Stack Card Review 2026: Fees, Cashback, Countries

Overview

What is the Stack Card?

The Stack Card is the card attached to Stack, a cross-border account product for freelancers, remote workers, families and students in emerging markets. You open a free account, get your own USD and EUR account details to be paid by clients and platforms like Upwork and Fiverr over ACH, wire or SEPA, and spend with a Visa card that charges in dollars — including on services that routinely decline cards issued in Egypt, Nigeria, Kenya and similar markets, such as AI tools, streaming subscriptions and ad accounts.

The virtual card is live today and works through Apple Pay and Google Pay. The physical card and ATM cash access are still coming soon on both Stack's and Hawala's card pages, so press coverage of ATM withdrawals is ahead of the product. There is no annual fee and no monthly fee, and the advertised reward is a flat 1.5% cash back in dollars on eligible purchases, credited automatically.

The part the marketing skips: it is a collateralised credit card

Stack presents this as a spending account, and independent card trackers classify it as a debit card. The documents that govern the card say otherwise. The US cardholder agreement published alongside the product is titled "Hawala U.S. Credit Card Terms" and reads as a credit agreement from the first line: it is a set-line-of-credit account with 0.00% APR for purchases, a 21-day payment window after each billing cycle, penalty fees for late payment and for exceeding the credit line, and a credit limit that the terms state is determined in part by the amount of available collateral, with that collateral serving as security for the account. The international equivalent is the "Hawala International Spend Card Terms", which states 0% interest on purchases today while explicitly reserving the right for the issuer and Hawala to introduce interest on future purchases.

In plain terms: the dollars and stablecoins you hold are the security behind the card, and your spending is drawn against a credit facility rather than directly from a wallet balance. That is a materially different product from a prepaid or debit card, and it is the single most important thing to understand before loading meaningful money onto it.

Who is behind it

Stack is the consumer brand of Hawala Technologies, Inc., a Delaware company founded in January 2025 that raised a $3 million seed round announced on 30 October 2025, led by Pharsalus Capital with Alumni Ventures and angels including Naguib Sawiris, Hany Rashwan of 21.co, Arnold Lee of Sphere Labs and Carl Lin of Solana. The two brands are one property: stack.one's canonical tag still points at usehawala.com, and its sitemap and robots file serve Hawala URLs. Both app stores still list the app under the old name, "Hawala: Global USD Account", so searching for Stack in a store can come up empty.

The disclosures are split between the two brands, and the more specific ones are on the Hawala side. Hawala's footer states that USD and EUR account services are provided by Noah US, Inc., a licensed money transmitter (NMLS #2696057), and that cards are issued by Rain, a Visa Principal Member, under a licence from Visa. It also states plainly that Hawala is not a bank and that stablecoin balances are not bank deposits and are not FDIC-insured. Stack's own footer only says cards, custody and on/off ramp are "provided by licensed partners". Independent review notes that Hawala Technologies itself has no published payments or e-money licence, and that Rain is recorded as the BIN sponsor rather than a named bank.

Where the stablecoins actually sit

This is a stablecoin-backed product rather than a crypto card, and Stack's terms are unusually direct about it: the platform uses stablecoin "rails" to settle transfers, "you will not directly hold or manage cryptocurrency", and "your funds will temporarily exist as stablecoins in the background". The balances behind the account can be held as fully backed digital dollars — a Hawala guide names USDC, USDT, PYUSD and EURC — with regulated, audited partners.

The practical consequence is that there is no crypto deposit or withdrawal route anywhere in the public documentation. Funding is fiat rails into your own USD and EUR account details: ACH, FedWire and SEPA. The stablecoin layer is how the company holds and moves the money behind the scenes, not a feature you touch. If you are looking for a card that spends a self-custody wallet, this is not that card.

What you get on the money side

The account itself is the product's strongest element. Real account details in your own name that accept third-party payments, the ability to hold dollars and euros instead of being force-converted to local currency, cash-out to a local bank with an example on Stack's own site of a $1.00 flat fee on a $1,200 withdrawal to an Egyptian bank at a quoted $1 = 49.50 EGP arriving in minutes, and free transfers between Stack accounts. For a freelancer in Cairo being paid by a US client, that combination is a genuine improvement over the fees and FX cuts of the traditional alternatives, and Hawala publishes comparison pages against Payoneer, PayPal and Wise making exactly that case.

