A crypto-funded virtual card that works, with fees worth reading twice

Updated October 2026

Licensed

Available in US

Fast payouts

18+ Only

If you have been searching for a card that spends your crypto directly, without the usual bank account in the middle, the Pay It Now card is a real thing with real users and a licence number. It is also a virtual-only Mastercard with no cash machine, a 1.5% charge on anything not priced in dollars, and a two-country eligibility rule that quietly narrows who can actually hold one. In this review I go through the card the way I would go through any financial product aimed at people who have options: what it says it does, what the small print does to the price, what happens when something goes wrong, and where the complaints cluster.

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

My verdict is this: 5.6 out of 10. That is not a rejection and not an endorsement. It is a card that does its single job competently, charges honestly for most of it, and asks you to accept one specific set of compromises — geography, virtual-only, no cash, dollar bias — in exchange for spending 50-plus coins directly.

The Score

Who this suits: someone living in New Zealand or Australia who already holds several different coins and wants to spend them without going through an exchange first. Who it does not suit: anyone who needs a physical card, a cash machine, a second currency, or who lives outside those two countries.

Will They Give You the Card

Only if you are a verified PIN Network user in New Zealand or Australia. That is the whole eligibility test as far as the public pages describe it: the card is available to PIN users in those two countries, and expansion “into other regions, including the U.S. and Europe” is being worked on rather than available.

This is the single most important line in the review for anyone else reading. The card is not a global product with country exceptions — it is a two-country product with a stated intention to grow. If you are in Europe, you are not eligible today, and you should not spend time on the rest of this page expecting otherwise.

There is a reason to read the eligibility rule the way you would read a bank’s list rather than a platform’s marketing line. Verification is not optional, and it happens in two separate places. Onboarding and ID verification happen inside the PIN Network, and then there is additional KYC through the card provider even if you have already completed PIN Network KYC. The stated time for this is “just a few minutes”. What documents are required, what proof of address is accepted, and what age you must be are not stated on the public pages, so I cannot tell you what to have ready — you should check the app itself.

One thing worth understanding is why country and citizenship get recorded separately. Sanctions screening and issuer risk policy are applied to citizenship and country of birth as well as to where you live, and that is why a card can be open to residents of one country and closed to citizens of another. I am not telling you how to get around that; I am telling you the rule exists and that the honest question to ask the company is which one they apply.

How to Get It

Five steps in the app, with verification twice. Open the PIN Network app, go to the Cards section, apply, complete the card provider’s KYC, then top up.

What you get is a virtual, reloadable prepaid Mastercard. There is no physical card, and physical cards are not available at this time. You can create multiple virtual cards, which is genuinely useful if you want to separate subscriptions or set a ceiling on one of them. The balance is USD, held as USDC. The card is issued by Immersve and distributed by Takeoff Media Limited — those are the two names to look for on your own statements, because the brand you sign up to is a front end rather than the institution that issues the card.

Nothing about app quality is claimed here. The store ratings could not be retrieved on 2026-10-21 because the store pages did not load, so I have no basis to tell you whether the app is well-built or not.

What It Really Costs

Issue it for 5.00 USDC, converted at a spread, and pay 1.5% on anything that is not priced in dollars. There is no annual fee, no monthly fee, and cancellation is free.

There is one tier. There is no paid upgrade to unlock higher limits, and there is no minimum balance requirement published that I could find.

Now the part that matters most: the spread is the real cost, and the card’s own page calls it the only conversion charge. The rate is shown in the app before you convert, which means the price of turning a volatile coin into a stable balance is visible but not fixed. A 1.5% transaction fee is applied on top of whatever the spread gives you. Per-KYC-level limits are not stated, so if you expect your limits to rise with your verification status, do not assume they will.

Three everyday payments, so the arithmetic is concrete:

• A USD 40 subscription in dollars costs 40 dollars of balance. That is the clean case: no transaction fee, only whatever spread you paid when you loaded.
• A EUR 25 subscription in euros costs the euro amount converted at the card’s rate, plus 1.5% of the transaction. The conversion line is the card’s, and the 1.5% is on top.
• A JPY 3,000 purchase in yen costs the yen amount converted at the card’s rate, plus 1.5%. This is the case people forget exists until the statement arrives — the card has one native currency and one penalty currency.

