Free to hold, 0.99% per purchase — but read the fine print on eligibility, cashback and account freezes.

Updated October 2026

Licensed

Available in US

Fast payouts

18+ Only

The SwissBorg Card is one of the more interesting crypto cards I have looked at recently, mostly because of one simple fact: there is no issuance fee and no monthly or annual fee. You get a virtual Mastercard in the app, and it spends directly from crypto you already hold in the SwissBorg wallet — no separate card balance to top up, no separate card account to fund. What you pay for is the conversion: 0.99% on every purchase, and SwissBorg adds no currency-exchange fee of its own on top.

That is also where the complications start. The card is not available everywhere, it only spends from crypto rather than from fiat balances, and its Trustpilot score sits at 3.1 out of 5, with user reports focused on account freezes and slow support. So this is not a “just try it” card. It is a card for a particular reader: someone living in the EEA, Switzerland or the UK who wants a free virtual card, is comfortable holding crypto in a custodial wallet, and can handle the KYC process that gets in the way.

The conditions described below are current as of October 28, 2026.

Verdict: 6.2 / 10 — a good free card with sharp edges

Let me start with the number, because a score without the reasons behind it is not much use. I rate the SwissBorg Card 6.2 out of 10. That is not a round number and I am not going to round it. It reflects a card whose cost structure is genuinely excellent and whose practical usefulness is limited by where it lives, what it can spend from, and how the people using it describe the experience of holding an account.

Read that table row by row and you see the shape of the card. The Cost row is the reason I am not scoring this lower. The Top-up and Everyday use rows are the reason I am not scoring it higher. When you strip it away: this is an excellent-cost card that you can only spend from crypto, only get in three regions, and only hold as a virtual card in the phone for now.

Who suits it, plainly: EU, Swiss and UK residents who want a free virtual card and already hold crypto. Who it does not suit: anyone who wants a physical card today, anyone who needs cash from an ATM, anyone who wants to spend fiat balances sitting in the app, anyone outside the EEA/Switzerland/UK, and anyone who is uneasy about custodial storage or reads reviews before signing up for anything.

The rest of this page goes section by section: who gets the card, how you get it, what it really costs, how you top it up, how it behaves day to day, what can go wrong, and what to look at instead. I keep each piece of fact to the section it belongs to, so if you only care about fees, jump to the costs section.

Will they give you the card?

Yes, but only if you live in the right place — and “the right place” is a residence test, not a citizenship test. The card is available to residents of the EEA (30 countries: Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden), Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. Eligibility is framed by residence — the card states the requirement as “Reside in one of the following countries.”

Two practical points follow from that. First, if you are a citizen of one of these countries but live somewhere else, residence is what the card lists, so that is the test to look at. Second, there is a restricted-countries list that the card cannot be used in, and it includes Russia and Belarus — both appear on that list alongside Afghanistan and others. So if you are one of the many people who hold a European citizenship but reside in Russia or Belarus, this card is not for you, and no amount of KYC will change that.

That is the whole eligibility story, and it is short enough to check in a minute. If your address is in the EEA, Switzerland or the UK, keep reading. If not, this page is mostly academic, and the alternatives section is where your time is better spent.

How to get it

The route is a straightforward app signup, but there is a gate in the middle that catches people out: KYC Level 2. Let me walk through it in the order the card gives.

1. Download the SwissBorg app (iOS/iPhone or Android).
2. Open a personal account and complete KYC Level 2.
3. In the app, tap Card on the Portfolio screen and accept the terms.
4. Choose a primary cryptocurrency — and the virtual card is ready instantly.

KYC Level 2 means a verified photo ID and a verified proof of address, and you must be at least 18 years old. That is the standard EU-style identity check. I will not walk you around it; it is a lawful identity requirement and there is no version of this review that helps you avoid it.

It helps to know how the account levels stack, because the level sets your limits. Platform-wide: Level 1 has a cumulative deposit/withdrawal limit of EUR 5,000; Level 2 has EUR 50,000 deposit in and EUR 1,000,000 withdrawal out; Level 3 is unlimited. Note that the card requires Level 2 specifically. One caution on sourcing: a third-party site (Card Pilled, last verified 2026-10-16) describes these KYC-level limits somewhat differently, including a Level 2 “EUR 50,000 in/out”; treat that unofficial summary as unofficial and not confirmed by the card. The card’s own public pages do not state processing times or the reasons for rejection.

