I officially recommend the Coinbase *Credit* Card! In addition to the existing Coinbase Debit Card

I officially recommend the Coinbase credit card, which is new. It just came out in addition to the existing Coinbase debit card, which I still recommend as well. So, I've been trying out this new Coinbase credit card for a couple weeks now, and I did a video where I compare the Coinbase credit card and the Coinbase debit card and give the pros and cons of each. If I remember, I will paste a link to that in the comments, but I don't know if I'll remember to do that. If I don't, someone please do it for me. Um, but I officially recommend the Coinbased credit card. I've played with it enough. I've used it enough. And you know, the the I've gotten comfortable with how I plan to use it. So, I want to walk you through that. So, first of all, as a quick recap, the Coinbase credit card is a credit card, not a debit card, but it pays uh uh between 2% and 4% back on your Bitcoin balance. Although to get 3% or 4% you have to have a ridiculously high balance uh on Coinbase of either $50,000 or $200,000. Neither of which I would ever recommend to anyone to have on a centralized controlled uh exchange. So uh I don't intend to ever get the 4% level on Coinbase because having $200,000 on Coinbase is ridiculous. Whether or not you have that much Bitcoin, keeping it in that location where hackers and scammers could potentially get to it or the government could seize it or freeze it just there makes it's just no sense in doing that. Uh that being said, you can get 2% back in Bitcoin on every purchase no matter what. And if your bank account, sorry, if your Coinbase balance is above $10,000, it bumps up to 2.5%. So, for the purposes of this video, we're going to be talking entirely about the 2% or 2 and a.5% level, which either means you have zero assets on Coinbase or anywhere from 0%, sorry, zero assets up to $10,000, you get 2%. If your balance on Coinbase of total cryptocurrency assets, which of course the only one worth owning is Bitcoin, then if that is above $10,000, you get 2 and a.5% back. Again, that's as compared to the Coinbase debit card, which only gives you 0.5% back. So, the difference in my case, because my balance is just above $10,000, uh the difference for me is the difference between 0.5% back and 2.5% back. It's a full two percentage points. And of course, the moment you get that Bitcoin back, it starts appreciating the same way Bitcoin does over time. So what starts as 2% of every purchase could easily within 12 months or 18 months turn into 4% of every purchase in retrospect because that 2% grew with the price of Bitcoin. It's just quite compelling. Um so the way I have it configured is I have it configured uh to pay with from my Bitcoin balance. Now, if you are just starting out, I would do not recommend you pay from your Bitcoin balance because you're going to wake up one day and realize you liquidated all your Bitcoin because your credit card paid the bill and boom, your Bitcoin's gone. Um, in my case, I have no choice because all of the US dollars that would have been used to pay future bills have already been committed uh converted to Bitcoin. So, I don't I don't have US dollars to pay a credit card bill. Literally, if I linked if I set that credit card to pay from any bank account I own or have control over, it would literally fail. The bankd draft would fail to pay the balance and I would start accu acrewing interest, which I'm never going to do. Um, so the only balance it can pay from is my Bitcoin balance. And again, my plan is to keep that Bitcoin balance just above $10,000 so that I get 2 and a.5% and it needs to be, you know, at least five or $8,000 anyway, just to make sure I don't accidentally not pay a monthly credit card bill, especially if I'm putting, you know, international flights and, you know, stuff that's more expensive on that credit card. And my plan is to do that. My plan is to put all the expensive stuff, basically everything on the Coinbase credit card so I can get 2 and a.5% back. And then every time it autopays the credit card bill, I will go move some Bitcoin from BitKey over to Coinbase uh so that my balance is still above $10,000 so that I get the 2 and 1 half% and also I don't risk uh failing to pay the next credit card bill which again is going to require I don't know 4,000 5,000 7,000 depending on the month. Uh, also if you have more on Coinbase than you know you need in the near term, you can move it over to Coinbase vault. Uh, I believe to enable the vault function, you have to do that from a computer, not a phone. Uh so the mo I don't think the mobile