Where it sits in this directory

A Tier-3 placement reflects a well funded, genuinely live cross-border account with named licensed partners and one of the better emerging-market remittance propositions in this directory, held back by three things. The card is a collateralised credit facility presented as a spending account. The FX and cross-border pricing in the operative terms is up to 3% plus up to 3%, against marketing that says only "no hidden fees". And the card is virtual-only for now, with no ATM access and no published fee schedule for cash, conversion or transfer charges.

If you want a custodial stablecoin card with a published fee line, compare RedotPay or KAST, both of which target similar users with clearer card economics. For the whole field, see the crypto cards directory.

Features & Benefits

Stack Card features

USD and EUR account details in your own name, opened from the app with no branch visit and no local bank account required.
Get paid like a local by clients and platforms abroad over ACH, wire and SEPA, with inbound third-party transfers confirmed.
Visa card that charges in dollars, which is what makes it work on services that decline cards issued in emerging markets.
Virtual card live now, issued in minutes after identity verification.
Apple Pay and Google Pay support for contactless payments from the phone.
No annual fee and no monthly fee on the account or the card.
1.5% cash back in dollars on eligible purchases, credited automatically to the account with nothing to claim.
Free transfers between Stack accounts.
Cash-out to a local bank in local currency, with the rate and fee shown before you confirm.
Hold dollars instead of converting, so income is not force-converted at a weak local rate the moment it arrives.
Set your own daily and monthly spending caps in the app.
Freeze the card instantly from the app, and unfreeze just as fast.
Real-time purchase notifications with merchant detail.
Spending analytics by category and merchant, plus a cashback line on each purchase.
Bank-level security claims: encryption in transit and at rest, biometric approval for sign-ins, and around-the-clock monitoring.
Identity verification from home, with the app describing account opening in minutes.
Remittance corridors with published pages across Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Europe and the Americas, plus outbound corridors from the US and Germany.
A business product covering USD, EUR and AED accounts with collections and payouts from one dashboard.
Arabic localisation alongside English, plus localized learn content and country guides.
Apps on iOS and Android, listed under the legacy name "Hawala: Global USD Account".

Not available or not disclosed

Physical card — coming soon, with no date, price or delivery markets published
ATM cash access — coming soon
Any crypto deposit or withdrawal route; the stablecoin layer is internal only
An FX or cross-border fee schedule on the brand the card is marketed under — the rates exist only in the cardholder agreements
ATM, cash-advance and conversion fee rates
A supported-country list for the card
A named bank behind the Visa issuer

Supported Cryptocurrencies

You cannot pay with crypto here

This is the most important thing to know about the Stack Card in a crypto cards directory: there is no crypto deposit route, no crypto withdrawal route, and no wallet to spend from. Funding runs entirely through fiat rails into your own USD and EUR account details — ACH, wire and SEPA — and your spending is drawn against a credit facility secured by the balance you hold.

The stablecoin layer exists behind the scenes. Hawala's terms state that the platform uses stablecoin "rails" to settle transactions across borders, that your funds may be converted into stablecoins for transfer and back into local currency, and that "you will not directly hold or manage cryptocurrency, but your funds will temporarily exist as stablecoins in the background". The company's own guides name USDC, USDT, PYUSD and EURC as the digital dollars that balances can be held in, with regulated, audited partners.

What that means in practice

No self-custody. Your balance is a custodial claim on Hawala's account infrastructure, held through Noah US, Inc. as a licensed money transmitter and by the partners behind the stablecoin rails. There is no key to hold and no wallet to export.
No onchain spending. The card is not a rail from a DeFi wallet; every top-up arrives by bank transfer.
Stablecoin risk still applies, indirectly. Because the money is held as digital dollars, the terms disclose stablecoin risk, counterparty risk if an issuer fails or mismanages reserves, liquidity risk in market stress, and regulatory risk as stablecoin rules change. You carry that exposure without holding the tokens yourself.
Not a deposit. Both brands' disclosures state that stablecoin balances are not bank deposits and are not FDIC-insured, and that funds in the account are not insured or guaranteed by any government agency, with protections depending on your location and the applicable regulatory framework.

What you hold instead

USD and EUR balances, with a documented business product adding AED. The account's whole purpose is to let you receive dollars and euros, keep them in those currencies, spend them in dollars with the card, and cash out to local currency when you choose at a rate shown before you confirm. For a freelancer being paid by foreign clients, that currency choice is the actual product — the stablecoin machinery underneath is plumbing, not a feature.