The word “limited time” on the free issue deserves one sentence of scepticism. It is the only cost in this table that is described as temporary, and it is 5.00 USDC. If you are still using this card in a year, assume you will be paying it.

How to Top It Up

From the PIN Wallet, with 50+ digital assets, converted to USDC. The assets named include BTC, ETH, SOL, USDT, TRX and BNB; the FAQ says 40+, the main pages say 50+, and I would take the lower number as the safer assumption. There is no separate deposit fee — the spread applies instead. The maximum top-up is USD 5,000 per day, matching the daily load limit. A minimum and any fiat top-up route are not stated.

This is where the card is strongest, and it is why the top-up criterion carries the highest mark I gave anything. If your crypto is spread across a dozen assets and you do not want to consolidate it at a single exchange first, being able to send what you already hold is a genuine convenience.

One technical warning that belongs at this point rather than buried. Deposits made through Web3 smart contracts take up to ten minutes, and blockchain transfers are irreversible. If you send on a network the provider does not support, or to an address belonging to a different network, the funds can be lost entirely or need manual support recovery with no guarantee attached. That is a property of the technology, not a quirk of this card, and it is the fastest way to lose money here.

Also note what “50+ assets” does not cover: the network matters as much as the coin. A wallet holding USDT but no ETH cannot send on Ethereum, because gas is paid only in ETH. Tron-based transfers burn TRX as fees. And “USDC over TRC20” is not a native option, because Circle stopped supporting USDC on Tron in February 2024. Check the supported network before you send, not after.

Paying With It Every Day

It is a virtual Mastercard, so it works anywhere cards work online, and it works in a phone wallet with one gap. Google Pay is compatible. Apple Pay is where the pause lands: since 11 May 2026, adding new cards is unavailable “until further notice”, while cards already in Apple Pay are unaffected. This applies to new Web3 Mastercards generally, not only to this card, and it is the most concrete operational problem in the whole product today.

Which categories are blocked is not stated. So I cannot tell you that gambling, adult content, fuel dispensers or anything else is refused — and equally, I cannot tell you they work. If a specific merchant matters to you, test it.

Google Pay is the practical path for now, and it is worth understanding why that is a real step up rather than cosmetic. When a card number is tokenised into a phone wallet, the real number is replaced by a device-specific account number stored in the Secure Element on the device, never on Apple’s servers, and each payment carries a one-time dynamic code. A card sitting in Google Pay is materially harder to extract from than a card number sitting in a photo.

There is no rewards programme that I could find, so treat any expectation of cashback as unfounded.

On the everyday mechanics of the card networks: a merchant looking at your payment sees an issuing institution and an issuer country. Where that country differs from your billing address, some merchants apply extra scrutiny or decline the payment outright, and prepaid cards get refused more often than bank-issued ones for the same reason. Address Verification Service, which checks the numeric parts of your billing address against the issuer’s records, is mainly offered in the US, Canada and the UK and is generally unavailable for foreign-issued cards — so online checkouts that fail on an address are a known failure mode for this kind of card. If an online payment does decline, a hold can remain on your funds for several days, typically up to seven. And where 3-D Secure is used, the issuer decides whether to wave you through or challenge you with a one-time code or a biometric check.

If something goes wrong with a transaction, the app has a Report button under the transaction, which opens a support ticket. The chargeback process and the time frames are not stated, so I would not rely on this as a safety net without asking.

What Can Go Wrong

The recurring complaint themes are support that does not answer, and money that goes missing. Those are the two things I would ask about in a call before loading anything substantial.

As of 11 May 2026, adding new cards to Apple Pay is paused. That one is official and current.

The rest comes from user reports on Trustpilot, and I am labelling it as such: the card is not confirmed by the company on any of these. Trustpilot showed 4.0 out of 5 from 13 reviews when I read it on 2026-10-21, with 77% of those reviews at five stars. The company has not replied to negative reviews. The report themes were unresponsive support (February, April and July 2026), unexplained loss of funds (July 2026), an unclear spread (April 2026), and delays with held transactions (February 2026).

Thirteen reviews is a very small sample, so I am not treating this as a statistical verdict. I am treating it as a list of what to ask about. A spread nobody can explain is worth pinning down before you convert anything large, because it is the one charge that has no published number attached.

