Over 2.000$ Of Cashback in two years: The Ultimate Review of the Crypto.com Visa Cards

Maybe you’ve seen the commercials in Formula 1, Ice Hockey, or the UFC? But what is crypto.com? What do they do and why are they so liked in the crypto community? Find out in this review of the crypto.com Visa cards!

Crypto.com is mostly famous for its great payment cards which give up to 8% cashback to the holder of these cards. Depending on the card, you also get your Spotify, Netflix, and Amazon Prime subscription refunded and you get free airport lounge access!

After reading this review to the crypto.com Visa cards, you will know more about:

• 1. Staking and the CRO coin
• 2. The Crypto.com application
• 3. Review of the different Crypto.com Visa cards
• 4. Review of how fast you can earn back your Crypto.com Visa Cards
• 5. Topping up your card and receiving cashback
• 6. What you can do with the cashback
• 7. Upgrading, downgrading, or unstaking an existing card
• 8. Tips and tricks
• 9. How to get 75$ in CRO coins for free

1. Staking and the CRO coin

Crypto.com has its own cryptocurrency, the CRO coin. The cashback you receive is in the CRO coin. If you want to order a payment card for yourself, you have to buy CRO coins and stake them. Now I hear you thinking, what is staking? In short, you buy for example 5.000 CRO coins and you lock them away for a certain period of time on the crypto.com platform. Once this time period is over, your staked CRO coins are unlocked and you can sell them or keep them staked for benefits.

2. The Crypto.com application

The application on your phone is one of the platforms of crypto.com. It is the place where you can order the crypto.com payment card yourself. The app is very easy to use, looks great, and is beginner-friendly. So, to access the app, you have to create an account.

Sign up page for the crypto.com application

Using my referral link to create an account will get us both 25$ in CRO for free if you order a metal payment card. You have to fill in 2 fields: your email address and the referral code (e2c2tt4fu3).

After clicking on the submit button, a QR code will appear. Scan this QR code with your phone and you will be redirected to download the crypto.com application to your phone.

You can always enter the referral code e2c2tt4fu3 in the app afterward so we both get a 25$ bonus. However, this has to be done within 5 days after registration. You can add the referral code afterwards by going to the ‘setting’ -> Referral Code -> add e2c2tt4fu3

Now that you have downloaded the application, you have to get through the identity check procedure to comply with KYC. You have to verify your phone number, your id card, and your email address. Once you have finished these steps, the verification is done in a maximum of 3 days, but usually a lot faster.

After the verification process is completed by the staff of crypto.com, you can add a bank account or a credit card to transfer funds. How much you want to transfer depends on the card you want to order and the different benefits that each card gives.

3. Review of the different Crypto.com Visa cards

Crypto.com offers 4 kinds of paid card levels, all with different costs and all with different benefits. Later in this article, I’ve created a spreadsheet to show you how fast you can earn your investment back for each card. The payment card itself is a prepaid debit card. Meaning you have to put money on the card to spend it, but more on that later!

The subscriptions for Spotify and Netflix are paid back up to a maximum of 13.99$ a month in CRO coins and the subscription for Amazon prime is paid back up to a maximum of 14.99$ a month in CRO coins. The only thing you have to do is pay your subscription with your crypto.com card. The cashback is paid back in CRO coins as well. Below in point 6, we’ll discuss what you can do with the cashback you received. First, let’s take a look at the price in different currencies and then review all the benefits of the different crypto.com Visa cards!

3.1 The Ruby steel Visa card

To be able to order this card, you will need to stake 400$ worth of CRO for at least 6 months. Let’s look at the benefits of this card. You will get

• 1% cashback on your purchases with this card (with a maximum of 25$ cashback every month).
• Spotify subscription paid back
• 25$ as a sign-up bonus when using referral code e2c2tt4fu3
• a real metal card

3.2 The Royal Indigo or Jade Green Visa card

To be able to order this card, you will need to stake 4.000$ worth of CRO for at least 6 months. Let’s look at the benefits of this card. You will get

• 2% cashback on your purchases with this card (with a maximum of 50$ cashback every month)
• Spotify subscription paid back
• Netflix subscription paid back
• a real metal card
• 25$ as a sign-up bonus when using referral code e2c2tt4fu3
• free access to Airport Lounges around the world
• 4% interest on your staked CRO, paid out weekly

3.3 The Frosted Rose Gold or Icy White Visa card

To be able to order this card, you will need to stake 40.000$ worth of CRO for at least 6 months. Let’s look at the benefits of this card. You will get

• 3% cashback on your purchases with this card
• Spotify subscription paid back
• Netflix subscription paid back
• Amazon Prime subscription paid back
• 10% cashback on your Expedia bookings
• a real metal card
• 25$ as a sign-up bonus when using referral code e2c2tt4fu3
• free access to Airport Lounges around the world for you and one guest
• 8% interest on your staked CRO, paid out weekly
• 2% extra interest on your crypto on all fixed-term contracts in the Earn function, paid out in CRO. Example: You stake 1 Ethereum, you get 6% interest paid out in Ethereum and an added 2% paid out in CRO.