One thing to set expectations on: the card is a Mastercard debit card, and the base currency is EUR, CHF or GBP depending on your country of residence — you cannot change it after issuance. The card is virtual only for now; a physical card is planned for a later phase. I will come back to what that means in practice in the costs and everyday-use sections, but the headline is: you are getting a card number in your phone, not a piece of plastic in the post.

Fees and what they really cost: the costs table

This is the strongest part of the card, so I will spend some time on it. The headline is genuinely free: no issuance fee, and no service or annual fees for the virtual card. What you pay is per transaction, and it is one line item — the crypto conversion.

Two of those rows deserve your attention. The spend limits row says “figures not stated publicly,” and that is exactly what the card’s own pages say — the limits are “subject to regulatory requirements and risk assessments and may be adjusted at any time.” That is an unusually open-ended phrase. It means you should not assume any particular daily cap will be there for you; ask support before you rely on the card for something big. The same openness applies to the number of transactions per day or month.

Now, the currency point, because it is the one people get wrong. If your card’s base currency is EUR and you pay something in a currency other than EUR, the conversion uses the Mastercard exchange rate, and SwissBorg does not add its own FX commission on top. So your total cost on a foreign-currency purchase is the 0.99% crypto conversion plus whatever spread the Mastercard rate carries. There is no separate line item to fear from SwissBorg itself.

Let me make the 0.99% concrete with two or three everyday payments, so you can see what it feels like rather than just read a percentage. (All of these are illustrative of how the stated percentage works on a purchase amount — I am not inventing rates, just showing what the card’s own 0.99% conversion charge does to a typical basket.)

A coffee. Say a 4.00 EUR coffee. The 0.99% conversion on 4.00 is about 0.04, so roughly 4.04 EUR total, plus whatever the merchant or network does at the till. Small in absolute terms; the percentage is doing almost nothing here.

A weekly grocery run. A 60.00 EUR shop. 0.99% of 60.00 is about 0.59, so around 60.59 EUR. Still comfortable — this is the kind of purchase where the fee disappears into the total.

A larger online purchase, in a currency that is not your base. A 200.00 EUR flight paid in, say, a non-EUR currency while your card is EUR-based. 0.99% of 200.00 is about 1.98, so about 201.98 EUR, and then the Mastercard exchange rate applies to the currency mismatch on top. This is the case where the fee actually registers, and it is exactly the case where you would want to hold a matching balance if you could — which, as the top-up section explains, you cannot do in fiat.

So: no monthly bill to check, no fee for holding, one percentage per purchase, and no SwissBorg FX markup. If cost is the thing you care most about, this card scores well. The catch is not the price — it is what the card spends from and where you can get it.

One more thing in the cost picture that belongs here because people discover it late: cashback. Cashback is paid in BORG tokens, calculated as a percentage of the exchange fee on each card purchase, and the rate depends on your Loyalty Rank — Standard 5%, Bronze 15%, Silver 30%, Gold 50%, Platinum 65%, Diamond 80%, Elite 90%. Two honest caveats: the BORG rewards are locked for a certain period under the “Paid to Trade” program, so cashback is not immediately yours to move; and cashback is not guaranteed — SwissBorg reserves the right to modify, suspend or discontinue it at any time. Treat cashback as a small upside, not a reason to choose the card. Note also how the reward is calculated: it is a share of the exchange fee, not of your spend, so the absolute cashback on any given purchase is small.

How to top it up: you don’t, in the usual sense

This is the part I think most people will find either liberating or baffling, depending on where they come from. There is no separate top-up for this card. It spends directly from the crypto balances you hold in the SwissBorg wallet. No pre-loading, no card balance, no “top up and then use.”

The cryptocurrencies you can spend from are BTC, ETH, SOL, BORG, USDC, USDG, EUROP and TGBP. You pick a primary cryptocurrency, and you can set optional backup currencies; if your primary balance is not enough, the system dynamically picks a backup to cover the difference. That auto-switch is genuinely useful, because it means a payment does not simply fail because one coin ran low — though you should still keep an eye on which coin is doing the work, since the conversion happens at the moment of the transaction.

