Good
- Free card payments in euros across the EEA
- Euro ATM withdrawals in the EEA cost a flat €1
- Virtual card for €1, physical card for €5 with free postage
- Loads from 40+ cryptocurrencies via the SpectroCoin wallet
Watch out
- No cashback or rewards on card spending
- €1 monthly service fee, €12 a year
- Payments outside the EEA in other currencies cost 1%
- ATM withdrawals outside the EEA cost 2%, at least €2
SpectroCoin Card is a euro Visa debit card that you top up by exchanging crypto in your SpectroCoin wallet. A virtual card costs €1 and a physical card €5, both with a €1 monthly service fee, and the card pays no cashback. Euro payments in the EEA are free.
The card is issued by UAB Pervesk, a Lithuanian e-money institution, and SpectroCoin runs the wallet and exchange behind it. You hold crypto such as bitcoin, ether or USDT on SpectroCoin, sell some for euros, and move those euros onto the card in the app whenever you need them.
SpectroCoin Card cashback
SpectroCoin Card doesn't pay cashback or any other reward on purchases, so its value lies in letting you spend crypto at Visa merchants.
That puts SpectroCoin Card behind many free crypto cards, which pay 1% to 2% on spending, often with a monthly cap. Someone spending €1,000 a month gives up roughly €10 to €20 a month compared with those cards, on top of paying the €12 a year in service fees.
The card fits people who value having a euro card attached to their SpectroCoin balance more than they value rewards.
SpectroCoin Card fees
SpectroCoin Card charges €1 a month to keep the card open, and payments in euros inside the EEA are free.
The card itself costs €5 for the physical version, with free standard postage, or €1 for a virtual card you can use straight away. Registered mail costs €3, and expedited delivery is €60, which only makes sense if you need the card within days. A replacement card costs €15 and a renewal €6.
Payments in other currencies are where the costs come in. A payment in a non-euro currency inside the EEA, such as Polish zloty or Swedish krona, costs 0.5%, and a payment in another currency outside the EEA costs 1%. Visa sets the exchange rate, and SpectroCoin adds no separate currency exchange fee on top.
SpectroCoin doesn't list a fee for exchanging crypto into euros before you load the card, so check the rate in the app before you sell. Loading euros onto the card and moving them back to the wallet are both free.
SpectroCoin Card ATM withdrawal fees
SpectroCoin Card charges €1 for each euro withdrawal at an ATM in the EEA, and a percentage with a minimum for any other withdrawal.
Withdrawing euros in Lithuania costs 1% instead of the flat €1. In the EEA, a withdrawal in another currency costs 1% with a €1 minimum, and anywhere outside the EEA it costs 2% with a €2 minimum, so a €200 withdrawal abroad costs €4 before any ATM owner's charge. Checking your balance at an ATM costs €0.50, and the daily ATM limit is €2,500.
For occasional euro cash in the eurozone, a flat €1 is cheap, but frequent cash users abroad will pay more than on cards with a free monthly allowance.
Is SpectroCoin Card safe?
SpectroCoin Card is custodial: SpectroCoin holds your crypto, and the euros on the card sit with UAB Pervesk, which issues the card.
Pervesk is an electronic money institution licensed by the Bank of Lithuania since 2017, and it keeps customer funds in a segregated account, so they are protected from Pervesk's creditors if it becomes insolvent. E-money isn't a bank deposit, though, so the card balance isn't covered by Lithuania's deposit insurance scheme.
The crypto side of the account is run by Spectro Finance OÜ, registered in Estonia, for users in the EEA. SpectroCoin states that its users aren't covered by government compensation schemes, so keep only what you plan to spend on the platform.
Who should get SpectroCoin Card
SpectroCoin Card suits people in the EEA who already keep crypto on SpectroCoin and want to spend it in euros without moving it to another exchange first. For those users, free euro payments and €1 euro cash withdrawals make it a practical spending card.
For anyone starting from scratch, the €1 monthly fee and the lack of cashback make the SpectroCoin Card hard to recommend over free cards that pay rewards. Frequent travellers outside Europe will also pay 1% on purchases and at least €2 per withdrawal. The comparison below shows the alternatives in your country.
Where SpectroCoin Card is available
SpectroCoin Card is available to verified SpectroCoin customers who have the card delivered to an address in the European Economic Area.
The card isn't offered in the United States, and SpectroCoin's website isn't intended for US residents. Once issued, the card works online and in shops worldwide wherever Visa is accepted.