Good
- USDC stays in a self-custody wallet that only you control
- Virtual card costs $0.50 and is issued as soon as KYC clears
- Apple Pay and Google Pay supported on eligible cards
- No Bitypay fee per card payment, 3-D Secure check or wallet payment
Watch out
- $5 monthly fee per card, which is $60 a year
- No cashback or rewards on any spending
- 1.99% FX fee on every payment that isn't in US dollars
- Only USDC can back the card today
Bitypay Card is a Visa Infinite debit card that spends USDC from a self-custody wallet you control. It costs $5 a month, charges 1.99% on payments in currencies other than the US dollar, and pays no cashback. Bitypay is a brand of Codego Group, a company that builds card and banking software for other businesses.
The card runs in the browser for now, because the iOS and Android apps are still listed as coming soon. You sign up with an email address, pass an ID and selfie check, and get a virtual card as soon as the check clears.
Bitypay Card cashback
Bitypay Card pays no cashback, points or token rewards on any purchase.
That makes the card simple to judge, since every payment costs you the fees below and earns nothing back. For comparison, a card paying 1% would return $10 on $1,000 of monthly spending, or $120 a year, which is twice what Bitypay charges in monthly fees over the same period.
Bitypay sells the card on custody and leaves rewards out entirely. If earning on your spending matters to you, the plans table below makes the gap with other cards easy to see.
Bitypay Card fees
Bitypay Card costs $5 a month per card, which Bitypay's fee schedule calls the Visa Infinite residency fee, and adds 1.99% to every payment in a currency other than the US dollar.
The monthly fee comes to $60 a year, and it applies even in months when you don't use the card. Setting up a virtual card costs $0.50, and a physical card costs $19.90 including issuance and shipping. Card payments carry no per-transaction fee from Bitypay, and 3-D Secure checks and Apple Pay or Google Pay payments are free as well.
The 1.99% FX fee matters most for anyone who doesn't live in the United States. The card settles in US dollars, so €1,000 of monthly spending in euros costs about $23 in FX fees on top of the Visa exchange rate. Over a year that is roughly $280, more than four times the card's annual fee.
Bitypay also charges $45 for each chargeback case it handles and $10 when you close your account, so it pays to sort out a disputed payment with the merchant first.
Bitypay Card ATM withdrawal fees
Bitypay Card works at any Visa ATM, and each withdrawal carries a fixed fee plus a percentage of the amount, both listed in Bitypay's fee schedule.
Bitypay also charges $0.60 when an ATM checks your balance or declines a withdrawal, and the ATM owner can add its own surcharge on top. Daily cash limits depend on your verification tier, and Bitypay's own help centre advises paying by card wherever you can, because card payments carry no Bitypay fee.
Is Bitypay Card safe?
Bitypay Card is self-custodial, which means the USDC behind the card sits in a smart-contract wallet on Base or Arbitrum that only you control.
At sign-up Bitypay generates a 24-word recovery phrase, shows it to you once and never stores it. If Bitypay stopped operating, you could still reach your USDC by importing that phrase into a wallet such as MetaMask or Rabby. The trade-off is that a lost phrase means lost funds, because nobody, Codego included, can restore access for you.
The card is issued by a licensed Visa principal member working with Codego, and Bitypay states plainly that it is not a bank. Your balance is USDC on a public blockchain, so it has no deposit insurance behind it. The app lets you freeze the card, set per-transaction and monthly limits, and it hides your card number and CVV again after 60 seconds.
Who should get Bitypay Card
Bitypay Card suits people who already hold USDC on Base or Arbitrum, spend mainly in US dollars, and care more about keeping their own keys than about earning rewards.
For someone who pays in dollars the costs are low and predictable: $60 a year and no Bitypay fee per payment. Anyone who spends in euros, pounds or another currency pays 1.99% on top of that, and with no cashback to offset it, a card with a lower FX fee or a rewards plan will usually cost less over a year. The comparison below shows the alternatives available in your country.
Where Bitypay Card is available
Bitypay Card eligibility depends on your country of residence and is decided during the application and identity check.
Bitypay doesn't publish a public country list, and its terms exclude residents of countries under comprehensive sanctions and anyone on a sanctions list. Once the card is issued, it works at any merchant that accepts Visa, online or in store.