Here is the rule that catches out people with a conventional banking mindset: fiat balances cannot be used with the card. If you have EUR, CHF or GBP sitting in the app, that money is not what the card spends. The card spends from crypto. This is not a small technicality — it is the central design choice of the whole product, and it is why the card is a “crypto card” in the literal sense rather than a normal debit card that happens to have crypto features.

If you want to move money into the app itself, here is how the deposit options differ, because they are not equal:

• Crypto deposits: free. You pay only the sending platform’s or network’s gas fee, not SwissBorg.
• Bank transfer deposits: free. Your sending bank may charge you.
• Card / Apple Pay / Google Pay deposits: charged. In standard countries (most of the EU) 2.25%–1.5% depending on your rank; internationally (for example the UK and Switzerland) 4.5%–3.75% by rank. Minimum deposit €10, and a minimum fee of €5 (Standard, Bronze) or €3 (Silver–Elite).

So topping the app up with fiat from a bank is the free route; topping it up by card is the expensive one. Since the card spends from crypto, you would typically fund the app by bank transfer and convert within the app, or deposit crypto you already hold.

One more money-movement fact, because closing an account is a thing people worry about: on account closure, funds held on the card are redeemable for up to 6 years, after which point (12 months from the end of the agreement) a monthly maintenance fee is deducted; and if you end the agreement within 6 months, a closure fee may apply. Refunds from purchases go back to your fiat account in the card’s base currency.

Paying with it every day

Day-to-day use is where this card is at its most useful and, at the same time, at its most constrained. The good: the virtual card is available instantly, Apple Pay and Google Pay are both supported, and Curve is supported too. Apple Pay was initially available in Switzerland and France and requires the latest app version plus KYC Level 2. In other words, for many people the fastest way to use this card is not the card number itself but your phone’s wallet.

The constrained: there is no physical card yet, and there are no ATMs. Cash withdrawals at ATMs are “not initially available” and the feature “might be considered in a future iteration”; ATM balance checks are also not currently available. If a meaningful part of your spending is cash — some countries and some people — that is a real gap, not a rounding error.

There are also merchant categories you cannot use the card for. Prohibited are gambling and betting, adult content and services, cryptocurrency purchases, financial services such as money transfers, illegal goods (drugs, weapons), cash advances, and certain government services. Some of these are legal and routine categories — buying something crypto-related with the card, or paying a money transfer, will simply be declined. Read that list before you assume the card is a universal everyday card, because “it was declined” usually means the merchant’s category is on this list.

The security controls on a normal purchase are standard and reasonable: 3D Secure (3DS) for online transactions with in-app biometric approval, and instant card freeze/unfreeze in the app. If your virtual card is stolen or you think it is compromised, the stated route is to freeze it via the app or contact [email protected].

One thing about everyday use that trips people up is how a dispute or refund works, because it is not instant and it has a clock on it. Cardholders must contact SwissBorg through the app (Profile > Support) or by email ([email protected]) within 8 weeks of the transaction date. SwissBorg will then assist with resolving the dispute or forward it to the card network. If a refund is due — for instance where the merchant did not specify an exact amount and it exceeded reasonable expectations — it is credited within 10 business days of receiving the claim or further information. There is a defined liability cap for unauthorised transactions: EUR 50 if the card is lost, stolen or misappropriated, except where fraud or gross negligence applies; you must report without undue delay and no later than 13 months. And note this: refunds land in your fiat account in the card’s base currency, and the original crypto-to-fiat conversion fees are not refunded. So a refund returns the money, not the fee you paid to get it. Keep that in mind if you are deciding whether a given purchase is worth making with the card.

What can go wrong

This section is the honest one, and it is the reason the card’s overall score is not higher than it is. There are three distinct problems: a regulatory fine against the issuer, a pattern of user complaints, and the general custodial risk that comes with this whole category.

The issuer was fined. The card issuer is UAB Monavate, incorporated in Lithuania and authorised by the Bank of Lithuania to issue electronic money and provide payment services. On 2025-11-25, the Bank of Lithuania fined UAB Monavate €270,000 with a warning for breaches related to AML, management and reporting obligations. I want to be careful and fair about what this means: it is a fine against the issuing bank, for compliance failures, not a fraud finding against you or a sign your funds are unsafe. But it is a real, recent, named regulatory action against the entity that stands behind your card, and you are entitled to weigh it.