uh the mobile app will allow you to enable uh to enable the vault function, but once you enable it, you can move money back and forth in and out of the vault from your phone, but there's a 48 hour waiting period no matter what, which is the whole point. The whole point of the vault is to ma make sure that if somebody compromises your account that they cannot clean it out. In fact, moving money in and out of the vault requires uh not only a 48 hour waiting period, it also requires approval from two different email addresses. So, hackers would have to um compromise two different email accounts and keep you from realizing your account had been compromised for 48 full hours. uh the whole time of course Coinbase is sending you push notifications, you know, text messages, whatever else to remind you that it has uh the vault, the money from the vault or Bitcoin from the vault is being moved to your primary balance. So, if you have more in Coinbase than you think will be necessary to pay a credit card bill, definitely turn on Coinbase Vault to make sure it doesn't get cleaned out by hackers and scammers if your account gets compromised. Um, that being said, I certainly would not. The only reason I'm comfortable having a little more than $10,000 in Coinbase is because I've said for a long time that I recommend people get BitKey once their balance balance is somewhere between5 and $10,000. So, historically, I've been comfortable with people having up to $10,000 on Coinbase or River. Uh because at that point, you know, $150 for a bit key is equal to 1.5% of the balance. So obviously a and at $5,000 one you know $150 is equal to 3% of the total balance. So if you have less than $5,000 you don't want to spend more than 3% of all your bitcoin just to buy a bit key. But again so historically I've typically said if your balance is more than5 or $10,000 you should have it on bit key and not just sitting there on river or coinbase waiting for a hacker or a scammer to potentially compromise your account. Now, Coinbase has Coinbase Vault, which certainly helps with hackers and scammers. Uh, River has River Forcefield. It's called Forcefield, like Star Wars or something. Uh, and Forcefield does the same thing. I think it's got a five-day unlock. So, you know, it takes 5 days to move money out of Forcefield or to disable Forcefield, which again helps with hackers and scammers. So, for all of those reasons, um, you know, I'm generally comfortable with less than $10,000 anyway. So, if I'm comfortable with up to $10,000, well, heck, I'm also comfortable with $11,000 in my case just so I can get 2 and 12% back on the Coinbase credit card rather than 2% back because I figure what, it's an extra thousand or two. Um, but anyway, I certainly don't recommend and I only recommend that if you have a lot of Bitcoin, if you have a lot of Bitcoin, in my case, if my Coinbase account gets compromised and there's $11,000 in there for me, so what? That was a risk I took. I took it knowingly and I'm comfortable with it because again $11,000 is a small percent of my total Bitcoin. And you know it's a loable amount. It's certainly way more than walking around money. It's certainly an amount that would be painful. But it would also be an amount that on a riskreward perspective since I have to have a balance of at least, you know, 6 or 8,000 in there anyway to make sure that the credit card bill always pays every month. the difference between 6 or 8,000 in there anyway to make sure the credit card bill never fails to pay out of my Bitcoin balance and the few extra thousand to bump it above 10,000 to get the extra half a percent interest um not interest sorry the half a percent extra cash back on every uh credit card purchase seems like it's you know worth it to get the extra half a percent. Um, but again, that's only because I can absolutely afford having that amount of Bitcoin get hacked or scammed, and it's worth it for me to get the extra half a percent off on what I spend. Okay, so with that being said, I do recommend the Coinbased credit card. It seems like an elegant way uh for people to build some extra Bitcoin. Obviously, you're never going to build the kind of Bitcoin wealth you want to build at only, you know, 2% of your spending. That would take forever. So, uh, you absolutely need to be buying Bitcoin, not just spending US dollars and getting it, you know, on the side 2% at a time. Uh, but if you're buying Bitcoin anyway, and you're spending US dollars anywhere anyway, it's a shame not to get the extra 2% or 2 and a half% uh, uh, in addition to all the other ways you're accumulating Bitcoin. So, that's what I'm doing. I'm