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The “0% FX fee” trap: 17 of 30 crypto cards charge for the conversion elsewhere
Why a purchase abroad costs more than the FX line says, and which cards name no other cost.
I run a database of every crypto debit and credit card I can find. 178 of them so far, from Coinbase down to neobank wrappers few people have heard of. It lives in the Sweepbase catalog if you want to poke around.
One thing kept bothering me. Card after card prints “0%” on its FX line, and the cost of a purchase abroad is still all over the place. So on 14 October 2026 I took every card you can currently get whose FX line reads 0% and wrote down where each one collects the cost of converting your money instead. On 5 November 2026 I re-read the twelve that name no other cost or a 0% for some currencies only. Decaf left the list: its US card terms charge 1% on each foreign transaction, although Decaf adds nothing of its own.30 cards remain.
The numbers in brief
1.37%
Average FX fee
Across the 121 obtainable cards that print a rate
30
Print 0% on the FX line
Obtainable cards, first rate the FX line charges
17 of 30
Charge for it elsewhere
Conversion or loading fees, 0% for some currencies only, or a network fee passed on (5 November 2026)
0 to 7%
Printed FX range
The top is Bybit's Argentina card
- Median FX fee across the 121 obtainable cards that print a rate: 1.50%
- Average: 1.37%
- Range on the FX line: 0% to 7% (Bybit’s Argentina card)
- 30 obtainable cards print 0% on the FX line. 17 of them sell your crypto at a fee or spread, charge to load the card, apply the 0% to some currencies only, or pass a network fee on. 5 convert something or leave a currency open without publishing a rate for it. The other 8 name no other cost in their terms.
- Most expensive to spend with once deposit and purchase fees count (mostly not FX): Kemy (8% on crypto deposits, though the same pricing page also says 5%, plus 3.5% + $1 on every virtual-card purchase; no FX rate published), MaxSwap (4.5% + $1 per top-up, 0.4% + $0.25 per purchase, 0.6% FX outside USD), SolCard Virtual tier (5% top-up plus 1% to 2% FX).
| Card | Value |
|---|---|
| 0% FX | 30 cards |
| 0.01–1% | 22 cards |
| 1.01–2% | 49 cards |
| 2.01–3% | 16 cards |
| 3%+ | 4 cards |
The 0% bar is the one to distrust. 17 of the 30 cards in it charge for the conversion somewhere other than the FX line and 5 publish no rate for part of it; the table below says which. Cards whose FX line publishes no rate are left out of the chart rather than drawn at zero.
The 30 cards, one by one
Every obtainable card whose FX line reads 0% (list updated 5 November 2026), and where the cost of converting your money goes instead. Each note restates the card’s own terms as we last read them; the card page has the source and the date.
| Card | Where the cost goes | What the terms say |
|---|---|---|
| Bitpanda Card | Conversion fee or spread | Paying from crypto sells the asset first at Bitpanda’s trading fee (0.99% to 2.49% by asset); the card page says “VISA mark-up fees apply”, while the help centre says Bitpanda covers Visa’s fees |
| Bringin Card | Conversion fee or spread | 1% BTC-to-EUR conversion (the terms allow up to 3.5%) plus up to 0.5% spread; paying straight from the bitcoin account costs 1% per authorisation, and the card needs the €3.49 a month Pro plan |
| Wavecard | Conversion fee or spread | 1% BTC-to-EUR conversion plus about 0.5% spread inside the quoted BTC price |
| Wayex Australia Card | Conversion fee or spread | Spending from crypto pays the account’s conversion rate, 0.40% at the standard tier |
| SwissBorg Card | Conversion fee or spread | Crypto-to-fiat execution fees on every purchase; outside EUR, CHF and GBP “foreign exchange fees may apply” at no published rate |
| Trade Republic Card | Conversion fee or spread | 0% foreign exchange fees; paying with crypto converts it at 0.7% at the lowest tier |
| Kraken Card | Conversion fee or spread | Converting crypto, or a second fiat balance, at checkout costs a spread shown per transaction and never published as a rate |
| Coinbase Card | Conversion fee or spread | No fees in the US; on the UK and EEA card the cost is a conversion spread with no published rate |
| Wirex Card | Conversion fee or spread | The terms say exchange-rate “mark-ups or fees will apply” outside the card currency and name no percentage |
| Bitrefill Card | Fee to load the card | A fee on every crypto top-up: 1.99% on top of the exchange price per the help centre, “a variable spread” per the current pricing page |
| Kripi Card | Fee to load the card | 4% funding fee plus $1 on every load |
| OffGrid Card | Fee to load the card | No FX markup per the app FAQ; a top-up fee of 1% to 2.5% by tier and a yearly membership |
