A little more prepared

Some months ago I decided to add a second crypto VISA card to the one I had already. Someone told me about the crypto.com metal card which I thought was very cool and so I staked some CRO, just over $500AUD worth with crypto.com, applied, went through the verification processes, which was arduous, and waited...and waited...

My card finally arrived a couple days ago and it was boxed up in such a cool way I thought I'd share it. But first a little word on the card itself.

This card works like all VISA cards, wherever VISA is accepted around the world, ATM's and online. It's etched with my name on the front, hence my finger or thumb covering it in these photos, and on the back is the card number, CCV and signature panel.

One can load it with various fiat currencies and transfer from a fiat account to it directly. Pretty much the same as my Wirex VISA. It also pays me back a percentage-of-spend with CRO, the crypto.com token, when I use the card. Considering I use my current bank VISA debit card for most things I thought that would be a nice little bonus. Furthermore, when I pay my Spotify monthly fee on it, crypto.com pay me the equivalent value of $11.99 in AUD to my account as CRO. So...it's like free Spotify I guess.

There are a few different cards, different colours, however they have different benefits and returns like the addition of Netflix to that CRO-back benefit which would have been nice...But I didn't want to stake the higher amount of AUD they wanted, which was a lot, for the upper-end cards - considering the 180 day stake and all. There's also a card that doesn't require the stake, but it's plastic and...well, I went for the cool factor of the metal card because...metal!

The package

It arrived in a white unmarked envelope of course, but inside was this blue envelope and a welcome note. I was excited because usually they turn up glued to a letter with nothing nice about it. I flipped it over and zipped off the seal expecting to pull out a piece of carboard with the VISA card attached but no, it was more packaging and more exciting.

Inside the square envelope was a hexagon, the shape of the crypto.com logo, and it had a little light blue tab at the bottom...It was begging to have my fingers upon it, to be gently manipulated, so I placed my thumb and forefinger upon that tantalising little thing and applied some pressure, oh so lightly. It came (out).

A tray slid open and then another which you can see below. Nestled within that second tray was my card. OK, I'll admit that it was a very cool moment - I finally had my card.

From there I had to activate it via the crypto.com app, a simple process of entering the three-digit CCV number on the back of the card and I was done. Then one sets the PIN for the card, also on the app, and it's good to go. Of course, one has to load the card with funds, but I've been using the digital-card off my phone for a while so I already had funds on it. I'm yet to try out the physical card, but will over the next week or so and have no expectations of it not working.

I'll be regularly transferring fiat to my crypto-com card and using it on a day-to-day basis enjoying a little return-benefit that my bank doesn't give when I use my VISA debit card. I'm not one to use credit though and don't have a credit card as such, just the debit one, so I use my own money and pay no interest - I think that's smart, for a knucklehead.

I like to be prepared, any who know me well will know this. No, I'm not spending crypto-currency, I've worked too hard to gain it to sell it so cheaply with what I hope to be a good start to 2022 on the way. Who knows though, and this does not constitute financial advice. I just like to be prepared so I trade, speak to my accountant and work towards building my stack. Part of the preparation is knowing how to take it into the real world and have methods to do so set up and ready. That's why I got my WIREX VISA set up and why I added the crypto.com variation. There's other methods but these are fast.

That's about it folks, if you have any questions on comments you know where to put them and feel free to tell me about how you're preparing for what's to come from a crypto perspective...But only if you want to. If you want to be secret squirrel that's ok too.