keeping a balance just above $10,000. um if I don't any amount I don't need is in Coinbase vault which gives it extra security at Coinbase but it's still it's still obviously in your total balance that's used to calculate uh the return you get on uh or the return the Bitcoin back it still counts toward that even if it's in the vault and um and the one thing I'm not doing is I'm not carrying physically the Coinbase credit card with me um for two reasons one the it is a metal card And metal cards weigh 17 grams as opposed to plastic cards which weigh five grams. And I am a minimalist. I try to have as little on me and as few things on me and as lightweight on me as possible at all times. And so I'm not going to carry an extra 12 g. Uh because I use a phone case and the I have the iPhone 17 Air, the lightest iPhone that Apple makes. I have the iPhone 17 Air with the lightest case you can get on the internet. And the only thing in that case is my driver's license and one payment card and that's all I carry on me. And then I carry, you know, AirPod Pro head headphones. Uh I carry the AirPod Pro 2s. I tried the AirPod Pro 3s, but they don't fit my ears as well. Although they fit most people's ears better. My ears, I guess, are unique in that the AirPod Pros 2 uh work better. So, initially I got AirPod Pro 3s, but I ultimately traded them back to my son and gave him the threes and took back my AirPod Pro 2s cuz they fit my ears better. He says the threes fit his ears better. So, the only thing I ever carry on my person is my phone, which has a a super lightweight wallet case, which has my driver's license and a Coinbase payment card in it. Um, and then my Apple AirPods. Uh, and that's it. Like that's the only thing I ever carry on my person. Uh my Tesla drives itself. Uh I can use either my phone or my Apple Watch. I guess I have an Apple Watch so I guess that counts as another thing. Although it's not in my pockets, but I can start and well Teslas don't start per se. They're just automatically on. I can drive my Tesla with just my Apple Watch or I can drive it with just my phone. So I have a backup redundant system there. um where, you know, I'm not going to get stranded because my phone runs out of battery because I can use my Apple Watch to drive my Tesla. Uh so anyway, with that level of extreme minimalism, um it makes sense to not carry the extra 12 grams of a metal card. So I have the uh Coinbase debit card, which is a plastic card, which directly spins Bitcoin from my balance. It does not acrew it like a credit card and then pay it once a month. It pays it real time. I have the debit card, which I keep in my wallet case, and then I have the credit card saved for Apple Pay and all of my contactless payments. Uh, you also need to have the debit card if you're spending Bitcoin anyway, because there are a few places like Costco that do not allow you to use a an American Express Express credit card. And the Coinbase credit card is American Express. So, it is not accepted anywhere that does not accept American Express credit cards. And the one place I found that meets that criteria is Costco. Costco will not let me use the Coinbase credit card. I can use the Coinbase debit card, but again, the Coinbased debit card pays 0.5% back in Bitcoin as opposed to 2.5% in my case because my balance is slightly above $10,000. Um, okay. So, um, so I carry the debit card again because it's lighter and 12 g lighter is worth it for me and it also gives me a backup. Uh, I guess it's more universal as in everywhere is going to take a Visa debit card. Um, and everywhere takes a Visa debit card. So, that's what I physically carry on my person in my phone case. Uh, but then my contactless payments is set up with and my Amazon and you know, all that sort of stuff is now rolled over to the Coinbase credit card. So, I get the two and a half% back. Okay, so that's my setup. Um, let me think what else I could tell you about it. Um, yeah, so my plan is to just accumulate. So, I'm already living for free based on the Bitcoin I bought in 2022, which I've talked about a lot. I bought 18 months of living expenses back in 2022. Uh, my wife and I have been living on those ever since, and we have twice as much US dollar value 3 years later as we did, you know, when we started. So, bought 18 months of living expenses, lived on them for 3 years, and have more than three years left to go. Pretty great setup. So, I figure this basically juices that strategy a little extra more because instead of relying almost entirely on the appreciation of the price of Bitcoin over time, we are now relying on that plus an extra 2% on every purchase