| Airtm Card | Fee to load the card | Up to 2% to load the card, on the first $200 loaded each month |
| Ether.fi Cash Card | Only some currencies | 0% on USD; the cardholder agreement charges 1% plus a tier margin of up to 0.5% on every other currency, and EUR at 0% rests on a help article that calls it beta |
| COCA Card | Only some currencies | 0% on direct pairs (USDT or USDC to USD, EURC to EUR); other pairs 0.5% to 1.5% |
| Deblock Card | Only some currencies | 0% on euro payments; from 11 November 2026 other currencies on Standard pay 0.5% on weekdays and 1% at weekends from the first euro, and a flat 1% past €1,000 in a 30-day cycle |
| Avici Card | Network fee passed on | No Avici fee, but Visa’s own cross-border fee of about 0.4% to 1% is passed on |
| CoinZoom Card | No rate published | Free FX on international transactions; any asset in the wallet is converted to USD at the till, at no published rate |
| El Dorado Card | No rate published | 0% on USD; the non-USD treatment is not disclosed |
| PokePay Card | No rate published | Claims “0% cross-border” but publishes no full fee schedule |
| ZAR Card | No rate published | 0% foreign fee; other fees vary by market and are shown only in the app |
| Fuse Card | No rate published | 0% international transaction fee in the Lead Bank cardholder agreement; Fuse does not publish the exchange rate applied to non-USD purchases |
| Bleap Card | Nothing else named | No Bleap exchange fee; the terms say Mastercard scheme and FX rates “may still apply” |
| Gemini Credit Card | Nothing else named | No foreign transaction fees; a US credit card, so nothing is converted from crypto at the till |
| Rebind Card | Nothing else named | Visa’s rate with no markup. Rebind’s current card is the Gnosis Pay card, which stops on 20 December 2026; users then move to a new Monavate programme with its own terms |
| Venmo Credit Card | Nothing else named | No foreign transaction fee; a US credit card |
| Xapo Bank Card | Nothing else named | 0% foreign exchange fees |
| Wealthsimple Card | Nothing else named | No FX markup; spends a CAD balance, so crypto is sold beforehand |
| MiniPay Card | Nothing else named | No MiniPay conversion fee; the card settles in USD and the terms say Visa’s rates and fees “may apply” |
| Fold Bitcoin Credit Card | Nothing else named | No FX fee in the cardholder agreement, while Fold’s rewards terms say the card may only be used for purchases in US dollars |
This list replaces a figure the page carried in some form since April 2026: “30 cards advertise 0% FX”, of which first 17 and later 15 were said to bury the cost. When I went back to it in September I could not rebuild the 30 or the 15 card by card, and the April catalogue held 139 cards, not the 141 the headline said. A ratio nobody can check does not belong here, so it is gone.
What the landing page says
The FX line is one row on a long fee schedule. Here is the marketing line next to what the same issuer’s own terms say:
| Card | What the issuer says up front | What the terms add |
|---|---|---|
| Crypto.com Visa | “Enjoy zero foreign exchange fees” (EEA card page) | Fee schedules read on 24 September 2026: 3% on non-USD spend on every US tier below Private. In the EEA and UK the entry tier pays 0.2% inside the EU and UK and 2% outside. From 1 October 2026 Plus and Pro also pay 0.2% inside the EU and UK and, outside, are free up to €400/£400 (Plus) or €800/£800 (Pro) a month, then 2%. Only the Private tiers pay no FX fee anywhere |
| Wirex | “Zero FX fees worldwide” | Outside the card currency, “applicable exchange rates … and any associated mark-ups or fees will apply”, with no percentage named |
| Kraken (Krak) | “We don’t charge FX fees when you spend in foreign currencies” | “Krak does include a spread in the price to sell the assets required to complete each transaction”, shown per purchase and never published as a rate |
| Bitrefill | “no foreign exchange fees” | A fee on every crypto top-up: 1.99% on top of the exchange price in the help centre, “a variable spread” on the current pricing page |
| Bybit (EEA) | Foreign exchange fee 1% (card landing page) | The fee table updated 8 October 2026 lists 0.5% FX, plus a 0.9% crypto conversion fee on every purchase funded with crypto, so 1.4% in all (1.9% at the landing page’s 1%). Elsewhere: 1.5% in Brazil, 2% in Mexico, Peru, Australia, Asia-Pacific and Georgia, 7% plus 0.5% conversion in Argentina |
Bybit is the plainest case of a price that depends on where you live. On the FX line alone, Argentina pays 7%, 14 times the 0.5% in the EEA fee table (7 times the 1% the landing page still prints). Count the conversion fee on crypto-funded spending and the gap is still about five times: 7.5% against 1.4%.
