What the Swissquote cards are
Swissquote Bank is a licensed Swiss bank supervised by FINMA, and its debit cards sit on top of the bank account that comes with a trading account. There are three tiers: the Light virtual card, free to issue and free to run; the Bright physical Mastercard at CHF 6.90 a month with the first six months free; and the Elite physical Mastercard at CHF 39 a month, reserved for clients holding at least CHF 100,000 in assets.
Where crypto comes in
This is the part that matters for this directory. On Bright and Elite you can pay with crypto and earn a trading credit on those payments - 1% on crypto-funded spending versus 0.5% on ordinary payments. Elite adds 0.5% cashback paid in gold. So the card functions as a regulated bridge between crypto holdings held inside a Swiss bank and everyday spending.
The cost structure
Transaction fees are free on all three tiers. The cost lives in currency conversion: 0.95% on the 13 main currencies and the Mastercard rate plus 1.5% on everything else. Cash withdrawals are CHF 1.90 in Switzerland and CHF 4.90 abroad on Light, with five free withdrawals a month on Bright and Elite. Elite's conversion fee on the main currencies drops to 0.25% above CHF 5,000 of monthly spend, and is free below that.
Who it suits
Swissquote is a full banking relationship rather than a standalone crypto card. It makes most sense for clients who already hold crypto and securities with the bank and want one card for both, with the regulatory protection and account features that come with a FINMA-supervised institution.
Swissquote's card is a bank product first, so it competes with the Xapo Bank Card among crypto-native banks and with the Trade Republic Card for European savers. The crypto cards directory shows how bank-issued cards compare with exchange ones.