Users report freezes and slow support. The complaint pattern on Trustpilot (a TrustScore of 3.1 out of 5, from roughly 1,900 reviews) and across Reddit and Google Play reviews, throughout 2025–2026, clusters into three themes: (1) account freezes and restrictions, with funds held and accounts blocked after deposits sometimes taking weeks to resolve, without clear explanation; (2) slow or unresponsive customer support, with tickets unanswered for days or weeks; (3) card/Apple Pay/Google Pay deposit cooldown periods, where funds are locked during mandatory security holding periods after a deposit. These are user reports, not adjudicated facts, and complaints pages skew negative by nature. But they are consistent enough, and they line up with the fine, that I would not ignore them. If you are someone for whom a frozen account is a crisis, this is the single most important thing on this page.

Custodial risk is real. The funds are held in the SwissBorg wallet — this is a custodial setup, not self-custody. That means SwissBorg holds the keys, and you are trusting the platform. Custodial platforms have a history of failing: Mt. Gox (about US$350 million reported stolen, 2011–2014), Coincheck (about US$400 million, 2018), and Ronin Network (US$625 million, 2022) are the standard examples. I am not saying SwissBorg is any of those. I am saying the category carries counterparty and hack risk, and this card sits squarely in it.

Worth knowing on protection: funds on the card are not protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (that is a bank-deposit guarantee, and this is e-money). Monavate follows the Electronic Money Regulations 2011 for safeguarding. That is a real safeguard framework, but it is not the same as a bank deposit guarantee, and you should not read it as one.

Finally, the wider regulatory backdrop, briefly, because it explains some of the freezes: EU anti-money-laundering rules require due diligence covering identity, address, sanctions screening and politically-exposed-person checks, with ongoing monitoring. If due diligence cannot be completed, EU rules require the institution to refrain from the transaction or relationship and, where necessary, end existing relationships. That is the legal machinery behind “account frozen pending documents.” It is the system working as designed — but from your side it looks exactly like the complaint theme above.

What to take instead

If the SwissBorg Card’s cost or geography does not fit you, there are three comparable crypto cards worth at least a look, and I include their scores so you can see where they sit. None of these is a recommendation to switch; they are alternatives to weigh against your own situation.

A few honest notes on reading that table. Stella scores marginally higher than SwissBorg (6.5 vs 6.2), but a large part of that is not the card — it is that SwissBorg carries the Monavate fine and the 3.1 Trustpilot, which pull it down. Whop and UniFi both operate largely on US rails and so solve a different problem (US access) that SwissBorg does not; if you are in the US, this whole page is largely irrelevant and you should look at those. UniFi also does not clearly state its fees or card details, which is a reason for caution rather than confidence. Across all three, a recurring theme is that key details — card currency, exact fees, eligible countries — are simply not stated, which is its own kind of warning. And every one of them is custodial, so the underlying risk in the previous section applies to any of these choices.

The broader point about this category, if it helps your decision: Visa and Mastercard do not issue crypto cards to consumers themselves; they license issuers and can suspend a programme. There is precedent for programmes ending — Visa terminated its global agreements with FTX in November 2022, and WaveCrest, a Visa card issuer that supplied crypto card brands, was suspended by Visa in Europe in 2018, closing all its Visa programmes. So when you pick a crypto card, you are picking a specific issuer programme that can be wound down, not just a brand.

Who I would recommend it to

After all of that, here is who I think this card is genuinely good for, and who I would point elsewhere.

I would recommend the SwissBorg Card to you if: you live in the EEA, Switzerland or the UK (by residence); you are 18 or over and willing to complete KYC Level 2 with a verified photo ID and address; you already hold some of the supported crypto (BTC, ETH, SOL, BORG, USDC, USDG, EUROP or TGBP) and are comfortable spending from crypto rather than from cash balances; you mainly pay online or by phone (Apple Pay, Google Pay) rather than take out cash; and you want a card with no issuance or annual fee. If all of that describes you, this is a legitimately good, low-cost card and the 9/10 I gave cost is real.

I would point you elsewhere if: you need a physical card today (it is only planned); you rely on ATMs (not available); you want to spend fiat balances you already hold in the app (the card cannot); you are outside the EEA/Switzerland/UK, or reside in Russia or Belarus; you want to hold funds with bank-deposit-style compensation (this is e-money, not covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme); or you are the kind of person for whom a frozen account would be a serious problem, in which case read the complaints section again before you deposit anything.