What one euro cost us
Everything above came from reading documents. To see what a purchase actually costs, I bought something priced at one euro on the Tria Card on 28 July 2026 and read the transaction screen. It now shows the purchase as completed.
The total came to $1.16. The European Central Bank reference rate that day was 1.1367 dollars per euro, so that is about 2% over the ECB rate. Tria’s screen names two charges, a 1% Visa FX fee and its own 0.50%. They add up exactly: Visa’s published rate for 28 July was 1.141999 dollars per euro, and 1.141999 plus 1% plus 0.50% comes to $1.159, the $1.16 on the screen. Tria added nothing it did not name.
The part no fee line names is Visa’s own rate: 0.47% above the ECB reference that day. Visa set that rate the night before, so against the latest ECB rate it had (1.1389, from 27 July) the gap was 0.27%, which is how Visa’s own calculator reports it. Either way, a “no markup” promise is measured against the network’s rate, so it does not cover that gap. For contrast, the other card I hold and spend on, the Ether.fi Cash Card, settled a €138.00 purchase on 4 August at 0.015% under the ECB reference, and below Visa’s published rate for that day. Both screens are below. The two cards side by side, on more than FX, are in Ether.fi vs Tria, and the rest of what we have measured ourselves is in advertised vs measured.
The 8 that name no other cost
These cards print 0% on the FX line and name no conversion, loading or currency charge anywhere in the terms we read. That is as far as reading goes: the rate the conversion runs at, the network’s or the issuer’s, is not a fee line in any of them.
- Bleap Card: No Bleap exchange fee; the terms say Mastercard scheme and FX rates “may still apply”.
- Gemini Credit Card: No foreign transaction fees; a US credit card, so nothing is converted from crypto at the till.
- Rebind Card: Visa’s rate with no markup. Rebind’s current card is the Gnosis Pay card, which stops on 20 December 2026; users then move to a new Monavate programme with its own terms.
- Venmo Credit Card: No foreign transaction fee; a US credit card.
- Xapo Bank Card: 0% foreign exchange fees.
- Wealthsimple Card: No FX markup; spends a CAD balance, so crypto is sold beforehand.
- MiniPay Card: No MiniPay conversion fee; the card settles in USD and the terms say Visa’s rates and fees “may apply”.
- Fold Bitcoin Credit Card: No FX fee in the cardholder agreement, while Fold’s rewards terms say the card may only be used for purchases in US dollars.
Three of them are US credit cards (Gemini, Venmo and Fold), which spend a dollar credit line rather than crypto, and one is a Canadian app (Wealthsimple) where crypto is sold into Canadian dollars before you spend. Two cards that used to sit on this list are gone. Bitpanda sells your crypto at its trading fee when you pay from a crypto balance and says Visa’s FX fees are added. The MetaMask Card qualified on its $199 Metal tier, and Metal orders have been paused since 2 June 2026. The free card charges 1% when the merchant is outside your country, plus 0.5% when you spend a stablecoin in neither your currency nor the merchant’s (no fee in Argentina), and the landing page mentions neither.
How to check any card yourself
- Find the fee schedule or cardholder terms. They are usually linked in the footer of the card’s website, often as a PDF.
- Search for conversion, spread, top-up, exchange rate and cross-border, and check which currencies the 0% actually covers.
- If the card is issued in the EU, ask for the total mark-up. Regulation (EU) 2021/1230 requires a card issuer to express its total currency-conversion charge as a percentage over the ECB reference rate, publish it, and send it to you after a purchase in another EU currency. It covers euro and other EU currencies only, not dollars or pounds.
You can filter 141 live cards on Sweepbase by FX fee and open each card’s page for the full schedule.
Our crypto card fees guide goes through every fee type. If you want a ranking that already counts FX cost in the score, read Top 10 crypto cards by real fees.