on the Coinbase credit card. Um, and obviously any amount of money that you're trying to make last for the rest of your life goes further if you spend 2% less of it every time you use it than money that only pays, you know,.5% back like the debit card does. So, the difference between.5% back and 2.5% back is obviously two percentage points. and two and a half uh two percentage points. While not a lot, every little bit helps when you're trying to live uh for free for the rest of your life based on 18 months of living expenses that you bought 3 years ago of Bitcoin. So, I figure, you know, hey, it's just 2% every year on every expense, adds up over time. Why not do that? Makes sense. All right. So, the things I don't like about the credit card are still the same, which is I would rather spend Bitcoin real time where I know exactly the price of Bitcoin at the time I spend it and not risk the price moving opposite. You know, the the price can move down between when I use the credit card and when I actually pay the balance. Now, if I'm concerned that this is going to happen, I can go in and manually pay the balance rather than just waiting for it to autopay. But I like autopay because it pushes the payment as far into the future as possible. So my plan is to just let it autopay. Yeah. Sometimes the price will move against me between when I make the expenditures. Um if I make a really large expenditure of like a major international travel trip, you know, complete with flights and accommodations and all that sort of stuff, I may go in and just if I feel good about the price of Bitcoin at that time, I may go in and just pay that credit card bill right then. Uh rather than, you know, depending on price of Bitcoin, rather than risking it going down before the credit card bill pays. But generally my plan is to just use the credit card, let it do its thing, and let it automatically pay. I think it's on the 27th of every month or whatever it is. So the 27th of every month, it automatically pays for my Bitcoin balance. Most months I will be up or radically up from the price at which I, you know, incurred the liability uh by spending, but sometimes it will be down and I understand that and my finances can handle that as long as I'm more up than down. So, in summary, I officially recommend the Coinbase credit card in addition to continuing to officially recommend the Coinbase debit card. The debit card is cooler because you can spend Bitcoin real time in the real world anywhere. The Coinbased credit card pays more Bitcoin back in rewards. So, it's a trade-off. You're not directly spending Bitcoin with the credit card uh because obviously it's just accumulating uh you know, money that you owe them, American Express specifically, and then it's just paying your balance off later with Bitcoin in my case. Um, and again, if you're just starting out, do not set it to pay from your Bitcoin balance. It will wipe your account out. Um, or if you do, make sure it's uh, well, just don't do that. Don't do that until you have so much Bitcoin that you literally don't have US dollar bank accounts to pay the balances off. Uh, because you're living entirely on a Bitcoin standard like I am. The vast majority of you are not there yet because most of your wealth is still in US dollars. And so if that is where you are, just have that and you want to use the uh Coinbase credit card, just set it to pay from whichever bank account is currently paying credit card bills when they come due every month. And whatever bank account that is, let it suck up your US dollars while you accumulate Bitcoin. Eventually, you'll own so much Bitcoin and in my case, almost zero US dollars that you're living entirely on Bitcoin, which is the whole point. But again, that's for most people much later in their journey. Hope all that helps. That's my latest plan. I'll keep you updated if I change it. But right now, for everything that involves not physically holding the card on my person, I'm using the Coinbase credit card and getting 2%, sorry, 2.5% Bitcoin back on every purchase for things that I pay in person. I'm still using the debit card because it works everywhere, including Costco. And although I you can use touchless payments at Costco, so you don't need the physical card, you just need something that's not American Express. Um, and then in addition to that, um, I like having the physical card so I can show people that you can use Bitcoin in the real world and it actually spins Bitcoin. It doesn't just it's not just a Bitcoin credit card. So, hope all that helps. Hit me with any questions. Love to help you in any way I can. As always, thanks.