3.4 The Obsidian Visa card

To be able to order this card, you will need to stake 400.000$ worth of CRO for at least 6 months. Let’s look at the benefits of this card. You will get

• 5% cashback on your purchases with this card
• Spotify subscription paid back
• Netflix subscription paid back
• Amazon Prime subscription paid back
• 10% cashback on your Expedia and Airbnb bookings
• 25$ as a sign-up bonus when using referral code e2c2tt4fu3
• a real metal card
• free access to Airport Lounges around the world for you and one guest
• Access to a private jet membership
• 8% interest on your card staking CRO, paid out weekly
• 2% extra interest on your crypto on all fixed-term contracts in the Earn function, paid out in CRO. Example: You stake 1 Ethereum, you get 6% interest paid out in Ethereum and an added 2% paid out in CRO.

4. Review of how fast you can earn back your Crypto.com Visa Cards

If you are a Spotify user that pays for her/his membership, I think the first tier card is worth it. Higher tier cards depend on your spending amount and if you also have Netflix / Amazon Prime subscriptions.

But for the people that would like to see themselves if it’s worth it, I’ve created a basic spreadsheet with some monthly example expenses. There are some other perks to the higher tier cards like free airport lounge access, exclusive merchandise welcome pack, Airbnb & Expedia reductions that are not included in the spreadsheet. But you get the general idea if a card is worth it for you or not. Below is a review of how fast you can earn back your crypto.com Visa cards!

5. Topping up your card and receiving cashback

Now that you have ordered the card of your choice, it is time to top up your card. The payment cards from crypto.com are prepaid, meaning that you need a balance on them before you go shopping.

Go to the ‘Fiat Wallet’ to transfer money into the app if you do it by bank transfer. A bank transfer typically takes one to two days, but depending on your country and bank, it can be instant. If you use a credit card, you can go to your card and click on ‘Top Up’. Choose the option you want and the amount which you want to top up.

Now that you have made your first purchase, your first cashback has also arrived in the app! Go to ‘Wallet’ and look for the ‘Crypto.com Coin’. Click on it and scroll down and you will see ‘Card Cashback’ amounts appearing for all your purchases. If you have ordered a Jade Green, Royal Indigo card, or higher, you will also get a weekly CRO Stake Reward that appears!

Unfortunately, you do not get cashback on all your purchases. Some ‘merchant codes’ are excluded for cashback, see the full list here. Examples of these purchases are insurance, taxes, fines, or self-service gas stations. However, paying for your gasoline at the counter afterward gets you cashback. Withdrawing money also does not give you cashback.

Other than that, the cashback is visible and available in the app the second you make the purchase. The cashback you see in the app is the total dollar amount of the cashback I got. Meaning I got around 2.120 $ worth of cashback in two years.

6. What can you do with the cashback?

All the cashback and the subscription reimbursements (and the staking rewards from higher tier cards) that you get are in CRO, the native coin from crypto.com. But what can you do with these coins?

Personally, I trade it all for Ethereum and put it in their earn program (so earning around 6% extra on my cashback paid out in Etherium). I have an account on their exchange as well and it’s better to trade on the exchange than on the app (fees/spread are better, similar to coinbase and coinbase pro). Putting crypto from the app to the exchange and back is free of charge.

But you can choose to do other things with the cashback. You can exchange your CRO cashback to your currency within the app. Other options are staking the CRO on their exchange and getting 10% interest (minimum 5.000 CRO and locked for a minimum of 6 months) or participating in their syndicate events (where you can buy cryptos at discount prices). Let’s go over the different options in detail!

6.1 The crypto.com exchange

Next to the crypto.com app, you can also access the crypto.com exchange. The name already says it, but here you can trade a big amount of crypto coins just like on any other crypto exchange. If you stake certain amounts of CRO on the exchange platform, these fees get even lower!

To continue, you have to create your account on the crypto.com exchange. If you add referral code e2c2tt4fu3, we both get 10$ for free when you stake a minimum of 1.000 CRO or 50$ for free when you stake a minimum of 5.000 CRO for the first time. Read more about the crypto.com exchange in my other article!

Go through the process of creating your account. It will be linked to your crypto.com app account. Transferring funds from the app to the exchange is instant and free. Note that transferring funds from the app to the exchange does NOT count for the 2% first deposit bonus! But that you can transfer funds from the app to the exchange to stake to get your sign-up bonus.