Methodology note
Every figure here comes from the card’s own row in our catalogue, which records the issuer’s fee schedule or terms as we last read them; each card page shows the source and the date. The FX rate of a card is the first rate its FX line charges on foreign spend: a fee on deposits, top-ups or ATM withdrawals does not count as FX, a range is read at its upper end, and a line that says the rate is not published gets no number and stays out of the averages and the chart.
The 30 cards in the list are the obtainable cards whose FX line reads 0% by that rule. A test keeps the list and that set equal, so a card that joins or leaves the 0% group has to be read and classified before the page builds. A network’s own cross-border fee counts as a cost when the issuer passes it on, as Avici says it does. Fees change, so check the live schedule before you apply for any card.
The Tria and Ether.fi figures are the exception: they were measured on purchases rather than read out of a document, against the ECB reference rate for the day and checked against Visa’s published rate for the same day. How we do that, and what we refuse to claim from a single purchase, is written up on how we test.
Why issuers do this and how to spot the next one
Editorial commentary from Mihail B., based on the fee schedules above and one measured purchase.
The economics behind it
The merchant is paid in fiat, and most issuers still settle with Visa or Mastercard in fiat (Visa now lets some US issuers settle in USDC, without changing anything for the cardholder). A card that spends crypto therefore has to sell it at some point, and that sale has a cost. It can land on the FX line, on a conversion line, on the top-up, or inside the rate. Taking “FX” off the landing page only moves it.
Where to look
In the list above the cost turns up in four places: a conversion fee or spread when crypto is sold at the till (Bitpanda, Bringin, Wavecard, Kraken, Wirex), a fee to load the card (Bitrefill, Kripi, OffGrid, Airtm), a 0% that covers only some currencies (Ether.fi, COCA, Deblock), or the network’s own fee passed on (Avici). Some cards simply publish no rate for part of the conversion (Fuse, CoinZoom, El Dorado). Even when none of that appears, the rate the conversion runs at can sit above the ECB reference, as Visa’s did by 0.47% on the day of our Tria purchase, and only a test purchase against the ECB rate will show it.
Regional pricing is the second trap
Bybit is not the only card priced by country. Binance charges 1% to 2% FX plus a 0.9% crypto conversion on its Brazil card, 6% to 7% plus Argentine taxes on its Argentina card, and 2% (3% in New Zealand) on its Global Program. Bitget publishes 1.7% on non-USD spending plus a 0.05% to 0.2% conversion fee for Asia-Pacific, and for everywhere else only a range of 1% to 2.2% with the exact rate in the app. My read is that the headline rate belongs to whichever market the issuer is pushing hardest. If you live anywhere else, your fee is in the regional schedule, so read the one for your country.
What we are tracking next
The list is re-read whenever a card in it is re-read, and the test above forces a new card into it the day its FX line reads 0%. The next measured purchases will be larger than one euro and compared with both the ECB and the network’s rate. And the EU rule on published mark-ups gives a number every EU-issued card should be able to state, which we will start asking for.
Frequently asked questions
Compare real FX fees across 141 live cards
Every card above has its own page with the live fee schedule, cashback rate and custody model. Filter the full catalog by region, network and fee structure.
Sources & references
This is what we read to write the guide: regulators, issuer fee schedules and archived snapshots. Not every sentence above has its own link here. If a number looks wrong, start with these.
- Regulation (EU) 2021/1230 on cross-border payments, Article 4, EUR-LexCard issuers must express total currency-conversion charges as a percentage mark-up over the ECB reference rate, publish it, and message the payer after a purchase in another EU currency.
- Euro foreign exchange reference rates, European Central BankThe benchmark used for the measured Tria and Ether.fi purchases.
- Visa exchange rate calculator, 28 July and 4 August 2026, VisaVisa’s published rate, which Visa describes as an indication of the rate you may receive: 1.141999 dollars per euro on 28 July and 1.155899 on 4 August, read with the fee set to 0.
- Currency Conversion Tool, MastercardMastercard’s daily rate before any issuer charge.
- Visa Launches Stablecoin Settlement in the United States (16 December 2025), VisaUS issuer and acquirer partners can settle with Visa in USDC, with no change to the cardholder experience.
- Regulation E. Electronic Fund Transfers, CFPB (12 CFR 1005)US disclosure and error-resolution rules for debit and prepaid cards. Credit cards fall under Regulation Z instead.
- Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA), ESMAEU crypto-asset framework, fully applicable since 30 December 2024. It covers the crypto side of a card; the card payment itself falls under payment and e-money rules.