On the company side, the structure is more reassuring than a single unknown brand. Pay It Now NZ LTD holds an NZ FSP, number 1002374. Pay It Now AUS PTY LTD holds AFSL 700050 and AUSTRAC DCE100820697-002. Takeoff Media Limited is an Authorised Representative, 1313795, and it holds the balance. Immersve is the card issuer under AFSL 545925.

The structural point is important and easy to miss: your balance is held by Takeoff Media, not by the card network, not by a bank. Whether that money is safeguarded — segregated, or insured — is not stated. Safeguarded e-money is not the same as a bank deposit, and you should not assume deposit-guarantee protection covers it. Ask.

Security features that do exist: cancel the card in-app, set a PIN, transaction monitoring, and a security guide at the company’s security centre. Support runs on tickets at support.payitnow.io with a status page at support.payitnow.io/status. No phone line. Languages and hours are not stated.

And the general category warning, which is worth reading whether or not you pick this card: card programmes do close. Visa terminated its global agreements with FTX on 13 November 2022 and the FTX US debit card was wound down. WaveCrest, a Visa issuer that supplied several crypto card brands, was suspended by Visa in Europe in 2018, closing all its Visa programmes. The usual sequence is a notice period, then loading and spending stop, then you are asked to withdraw what remains. Holds on funds after a decline can also persist for days. If a card holds your balance in a company’s name, understand that your exit is a withdrawal, not a claim.

Alternatives to Take Instead

Four other options, with the same questions asked of each.

CardFlow is the closest in shape: a virtual USD Mastercard created in 3 minutes, funded by Bitcoin, USDT, ETH or a naira bank transfer. The appeal is a free card creation. The problem is how little is published — no fee schedule, no country list, no networks named. A shorter version of a short list is that this is a younger-feeling proposition where the details are thinner.

HyperCard accepts USDT, BTC and ETH, converts them to USD or EUR on the card, and its App Store page describes acceptance in more than 176 countries. Read that carefully: acceptance is where the card is honoured, not who can hold it. The official pages give no country list. The card balance being multi-currency (USD or EUR) is the one thing here that addresses the dollar-bias problem I raised with Pay It Now.

Card.fi scores highest of the four at 6.6 out of 10, and it is the one to look at if you want a physical card or a reward. Virtual Classic is $49 and Virtual Premium $249 one-time; physical Classic, Premium and a stainless-steel metal version exist, and every physical order includes a virtual card. Cashback is the strongest in the field — 0.8% on Classic capped at 10 USDT a month, 1% on Premium, and on Metal either 1.2% capped at 10 USDT and 5,000 USDT or 2% capped at 250 USDT and 20,000 USDT, plus a headline 10% at coffee shops capped at 10 USDT a month, and “up to 18%” on balances, variable. Its costs are also the sharpest: Classic top-up 1.5% plus $1.00 and 3.5% FX; Premium 1% top-up and 2.5% FX. The conversion fee is shown before each top-up, which is the behaviour you want. It funds from 32 coins across 5 networks (Ethereum, Base, BNB Chain, Solana, Kaanch) with a deposit address per card, converted at market rate on arrival — and choosing the wrong chain risks permanent loss.

My honest read on the comparison: if you are in New Zealand or Australia and hold several coins, Pay It Now is the strongest of these on funding flexibility, and the price of its limits is lower than Card.fi’s. If you are anywhere else, none of these four is a straightforward answer, and Card.fi’s sanctions exclusion clause is the only one of the four that spells out its geography in a way you can check against your own nationality before you apply.

Who I Would Recommend It To

To three people, specifically.

You, if you live in New Zealand or Australia, already hold several coins across different assets, and want to spend them without an exchange in the middle. The 50-plus asset funding is the reason I scored this card 9 out of 10 on top-ups, and in my experience that is the feature people come back to, because consolidation is its own chore with its own fees.

You, if you are comfortable with a dollar balance and a virtual card. Google Pay covers the everyday case, the 1.5% only bites on non-dollar purchases, and USD 20,000 a day is far above what almost anyone spends in a month.

You, if you do not need cash, a plastic card in a wallet, a reward, or Apple Pay right now.