Fees & Limits

Stack Card fees

Stack's card page says "no monthly fees and no hidden charges on dollar spending", and the account and card are genuinely free to open and hold. The gap is that the card's own pricing lives in the cardholder agreements rather than the marketing, and the international agreement is meaningfully more expensive than the US one. These are the operative figures.

Charge	Amount	Source
Annual fee	None	US card disclosure box
Account opening and card creation	Free	Stack card page
Monthly fee	None	Stack card page
International transaction fee (US card terms)	1% of each transaction in US dollars, on foreign-currency or non-US transactions	US card terms disclosure box
Foreign exchange fee, non-USD (international card terms)	Up to 3%	International Spend Card terms
Cross-border fee (international card terms)	Up to 3%	International Spend Card terms
Late payment	2% of the current outstanding card balance under the US terms; up to $40 under the international terms	Both disclosure boxes
Returned payment	None under the US terms; up to $29 under the international terms	Both disclosure boxes
Balance transfer	N/A	US disclosure box
Cash advance	None listed	US disclosure box
Interest on purchases	0% today, with the issuer and Hawala reserving the right to introduce interest on future purchases	Both disclosure boxes
ATM withdrawal	Not live; when enabled the terms treat ATM use as a cash advance, and no ATM rate is published	Card terms and card pages
Currency conversion in transfers	Listed as a fee category "built into the exchange rate"; no rate published	Hawala Terms section 5.1
Transfer, cash pickup, account maintenance and membership fees	Named as possible charges, disclosed before you confirm each transaction; no schedule published	Hawala Terms section 5.1
Cashback	1.5% in dollars on eligible purchases; a sister-brand ladder of 1%, 2% and 3% with $10, $40 and $150 monthly caps sits behind $100 and $1,000 annual memberships and is currently unreachable	Stack card page; independent review

What a real month looks like

Spend $1,000 in dollars and the card costs you nothing beyond the annual fee of zero, and you earn $15 back at 1.5%. Spend the same $1,000 on a mix of foreign-currency merchants under the international terms and you can add up to 3% of FX plus up to 3% of cross-border fees on top, which is where a "no hidden fees" card can end up costing more than one that publishes a flat 1% FX charge. The US terms are much gentler at 1%. Which document applies to you depends on where your account is opened, and that is worth establishing before you plan spending around the 1.5% reward.

What to confirm before committing

Which cardholder agreement governs your account — the US terms at 1% international transaction fee, or the international terms at up to 3% plus up to 3%
Whether any membership tier is still offered in-app, and its monthly cashback cap, before treating a rate above 1.5% as available
How the collateral behind your credit limit is valued, what happens if its value falls, and whether you can be asked to add more
The exact conversion rate and fee applied when your dollar balance converts for a payment or a cash-out
Whether ATM access arrives on the physical card and at what price
The late-payment consequence: 2% of the outstanding balance under the US terms is a serious penalty on a card marketed as fee-free

Pros & Cons

Pros

Live, funded and operating, with apps on both stores and a real remittance network behind it
Your own USD and EUR account details in your own name, opened from the phone with no branch visit
Receives third-party payments by ACH, wire and SEPA from clients and platforms like Upwork and Fiverr
Lets you hold dollars and euros instead of being force-converted to local currency on arrival
Visa card charges in dollars, so it works on services that decline locally issued cards, including AI tools and ad accounts
No annual fee and no monthly fee on the account or card
1.5% cash back in dollars on eligible purchases, credited automatically with nothing to claim
Virtual card issued in minutes once identity verification passes
Apple Pay and Google Pay support for contactless payments
Free transfers between Stack accounts
Cash-out to a local bank in local currency with the rate and fee shown before you confirm
Set your own daily and monthly spending caps in the app
Freeze and unfreeze the card instantly from the app
Real-time purchase notifications and a cashback line on every transaction
Arabic localisation alongside English, plus country guides and comparison content aimed at freelancers in MENA
Documented remittance corridors across Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Europe and the Americas
A business product with USD, EUR and AED accounts, collections and payouts from one dashboard
Named licensed partners rather than vague assurances: Noah US, Inc. as a licensed money transmitter (NMLS #2696057) and Rain as a Visa Principal Member and card issuer
Operative card terms published in full on the sister brand, including the fee box, rather than hidden
Card is issued by a Visa Principal Member under licence from Visa, so network acceptance and fraud protection apply
Backed by named investors including Pharsalus Capital, Alumni Ventures and angels from 21.co, Sphere Labs and Solana
A genuinely useful product for its target user: getting paid from abroad and keeping more of each payment than the traditional alternatives

