Best crypto credit cards

Credit, secured and debit: why so few crypto cards are credit cards

With a credit card, the issuer lends you the money. You spend up to a limit, and you repay later. To lend safely, the issuer checks your credit history and your income, and it takes on the duties of a lender. That is a heavy job, and most crypto card companies do not do it. They build debit or prepaid products instead, where you spend money you already have.

A third kind sits in between. A secured card is backed by your own crypto as collateral. It feels like credit, but you are borrowing against assets you have locked up. If the price of that crypto falls far enough, the company can sell part of it to cover the loan. That is a liquidation risk you do not have with a plain credit line, and secured cards are not counted on this list.

If what you want is to spend from your own balance, look at the crypto debit cards. To see every kind of card side by side, open the list of all crypto cards.

What to check

• Where it is available. Credit products depend on local lending rules, so availability is narrow. In the United States this list ranks 3 cards. In the United Kingdom it ranks 0 cards, in Germany 0 cards and in Brazil 0 cards. Check your own country first, before anything else.
• The annual fee. Some credit cards charge one, some do not. Compare it with what you expect to earn in rewards.
• Interest if you carry a balance. If you do not pay the statement in full, interest is added to what you owe. It usually costs far more than any reward you earn. A credit card makes sense only if you plan to repay on time.
• How rewards are paid. Find out which crypto you receive, when it arrives, and whether you need to lock up a token to get the full rate. A staking requirement adds price risk of its own.
• The credit check. Applying means a check on your credit file. Several applications in a short time, or missed payments later, can lower your credit score.

Paying rewards in crypto: the catch

Cashback paid in crypto is not the same as cashback paid in cash. The reward is worth whatever the crypto is worth when you receive it, and that can move up or down before you sell or spend it. A reward that looked generous on the day you earned it can be worth less a week later.

Tax is the other thing to check. Many countries treat crypto received as a reward differently from a discount on a purchase, and the rules differ from one country to the next. Ask your local tax authority, or someone qualified, before you rely on a reward rate to justify a purchase.

Where to go next

The ranking above shows what our data lists today, and it changes as the data is checked. To see which cards you can actually get, and what they cost for your spending, use the Card Finder. For a plain comparison of the three types, read our guide to crypto debit, credit and prepaid cards.