2 CommentsYesterday we reported on Coin Fire about the community outrage regarding fees with the Xapo debit card and reached out to Xapo for an official statement.
Today we received that official statement.
Last week, we began shipping the Xapo Debit Card. We view the debit card as an important feature to offer our users and a fundamental step toward broader adoption of bitcoin. On Friday, we posted a debit card Fees & Limits Schedule to our website, which caused confusion among some of our user base, and we’d like to take a moment to give some additional context and updates to our debit card program.
The Fees & Limits Schedule we posted is from the existing third party program under which we are currently able to have the cards issued. Under that fee schedule, there is no activation fee, but there is a monthly service fee and other fees, including card replacement and foreign currency conversion.
When we announced the Xapo Debit Card a few months ago, we noted that there would be a one-time fee of US$15 in connection with ordering the card. That is still the case. Users who order the debit card will be charged US$15. This amount will be debited from your Xapo Wallet in bitcoins.
We do not, however, intend to charge monthly fees or fees for everyday spending. If our users are charged a monthly service fee, Xapo will reimburse that amount in bitcoins. So, if you use the Xapo Debit Card and are charged a monthly service fee by our third party provider, we will directly reimburse your Xapo Wallet.
We have no intention to mislead users into joining the program. But we realize that we did create confusion – and for that we are sorry.
Xapo noted that it will be reimbursing in Bitcoin any monthly fees that are from the third party provider of the cards.
Sadly to the dismay of many US customers however the company issued the following statement:
We have been advised that we cannot ship cards to the United States or India at this time. We were initially advised that these were approved markets. But after some initial invite emails were sent, we were notified that those markets had been reassessed, and that we cannot ship to them at this time. We will begin shipping to those two countries as soon as possible, and we will keep you notified of future developments.
Which now means that US customers will be unable to get the Xapo debit card for the time being. We will keep our eyes on this ever-evolving situation.
