Coinbase Debit Card is a MUST Have. [UPDATE] 4% is DEAD?

5/14/2023 Update: Since the introduction of the rotating category Coinbase had started to advertise their card as “up to 4%”, however, it appears all trace of 4% is gone. This makes me believe 4% is more or less permanently gone. Of course, if somehow huge FOMO happens, they may up it to 4% (or hell 10%, why not?) to attract crypto degens.

12/12/2022 Update: 4% cashback is back again.

12/3/2022 Update: 4% cashback was extended but died a few weeks ago. The best offer is now 1%.

7/14/2022 Update: 4% crypto back with XLM is back. Available from July 18, 2022, and expires on Aug 12, 2022.

6/11/2022 Update: Lots of updates so I will be brief: (a) rewards now have a rotating category (read more in the Coinbase blog), (b) there is no fee for selling crypto with the card (c) you can also spend USD through the card (in fact you can make it so that direct deposit doesn’t stay as USD (opposed to auto-conversion to USDC) and (d) 2% is the highest reward until July 18, 2022. The writing for the 4% ending was on the wall the moment they introduced the rotating category. Now, it is possible that for some limited period, they may still bring 4% crypto back on one coin or another.

8/19/2021 Update: The card now lets you also get 4% rewards back in the form of GRT. They also added the option to get 1% in ETH and DOGE but they’re meh. I personally think XLM is a great coin but it probably doesn’t hurt to diversify your rewards into another 4% earning coin, especially something like GRT.

I wrote about Coinbase debit card in late June, I questioned if it was too good to be true. Fast forward to today, and I am officially saying this card has found a permanent space in my wallet. This is not a small achievement considering I choose to carry very few cards in my wallet.

Not so long ago I shared my two daily driver cards. Well, since then my Platinum promotional offer has expired, I have tossed it away, thus leaving only Altitude Reserve as my daily driver card. But, with the addition of a Coinbase debit card, I am back to two daily driver cards. Altitude Reserve has been my go-to card since I obtained it after 5 failed applications (lol). It was in my top three best premium card list back in 2018 and it has stood well against the test of time. I renewed it after receiving 10,000 retention offer two years in a row.

Use this link to get $10 in Bitcoin (BTC) when you buy or sell $100 or more in crypto

You can even buy/sell stablecoin, like USDC, which is supposed to be 1:1 with USD.

My current setup is to use Altitude Reserve in stores (thanks to Samsung Pay and LG Pay) while Coinbase debit card for more or less everything else (eg: online), thus netting 4.5% and 4% cashback respectively. In the slideshow below, you can see me getting $40.40 for spending $1010.

If you’ve never heard of the Coinbase card, I suggest reading my previous post on the Coinbase debit card (same as what was linked above). I don’t want to repeat the whole thing again but here is a quick summary of why I think the Coinbase debit card is the overall best crypto card in the market right now:

1. no need to stake tokens to get 4% cashback in crypto (see “8% cashback on crypto debit card” article for alternatives),
2. Coinbase is a US-based publicly traded company so it is a far less risky platform than other exchanges,
3. You can “lock” and “unlock” your card quickly through the app, which is a feature missing in some other crypto cards,
4. the card is funded by stablecoin USDC which is the #8 cryptocurrency by market cap,
5. there is no fee to buy/sell USDC on Coinbase.

Now, is worth noting that, Coinbase, like any other exchange, charges a fee to buy/sell crypto which means there is a fee to be paid before you can convert your cashback reward (in XLM) to cash. The fee in regular Coinbase is 2.99% which means after selling your reward, your net cashback comes out to be 3.8804%. However, should you choose to move your reward (XLM) to Coinbase Pro you can the fee drops from 2.99% to 0.5% thus netting you 3.98% in net cashback. The “pro” name might be a little deceiving, however, Coinbase Pro is free to use (as in no subscription fee) and it is free to move money or asset between the Pro and non-Pro versions of Coinbase. Alternatively, you can also withdraw your reward (XLM) to Binance US which has a fee of a mere 0.1% fee.

https://accounts.binance.us/en/register?ref=55355434

Since my last post, Coinbase has revealed a waitlist for 4% APY on USDC with their guarantee on the principle. You can join the waitlist for 4% APY on USDC below. Sure, this APY is far less than 8-14% APY other crypto platforms are giving on USDC, but none of them have terms guaranteeing the principle and none of them are publicly traded companies either.

https://www.coinbase.com/lend

Closing Remark

The debit card is too strong. There are some even stronger crypto cards that I may or may not be using more.