Other advantages are:

• 10% interest on staking paid out daily, with a minimum staking period of 6 months and a minimum amount of 5.000 CRO
• 0% trading fees for new users during the first 90 days
• New users earn a 2% bonus on deposits made to Crypto.com Exchange. This bonus is paid out in CRO with a maximum bonus of 5.000 CRO. The bonus is only valid for the first 30 days after your account creation.
• Up to 50$ sign-up bonus when you add referral code e2c2tt4fu3 when staking at least 5.000 CRO for the first time
• Trading fee discount when staking higher amounts of CRO

6.2 The Crypto Earn function

Go to the ‘Earn’ section in the application and click on ‘Start Earning Now’. Here you can see all the different crypto’s which you can use to participate in the crypto earn program. You need a minimum amount of certain crypto to participate.

Example: You want to ‘Earn’ Ethereum. Clicking on Ethereum gets you to a screen where you can select the amount of time where you want to stake Ethereum. You can choose between a flexible time frame, a one-month term, or a three-month term. A three-month term has a higher interest rate than a one-month term. Keep in mind that your Ethereum is stuck for this term and you can’t withdraw it. With the flexible term, you have the lowest interest rate but you can access your Ethereum any day, any time!

The interest is paid out weekly for each earn that you started and you can see the payment in the app just like the cashback.

7. Upgrading, downgrading, or unstaking an existing crypto.com Visa card

When you already have a crypto.com card, you can always upgrade or downgrade your card. Let’s first look at upgrading your existing card!

7.1 Upgrading an existing card

Let’s say that you have a Ruby card and a stake of 400$ worth of CRO. To upgrade the card, you just go to the ‘card’ tab in the application and click on upgrade. You will see how much CRO you need to add to upgrade to the level of your choice. Once you have chosen your desired level (let’s say it’s Jade Green for 4.000$ worth of CRO), you have two options when staking for this card:

• You keep your physical Ruby card and get all the perks that the Jade Green level has, but you can not access the airport lounge.
• You also upgrade your physical card to Jade Green, but you will pay a 50$ fee for your new card. The first card you ever get is free, but when you lose or upgrade the card, you need to pay a 50$ fee.

7.2 Downgrading an existing card

At one point, you might have a Jade Green card, but you would like to downgrade to a Ruby card. Of course, this is possible! After the initial 6 months of staking are up, you can unlock your CRO stake and restake for just the Ruby and choose the keep your physical Jade Green card. At this point, you have the perks of the Ruby card BUT also free airport lounge access (since the lounge access is connected to the card and not to the stake).

7.3 Unstaking your existing card

Another option is to unstake the CRO that you needed at the start to order the card. You will get your CRO back in your wallet to do with as you please and the good this is that your card keeps working! Of course, you will not get all the benefits that you had while. you still have your stake running. All the subscriptions reimbursements will no longer work. Take a look at the downgraded benefits that you still have:

8. Tips and tricks to optimize the Crypto.com Visa Cards

8.1 Curve

For users in the UK and in the EU (the waiting list is out in the USA), you can link your crypto card with a Curve card. Now, what is a curve card?

Curve is an application where you can link all your credit cards behind that one card and ‘switch’ which card you wish to pay with. While you are waiting for your physical crypto.com card, you can link your virtual card to Curve and pay that way. No money on your crypto card? No problem, choose a different payment card in the curve app and switch the payment to your crypto card later on (they have a go back in time feature where you can switch payments from one card to another up to 90 days after your purchase). Use my referral link and get 5eur for free!

8.2 Virtual cards

You can request virtual cards once you’ve staked and ordered a crypto.com card, meaning you do not have to wait until the physical card actually arrives to start using it. This virtual card can be linked behind your Curve Card.

9. How to get 75$ in CRO coins for free

When you order your crypto.com visa card on the app, you will get 25$ in CRO for free! Add referral code e2c2tt4fu3 when you sign up to the app! You will immediately see the bonus as ‘locked’ but it will unlock once you’ve ordered your card!

When you create an account on the exchange and stake 5.000 CRO for the first time, you will get 50$ in CRO for free! Add referral code e2c2tt4fu3 when you sign up on the exchange!

Note: This article includes affiliate links. I earn the same referral bonus as you when you sign up for either a card or for the exchange.

Note: I am not a financial advisor. Any information provided in this article or via emails is not intended as investment or financial advice. It is merely information based upon my own experience. The information I present is of a general nature and should merely be used as a place to start your own research and you definitely should conduct your own due diligence.

Originally published at https://bitcoinstarters.com.