Be swooned over by this new Bitcoin credit card with lots of cash back rewards like no other!
The packaging here isn’t really that impressive, not compared with other credit cards I’ve gotten. What is impressive though is the rewards cash back and the opportunity to earn more than twice what you earn on other cards! I’m unboxing the new bitcoin credit card, today on Let’s Talk Money!
Nation, you know this is NOT a credit card channel…in fact, I don’t think I’ve ever done a video about credit cards but while I definitely DO NOT want you jumping at every cheesy pre-approval offer you get in the mail…this one might be the best offer I’ve seen in a while.
Investing in Bitcoin and Ethereum
Now all you out there in the Nation, you do know that I’ve become a big believer in bitcoin and Ethereum over the last year. It’s one of my strongest conviction investments right now and when I saw that BlockFi was coming out with a credit card to earn cash back rewards in bitcoin…I got excited, like eight-years old on Christmas morning excited!
Then I watched a video on Graham Stephan’s channel reviewing the card.
So I reached out to BlockFi to get there response to some of the important issues, that rewards bonus and get the details. In this video, I’ll show you why I’m using the new bitcoin credit card, the pros and the cons and estimate how much you’ll earn compared to other cash back credit cards.
Full disclosure here, I am working with BlockFi on this video because…well, I use the platform to earn interest on my crypto, after looking into the details of the card, I’m using it and well…if I’m going to talk about the card, why not let BlockFi pick up the cost of making the video?
That doesn’t mean I’m going to change any of the details or my opinion in the video to make this sound like the best credit card since Viza’s First Bank of Springfield card.
Before we open this up though and show you how to earn as much bitcoin rewards as possible, I do have to warn you…there is a monstrous wait on this thing. I signed up quite a while ago and got an early card as part of the partnership but checking recently, there are over 308,000 people now on the wait list. I’ll leave a link in the description below but if you think you might be interested, click through and just get on the list because waiting is just going to put you further down on that list.
So let’s open this up and then I’ll show you exactly why I’m using the card, reveal those pros and cons and then discuss some of what Graham said in his earlier video. Now in fairness though, Graham did say that if it weren’t for the annual fee, he would change his mind on the BlockFi card…and BlockFi ended up dropping the fee, so I guess thank you Graham and maybe we’ll be seeing a new video soon.
Now the credit card itself doesn’t come in a big fancy box like you get with some of the premium cards. Like I got the Chase Sapphire reserve and it comes in this nice box on top of like a platinum pillow and angels sing when you open it.
It does come in a neat little pop-out case…it’s fun to play with and will make a cheap Christmas present for one of the kids, but BlockFi isn’t trying to wow you with the fancy wrapping.
You slide the card out here and immediately, you do realize it’s quite a bit heavier than a plastic credit card. In fact, it’s about the same weight as my Chase Sapphire…and I don’t know why that matters but everyone talks about it now so…if you need final proof of the decay of Western Civilization, we are now weighing our credit cards, because…that’s important.
But it is a nice looking card and you turn the case over and you get the instructions for activating your card and getting the app from Google Play or the App Store on Apple.
OK, now that I’ve done the obligatory, “unboxing” which is totally pointless but…yeah, let’s dig into what you get with this card, why I’m cutting up my other cards and going to be using the BlockFi card for all my purchases from here.
New Bitcoin Credit Card Bonuses
Let’s go over the bonuses, and there are a lot of incentives here, then I’ll explain the fine-print and we’ll compare the rewards to other cards and do an example of how much you can earn with the BlockFi card.
And really the key here, beyond all the bonuses and incentives is this 1.5% back in bitcoin on every purchase. That’s matching the reward you get on most cards right there but then, BlockFi is also going to boost that rate by 3.5% during the first three months and give you 2% on every purchase over a $50,000 annual spend.
And I almost didn’t want to include that bump to 2% after the $50,000 annual spend because I really don’t want to encourage you to spend fifty-grand on a credit card. Please, please Nation, do not use a cash back rewards card as an excuse to overspend!
There’s also no fees on the card. No annual fee, no foreign fees or transaction fees and that’s huge compared to most of the cards I’ve used.
Not only that but, and this is the reason I use BlockFi for my crypto wallet, is you earn interest on your rewards. I earn 4% interest on my bitcoin and Ethereum and up to 7.5% interest on Stablecoin holdings. It’s not the reason I’m investing in crypto but the extra interest is definitely a bonus.
Besides the bonus rewards, BlockFi is also going to boost the interest you receive on stablecoins by 2% up to $200 a year, and I know this is a lot to work through so I’ll show you an easy example next.
Now I’m a buy-and-hold investor but for all you traders out there, you’ll also get a quarter of a percent back in bitcoin on trades up to $500 a month AND, and this is one that really puts the rewards over the top, BlockFi has a referral program that gives you $30 in bitcoin.
