Whittled away in my apartment in Melbourne, Australia - safely removed from the current chaos surrounding most of the world right now, I received an unassuming envelope airmailed from Singapore.
My fascination (read; obsession) with rewards cards, trying new apps that promise to help optimise my cashflow and ultimately a desire to try out the latest products and apps brought out by startups over the past few years recently intersected my growing interest with cryptocurrencies.
This convergence resulted in way too many hours in Reddit and YouTube rabbit holes in which I feel like I re-lived the booms and busts of the past decade of Bitcoin. However, I generally felt none the wiser as to how I could actually go and spend the cryptocurrencies I had.
I’ve been interested in cryptocurrencies for years, riddling a family computer with every virus under the sun back in 2012 by trying to mine Bitcoin, before re-entering the fray in 2019.
So.. what’s with that card from Singapore?
While swathes of crypto-faithful spanning the globe have been patiently awaiting the arrival of their MCO card from Crypto.com (some for between 7–14), I had a comparatively seamless experience with their app and platform.
In early March I applied for an account and after sending through the appropriate documents, I was approved for an account.
Later in March I went ahead and purchased Bitcoin to convert into MCO coins to stake within the Crypto.com app. Lucky for me I decided to do this on the 12th March (which lined up perfectly with one of the largest daily drop in value in many cryptocurrency’s collective histories).
Regardless, I was still able to convert my BTC to MCO and successfully stake 50 coins which would entitle me to a shiny, solid-metal, Ruby MCO, VISA card.
Fast forward roughly one month and BOOM! my brand new card was in my hands and all I wanted to try out was spending it.
Did someone say cashback?
In what appears to have been perfect timing, Crypto.com announced an increase to their usual cashback rates on their MCO cards.
This meant that in addition to the 2% cashback for the Ruby card, I would be able to get up to 10% back on purchases through Uber Eats and 5% back when buying grocery store gift cards.
Out in the wild
The card really is cool (being all solid and made of a piece of metal), but I wanted to see how responsive it would be when out in the real world.
I funded the card with a combo of cash and selling some crypto before venturing out to my local grocery store — in this case Woolworths, which is one of the 2 major grocery stores across Australia.
In again, what would appear to be a brilliant twist of fate, Woolworths had just been listed for 10% cashback the day I went to pop out for my bi-weekly iso-snack stock up.
Cash. Back. (in MCO coins)
Just like that, within about 20 seconds of tapping the card at the checkout, I had a popup notification letting me know that I had $USD 3.33 of MCO credited to my wallet.
This was a similar experience to ordering dinner through Uber Eats and using the card as payment. Roughly 30 seconds after confirmation, I had about $USD 4 MCO added to my wallet.
So what’s the verdict?
While it’s definitely early days in my experience with my MCO card, I have so far been impressed. Support through the Crypto.com app has come through within a few hours and have always helped or taken on feedback.
I’ll be sure to keep an eye out when my Spotify subscription is paid next month and (hopefully) see the amount rebated in MCO (another perk of the Ruby card).
For more information about Crypto.com and the MCO card see: https://crypto.com/en/cards.html.
Crypto.com Referral code: zfpmyeveg5
If you’re interested in joining Crypto.com and staking MCO, my referral link will get you (and I) $USD 50 once you’ve signed up and stake 50 MCO. https://platinum.crypto.com/r/zfpmyeveg5
BTC: bc1qvpqk6zl4ujfex9zngjlurta7j8dtww56t40nec
ETH: 0xBe51272c38dd2210d97B901029C2FD23D7e673cA
