liquidation: if a payment isn't made within one calendar day, or the market value of your collateral drops below what you've spent, Rain can sell enough of it to clear the balance, with no liquidation fee. Using AVAX as collateral carries more of that risk than USDC or USDT, because a price drop shrinks your spending power and can trigger a sale.
Rain Liquidity is a financial technology company and not a bank, and Third National issues the card under a Visa licence. You can back up the wallet to iCloud or protect recovery with a PIN, and Ava Labs doesn't handle support for the card, so questions go to the Avalanche Card team.
Who should get Avalanche Card
Avalanche Card suits people in Latin America and the Caribbean who hold USDC, USDT or AVAX and want a free card that spends it without handing the crypto to an exchange.
For someone paying mostly in local currency, the 1% fee works out to $10 on $1,000 of monthly spending, with no conversion fee on top. That is a fair price for a card that leaves your funds in your own wallet, as long as you keep the collateral above what you owe.
In the US the case for the card is weaker, because the 2% fee on foreign payments makes it a poor travel card and the points rate isn't known before you sign up. If you want cash withdrawals or a published cashback rate, the alternatives below are a better fit.
Where Avalanche Card is available
Avalanche Card is available in most US states and across Latin America and the Caribbean, but not in Cuba, Nicaragua or Venezuela, and not in 16 US states including Arizona, Georgia, Ohio and Washington.
The card also can't be issued to residents of Belarus, India, Iran, Iraq, Israel, mainland China, Nepal, Nigeria, North Korea, Russia, Sri Lanka, Syria, Turkey, Ukraine or Vietnam. You need to be at least 18, with a valid ID, a phone number and a home address that isn't a PO box.