That’s the upside to the card. There are a few cons here and I’ll talk through these more while comparing it to some other rewards credit cards but it kind of sucks that there are no bonus spending categories, like maybe an extra half a percent when you spend on groceries or whatever.
That introductory 3.5% bonus is capped at $100 which isn’t much but I guess it’s free money so maybe stop complaining. When I got my Barclays UPromise card, I think I got up to $500 cash bonus in that first three months but there are other drawbacks on that one.
Finally here, the BlockFi card is set up for bitcoin rewards but you can always exchange that for other coins or just withdraw it as cash if you want.
Now I do want to highlight the fine print here because, well because nobody ever reads it, but it’s pretty simple and then I’ll explain it all in an example.
So that 3.5% rewards boost is only for the first three months and is capped at $100 which comes to about $5,000 in spending over those three months. And that’s pretty reasonable. Most cards only give you the bonus if you spend at least a certain amount, so BlockFi isn’t saying that here. You earn a bonus 3.5% on whatever you spend those first three months up to the five grand.
There are no annual fees or transaction fees but it says here there might be a fee if you’re late making your payment…which is kind of like ‘duh’ there’s always a late fee on any credit card.
BlockFi will do a soft pull of your credit, which is the same as any pre-approval offer and doesn’t affect your credit. After you accept the offer, they’ll do another credit check to confirm, again, same as any credit card.
The 2% bonus on your stablecoin balance is up to $200, so if you hold more than $10,000 in stablecoins you’re going to max out that bonus. But here again, BlockFi pays 7.5% on USDC up to $50,000 so if you’re holding ten-grand and getting that bonus, that’s $950 a year in free interest versus the $6 in interest you’d make in a bank savings account.
OK, done with the fine print. That was the fun part…now for the boring part where I show you exactly how much in bitcoin you can earn on this card.
How Much You Can Earn from This Bitcoin Credit Card
And I’m going to use an example here of spending just $36,000 a year, that’s less than the monthly expenses for most households so I think it’s a level most can reach for those bonuses. Now if you can use the card for business expenses, like what I’ll be using it for, you’ll earn 2% back for annual purchases over $50,000 and can get a lot more out of it.
But the first year, you’ll earn 1.5% cash back on all your purchases or about $540 in bitcoin.
You’ll also earn the 3.5% bonus in your first three months, and since we’re spending more than $1,700 a month, we’ll earn the entire $100 capped bonus here.
Now if you kept that money in bitcoin, you’d earn an additional 4% or $25 in interest, but if you transfer your bitcoin rewards into USDC stablecoins, you’ll earn 9.5% interest with that 2% bonus, so an additional $60 in interest.
That’s a $700 total bonus in your first year using the card, which is closer to 1.9% back on the $36,000 spending, and that’s if you didn’t take advantage of the trading bonus or the refer-a-friend program.
The only thing that changes after the first year is you don’t get the 3.5% introductory bonus, the $100 you got for spending in the first three months. You still get that 1.5% back in bitcoin, you still get the 2% interest boost on stablecoins, the trading bonus and the referral program.
But now talking with a few people on this, the question came up…why not get a 2% cash back card from someone else and just invest that money in bitcoin, or aren’t I better off with the 2% instead of the 1.5% I get on the BlockFi card?
And I’ve had a lot of other rewards cards. I’ve had a Citi Advantage card that gives me miles for more than nine years. I get a mile for every dollar spent but like a lot of these other cards…you may not be getting as much cash back or rewards as you think.
For example, I was finally able to use some of my airline miles for a trip to Miami recently. I paid 40,000 miles for a flight that would have been $480 and still had to pay the $86 in fees. So that was actually less than a 1% cash back on the money I spent to get those miles…and with blackout dates and restrictions, sometimes it’s harder than hell to use those miles.
Since 2013, I’ve also had a Barclays card that is supposed to give me 1.5% cash back into my son’s 529 college savings but it actually only comes out to 1.25% when you look at it.
Even the cash back cards with higher rewards like the Sapphire, you’re paying annual fees of $150 and more. In fact, the reserve card is going to hit you for $550 a year, pretty much wiping out all the rewards you earn.
So with the BlockFi bitcoin credit card, I get a true 1.5% back along with the extra bonus rewards and no fees. What’s better though, is I can hold those bitcoin rewards in my account and instantly be making 4% interest plus have a long-term investment in the coins. That’s 5.5% on my spending each year, which is more than five-times I get with my Citi Advantage card, and I can take my money out whenever I like. Between personal expenses and my business, I’ll easily spend over $100,000 in the first year on this card. I’ll collect $1,750 back in bitcoin on my purchases, another $100 in the first three month bonus and $74 in annual bitcoin interest on top of those rewards.
Again, if you even think you might want to use this card, make sure you use that link below and get on the wait-list because it’s growing every day. It’s now over 300,000 people signed up for the card and one of the best credit card rewards programs you’ll find.