Compare U-cards

Compare 22 U-cards (USDT cards) on fees, KYC requirements and ad use, with data from issuers' websites, checked 2026-11-10.

Showing 22 cards

Full comparison table

The table covers all 22 cards we track: 21 are active and one (DuPay) has announced on its website that the service is terminated. "Total cost" is the share lost when you open a first card, top up 1,000 USDT once and spend it at a merchant charging in a currency other than the card's. Click a card name for its review, with every fee and the full calculation.

Filter by the documents you hold

Documents are the first gate. Below, cards are grouped by the document types their official pages accept:

• National ID card: ether.fi Cash, Tevau.
• Passport: PokePay, ether.fi Cash, ExCards, Tevau.
• Passport + proof of address: ether.fi Cash, MetaMask Card, Wirex.
• Business documents (KYB): KAST, PhotonPay.

Complete KYC before topping up and only send funds once approved, so money doesn't get stuck in an unverified account.

Five steps to choose a card

1. Rule out cards you can't apply for using the KYC policy table, based on your residence and documents.
2. Pick your use case: ads, subscriptions or shopping.
3. Compare total cost at non-USD merchants in the table.
4. Open the card's review to check limits, top-up chains and minimum top-up.
5. Test with a small top-up and confirm arrival, charges and refunds before relying on it.

Choose by use case

Requirements differ a lot by use: ad buying needs bulk cards, high limits and platform compatibility; AI subscriptions need reliable small recurring charges and low issuance cost; online shopping needs low FX fees, 3DS and smooth refunds. Pick your use case first, then the card.

For growth teams, a U-card's value is turning stablecoin revenue straight into ad budget and using separate cards to keep spend for different ad accounts and projects apart. The trade-off is that top-up fees are usually higher than on personal cards, so the larger your monthly spend, the more each percentage point matters.

What a U-card is and how it works

A U-card is essentially a bank card issued by a licensed issuer, except that it is funded from crypto instead of a bank account. The typical flow: you pass identity verification (KYC) with the U-card platform and get a virtual or physical card; you send USDT from an exchange or wallet to the deposit address the platform gives you; the platform converts the USDT into the card's currency (usually US dollars) at its rate and credits your card balance; when you pay, the merchant requests authorization from the issuer over Visa or Mastercard, and the charge succeeds if your balance covers it.

Three parties are involved: the U-card platform (top-ups, conversion and the app), the issuing bank or programme manager (actual issuing and settlement), and the card network (Visa / Mastercard). Many platforms are only operators with a third-party issuer behind them, which is why our reviews list "issuer" and "licences" separately. The more fully a platform discloses these, the clearer it is who is accountable when something goes wrong.

U-cards also come in different forms. Prepaid is the most common: top up first, then spend until the balance runs out. Credit-style cards (such as ether.fi Cash and Bybit Card in some regions) base your limit on your on-chain or exchange assets and settle afterwards, possibly with interest. Self-custody cards (such as MetaMask Card) don't hold a balance at all — you approve a spending allowance from your own wallet. The three forms have different risks and fee structures. For a fuller introduction see what is a U-card, and for how they differ from traditional virtual cards see U-card vs VCC.

How to calculate total cost

Looking only at the issuance fee badly underestimates what a U-card costs. Between the exchange and the merchant, USDT typically passes through five steps that can each carry a fee:

1. On-chain transfer (gas): charged by the exchange or the chain when you withdraw; TRC20, ERC20, Solana and others differ a lot. Excluded from our worked examples.
2. Issuance fee: one-off; virtual cards range from 0 to tens of USDT, and some physical cards cost 100 USD.
3. Top-up fee: a percentage of the amount, sometimes plus a fixed fee — the main cost of many ad cards.
4. Spend or conversion fee: a conversion fee when paying directly with crypto, or a fixed fee per authorization.
5. FX fee: charged when the merchant bills in a currency other than the card's, commonly 0.5%–2% and sometimes higher at weekends.

Every review on this site uses this formula with the same assumptions (first card, one 1,000 USDT top-up, 10 purchases) and shows each step. That makes cards directly comparable: among cards with fully published fees, the same 1,000 USDT leaves about 990 dollars to spend at a foreign merchant on some and under 900 on others, and the gap comes mainly from top-up and FX fees, not issuance. For a step-by-step breakdown and common mistakes, see how to calculate U-card total cost.

Two more points. Top-up frequency amplifies fixed fees: if you only ever top up 100 USDT, "4% + 1 USD" becomes an effective 5%. And platforms often have a minimum top-up and minimum card balance; a minimum balance is not a fee, but it is money locked on the card.

Risks

We keep re-checking the data: when an issuer changes fees or document policy, the review's check date is updated and document-policy changes are appended to the change log at the bottom of the KYC policy table. If a number here doesn't match the official page, please tell us via the about page.

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