And to nobody if any of these are true. If you need to withdraw at a cash machine, this is not your card. If Apple Pay is your only realistic way to pay — which for some people it effectively is — then the pause since 11 May 2026 is disqualifying until it lifts. If you spend mostly in euros, pounds, or anything but dollars, you are paying 1.5% every time and the card is quietly wrong for your life. If you are outside New Zealand and Australia, there is no version of this to apply for. And if you cannot accept that your balance sits with a company rather than with a bank, and that safeguarding is not stated, then the structure itself is the problem.

Before you load anything, I would ask three questions in writing: what is the spread on the conversion I am about to do, is the balance safeguarded and how, and what is the current status of adding a new card to Apple Pay. Keep the answers.

Frequently asked questions

What is the Pay It Now card?

It is a virtual, reloadable prepaid Mastercard funded from crypto. You load USDC from the PIN Network wallet, the balance shows as USD, and you spend it wherever Mastercard is accepted. The card is issued by Immersve and distributed by Takeoff Media Limited. There is no physical card, and you can create several virtual ones from the same account.

How does the Pay It Now card work?

You convert crypto into USDC inside the app at the rate shown there, the amount loads onto a USD balance, and the Mastercard spends that balance. Deposits made through Web3 smart contracts can take up to ten minutes. It behaves like a prepaid card: it draws on stored value and cannot overdraw it, rather than pulling money from a linked bank account at the moment of purchase.

Who can get the Pay It Now card?

Only verified PIN Network users in New Zealand and Australia. Expansion “into other regions, including the U.S. and Europe” is described as being worked on, not available. There is one tier and no published citizenship-versus-residence distinction beyond that, so if you are elsewhere, this is not a card you can currently open.

Does the Pay It Now card require KYC?

Yes, twice over. You complete onboarding and ID verification with PIN Network, and then the card provider runs additional KYC even if you have already done PIN Network KYC. The stated time is “just a few minutes”. Which documents, what proof of address, and what minimum age apply are not stated on the public pages — I would check the app before starting.

How much does the Pay It Now card cost?

Issuing is 5.00 USDC, currently marked “FREE for a limited time”, taken from your app wallet balance. There is no annual fee and no monthly fee, and cancellation is free. Conversion to USDC carries a spread only, with the rate shown in the app, and there is no separate FX fee. The one flat extra charge is 1.5% on purchases in currencies other than USD.

What are the transaction and loading limits?

Transactions are capped at USD 20,000 per day and USD 100,000 per year. Loading is capped at USD 5,000 per day and USD 100,000 per year, and the maximum top-up matches that daily figure. There is one tier and no paid upgrade, and limits per KYC level are not stated — so do not assume your ceiling rises with your verification status.

Is the Pay It Now card safe?

It is licensed in both markets where it operates: NZ FSP 1002374 and AFSL 700050 with AUSTRAC DCE100820697-002, with the card issued under Immersve’s AFSL 545925. Safeguards include in-app cancellation, a PIN, transaction monitoring and a security guide. But your balance is held by Takeoff Media, and whether it is safeguarded is not stated — treat that as an open question, not a reassurance.

Is Pay It Now a bank?

No. It is a card front end over a programme: the balance is USDC held by a company, the card is issued by a licensed issuer, and Mastercard routes the payments. The practical difference from a bank account is that your money sits with counterparties, and if a programme is wound down you have to withdraw a balance rather than close an account.

Is the Pay It Now card free?

Card creation is 5.00 USDC, described as free for a limited time, so treat it as a small cost rather than a free one. There is no annual or monthly fee and no minimum-balance requirement published. What you do pay, invisibly, is the conversion spread on every load and 1.5% on every purchase that is not in US dollars.

Can I use the Pay It Now card in my country?

You can spend the card wherever Mastercard is accepted, so country acceptance is broad. What is narrow is eligibility: New Zealand and Australia only. If you are outside those two, you cannot hold one today, and the card’s own page lists the United States and Europe as expansion still in progress.

Where can I use the Pay It Now card, and can I add it to Apple Wallet?

Online and in stores wherever Mastercard is taken, plus Google Pay. Apple Pay is where the gap is: since 11 May 2026, adding new cards is unavailable “until further notice”, while cards already added keep working. This pause affects new Web3 Mastercards generally. Which merchant categories are blocked is not stated, so I would not promise any specific shop accepts it.

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