My one-line verdict: an unusually cheap card to hold and use, wrapped in a product that asks you to be comfortable with custodial crypto, a limited region, a crypto-only spending model, and a support record that is currently its weakest part. That combination is why this lands at 6.2 out of 10 rather than higher or lower — and it is a score I would be comfortable defending either way.

Frequently asked questions

What is the SwissBorg Card?

The SwissBorg Card is a virtual Mastercard debit card that spends directly from crypto balances held in the SwissBorg app, so you do not fund a separate card balance. You get a card number in the app instantly and can add it to Apple Pay or Google Pay. It is free to issue and carries no annual or service fee, and each purchase carries a 0.99% crypto-to-fiat conversion fee.

How does the SwissBorg Card work?

When you pay, the card converts crypto from your SwissBorg wallet into fiat at the moment of the transaction, in real time via the Meta-Exchange, and charges 0.99%. You choose a primary cryptocurrency and optional backups, and the system switches to a backup automatically if the primary balance is short. A key point: it spends from crypto only, so fiat balances in the app cannot be used for card payments.

Is SwissBorg a bank?

No — it is a platform, not a bank. The app is owned by SBorg SA in Lausanne, Switzerland, and the card itself is issued by UAB Monavate, a Lithuanian institution authorised by the Bank of Lithuania to issue electronic money and provide payment services. Money on the card is e-money safeguarded under the Electronic Money Regulations 2011, not a bank deposit, and it is not covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.

Do I need to pass KYC to get the card?

Yes. The card requires KYC Level 2, which means a verified photo ID and a verified proof of address, and you must be 18 or older. You complete this by opening a personal account in the app before tapping Card on the Portfolio screen and choosing a primary cryptocurrency. Platform levels are Level 1 (EUR 5,000 cumulative limit), Level 2 (EUR 50,000 in, EUR 1,000,000 out) and Level 3 (unlimited); the card needs Level 2.

How much does the SwissBorg Card cost to use?

There is no issuance fee and no service or annual fee. Each purchase costs a 0.99% crypto-to-fiat conversion fee, and a real-time market-liquidity adjustment may also apply. SwissBorg adds no separate FX fee, but if you pay in a currency other than your card’s base currency (EUR, CHF or GBP, fixed at issuance), the Mastercard exchange rate applies. ATM withdrawals are not initially available.

Can I top up the card with fiat?

Not directly — the card spends from crypto, and fiat balances in the app cannot fund it. To add money to the app itself, a bank transfer is free (your bank may charge), crypto deposits are free (you pay network gas), and card/Apple Pay/Google Pay deposits are charged: 2.25%–1.5% in most EU countries or 4.5%–3.75% in international markets like the UK and Switzerland, by rank, with a €10 minimum deposit.

Where can I use the SwissBorg Card, and can I use cash?

You can use the card online, in stores, and via Apple Pay and Google Pay, wherever Mastercard is accepted and the merchant category is allowed. Cash is the weak point: ATM withdrawals are not initially available and ATM balance checks are not currently available, so if you rely on taking out cash, this is not the card for you. A physical card is planned for a future phase but is not available now.

Is the SwissBorg Card safe?

It uses standard safeguards: 3D Secure with in-app biometric approval, instant card freeze/unfreeze, and tokenised mobile wallets. Because it is custodial, your crypto is held by the platform, so you carry counterparty and hack risk; funds are not covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. You should also weigh that the card’s issuer, UAB Monavate, was fined €270,000 with a warning by the Bank of Lithuania on 2025-11-25 for AML, management and reporting breaches.

Is the SwissBorg Card free?

Yes, to hold: there is no issuance fee and no annual or service fee. It is not free to spend from without cost — every purchase carries a 0.99% conversion fee, and topping the app up by card is charged as well. The genuinely free parts are the card itself and bank-transfer deposits to the app, so the “free” label is accurate for holding the card but not for using it intensively.

Is the SwissBorg Card worth it?

For an EEA, Swiss or UK resident who already holds crypto, pays mainly online, and wants a no-fee virtual card, yes — the cost is hard to argue with. It is less worth it if you need a physical card, cash from ATMs, fiat spending from the app, or if unresolved account freezes and slow support would worry you; the 3.1/5 Trustpilot score reflects real recurring complaints about exactly that, so read the risk section before deciding.

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