Cons

It is a credit card, not a debit or prepaid card: the cardholder agreement is a set-line-of-credit account with a credit limit determined in part by available collateral
The collateral behind your credit limit serves as security for the account, which is a different risk profile from spending a wallet balance
The international card terms price foreign exchange at up to 3% AND cross-border at up to 3%, on top of currency conversion that the main terms describe as built into the exchange rate
The US terms charge 1% on foreign-currency and non-US transactions, so the applicable rate depends entirely on which agreement governs your account
Marketing says "no hidden fees" while neither brand publishes an FX, ATM or conversion fee schedule on its own card pages
A late payment costs 2% of the current outstanding card balance under the US terms, or up to $40 under the international terms
Returned payments cost up to $29 under the international terms
Interest is 0% today, but the issuer and Hawala explicitly reserve the right to introduce interest on future purchases
Virtual card only: the physical card and ATM cash access are both still coming soon, with no date or price
No crypto deposit or withdrawal route exists — the stablecoin layer is internal plumbing and you never hold or manage crypto
Balances are explicitly not bank deposits and not FDIC-insured, and funds are not insured or guaranteed by any government agency
The company is described as a financial technology company, not a bank, and Hawala Technologies itself has no published payments or e-money licence
The brand name behind the app is inconsistent: both app stores still list it as "Hawala: Global USD Account", so searching for Stack fails
Two live brands with split disclosures — the fee schedule, membership tiers and legal terms live on usehawala.com while the card is marketed at stack.one
Four different country counts are published across the company's own sources (35+, 100+, 170+ and 200+), so real availability is unclear
No supported-country list for the card is published at all
Independent review notes the issuer is recorded as a BIN sponsor rather than a named bank, unlike other cards issued by the same processor whose terms name the bank behind them
The membership tier ladder found by independent review, with 2% and 3% rates behind $100 and $1,000 annual memberships and monthly caps of $40 and $150, is no longer reachable on the site
Rewards are points-based at 100 points to $1, and Hawala reserves the right to change plan benefits at any time
The advertised 1.5% flat rate conflicts with the tiered 1%/2%/3% schedule the company published elsewhere
No ATM access today, and no cash-advance or ATM fee rate published for when it arrives
Card spending is drawn against credit secured by collateral, so a fall in the value of the backing assets can affect your limit
Cash-like transactions including crypto purchases, money orders, wire transfers, gambling and person-to-person transfers are restricted on the card
The arbitration clause in the cardholder terms affects your right to bring or join a class proceeding
Availability is MENA-led, with Egypt as the priority launch market, so many readers outside those corridors cannot get the card yet

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Stack Card and is it available now?

It is the Visa card attached to Stack, a cross-border account for freelancers, remote workers, families and students in emerging markets, with a MENA focus and Egypt as the priority market. The account gives you your own USD and EUR account details to receive payments by ACH, wire or SEPA, and the virtual card spends in dollars anywhere Visa is accepted. The virtual card is live today and works with Apple Pay and Google Pay. The physical card and ATM cash access are still listed as coming soon, so the card lives in your phone for now.

Is the Stack Card a debit card or a credit card?

It is a credit card, and this is the biggest gap between the marketing and the paperwork. Independent trackers list it as a debit card and the product describes spending "your dollars", but the governing agreement published alongside the product is titled "Hawala U.S. Credit Card Terms" and is a set-line-of-credit account: 0.00% APR for purchases, a 21-day payment window after each billing cycle, penalty fees for late payment and for exceeding the credit line, and a credit limit the terms state is determined in part by the amount of available collateral, with that collateral serving as security for the account. The international version reserves the right to introduce interest on future purchases.

What fees does the Stack Card charge?

The account and card are free to open and there is no annual or monthly fee. Everything else depends on which cardholder agreement governs your account. Under the US terms there is a 1% international transaction fee on foreign-currency or non-US purchases, a late payment fee of 2% of the current outstanding card balance, and no returned payment fee. Under the international terms, the Foreign Exchange Fee on non-USD purchases is up to 3% and the Cross Border Fee is up to 3%, with late payment up to $40 and returned payment up to $29. Neither brand publishes an ATM, cash-advance or conversion fee schedule, and the main terms name currency conversion as a fee category built into the exchange rate without stating a rate.

How does the cashback work?

Stack's card page advertises a flat 1.5% cash back in real dollars on every eligible purchase, credited automatically with nothing to claim, and the app's sample transactions price it at exactly that. Independent review of the sister brand found a different, tiered schedule published on Hawala's membership page: Standard at 1% free with rewards capped at $10 a month, Gold at 2% for $100 a year capped at $40 a month, and Platinum at 3% for $1,000 a year capped at $150 a month, plus higher rates of 1%, 3% and 5% on flights booked directly with airlines. That membership page is no longer reachable, so treat the ladder as legacy or app-only, and note that rewards are tracked as points at 100 points to $1 and that Hawala reserves the right to change plan benefits at any time.

Can I deposit crypto or spend from a crypto wallet?

No. There is no crypto deposit route, no crypto withdrawal route and no wallet to spend from. Funding runs entirely through fiat rails into your own USD and EUR account details: ACH, wire and SEPA. The stablecoin layer is internal plumbing: Hawala's terms state that it uses stablecoin rails to settle transfers, that your funds may be converted into stablecoins and back, and that "you will not directly hold or manage cryptocurrency, but your funds will temporarily exist as stablecoins in the background". Guides from the company name USDC, USDT, PYUSD and EURC as the digital dollars balances can be held in. If you want a card that spends a self-custody wallet, this is not it.

Is my money safe with Stack, and is it insured?

The disclosures are clear and worth reading before funding. Hawala states it is a financial technology company and not a bank; that USD and EUR account services are provided by Noah US, Inc., a licensed money transmitter (NMLS #2696057); that cards are issued by Rain, a Visa Principal Member, under a licence from Visa; and that stablecoin balances are not bank deposits and are not FDIC-insured. The terms add that funds are not insured or guaranteed by any government agency, that protections depend on your location and the applicable regulatory framework, and that stablecoin exposure carries counterparty, liquidity and regulatory risk. Independent review notes that Hawala Technologies itself has no published payments or e-money licence.

Where is the Stack Card available?

Stack is MENA-led with Egypt as its priority launch market, and the company publishes several different coverage figures. The App Store listing names Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, the Philippines, Egypt and Kenya plus 100+ more countries; the Google Play listing has been reported as Egypt, Saudi Arabia, UAE, US, UK, Europe and 35+ countries; Stack's own FAQ describes card acceptance in 170+ countries; and the seed announcement referred to users in more than 200 countries. There is no published supported-country list for the card itself, so the app is the only reliable way to confirm eligibility. If Stack has not launched in your country, the app invites you to join the waitlist.

Is the physical card and ATM access available?

Not yet. Stack's card page lists the physical card as coming soon and describes ATM cash as part of it, and the FAQ states that today the card "lives in the app" through Apple Pay and Google Pay, with a card you can carry and ATM cash to follow. Press coverage describing Visa ATM access has run ahead of the product. When PIN-enabled cash access arrives, the card terms treat ATM withdrawals as cash advances, and the US disclosure box lists a cash advance transaction fee of none while publishing no ATM-specific schedule.

What is the difference between Stack and Hawala?

They are the same company and the same product. Stack is the consumer brand at stack.one; Hawala is the legal and operational identity at usehawala.com, and stack.one's canonical tag still points to usehawala.com while its sitemap and robots file serve Hawala URLs. The disclosures are split: Stack's footer says only that cards, custody and on/off ramp come from licensed partners, whereas Hawala's footer names Noah US, Inc. and Rain and states that balances are not FDIC-insured. Both app stores still list the app as "Hawala: Global USD Account", so store searches for Stack can come up empty. Hawala Technologies, Inc. is a Delaware company founded in January 2025 that raised a $3 million seed round announced in October 2025.

What are the spending limits?

Your limit is a credit limit rather than a wallet balance. The terms state it is determined in part by the amount of available collateral, that Hawala sets your spending limit under the user agreement, and that the issuer may additionally set limits per card or across all your cards at its discretion and may raise, lower, restrict or cancel the limit at any time. On top of that, the app lets you set your own daily and monthly caps, with the product UI illustrating a $2,000 monthly limit. Because the facility is secured by your collateral, a fall in the value of the backing assets can affect the limit available to you.

Before You Continue

Stack Card