The company did not release a fee schedule prior to launch. However, it suggested costs would be limited to a one-time charge of $15. On its FAQ page, the company said that the initial fee covers the cost of issuing and shipping the card.
“Merchants will pay all fees just as they do for debit and credit cards but there won’t be a fee for the customer,” Xapo stated.
Unfortunately, the ambiguous wording of Xapo’s statements led many customers to conclude there would be no additional fees for using the card, an opinion evidenced by the strongly negative response to the company’s update.
Failure to communicate
A potential driver of the strong consumer backlash was that the release of additional pricing information came after many users had already signed up to receive the card.
The result was that a number of separate reddit conversations arose to address the topic, with individual posts highlighting the card’s specific pricing policies and availability eventually giving way to more general posts criticizing the company’s overall marketing of the product.
Further, message board comments ran the gamut from overwhelmingly negative to sympathetic, with a small number of users noting that Xapo’s final product was likely influenced by poor US regulation and the difficulties inherent in the company’s bid to acquire a traditional financial partner to support the offering.
Ongoing issues
Xapo’s Debit Card has been a source of strain for the company since its initial announcement.
At the time of the launch, Xapo had indicated to news sources including TechCrunch and CoinDesk that MasterCard’s payment network would supply the rails for the debit card transactions.
MasterCard quickly moved to separate itself from the offering, telling CoinDesk:
“MasterCard does not have a relationship with Xapo. There is no card program currently available.”
However, Xapo told CoinDesk that it had secured a partner for the card offering as of early July, and that the delays in the shipment were purely product-based.
A spokesperson for Xapo said on 3rd July:
“We took a bit of extra time with early testing to make sure the experience is as smooth as possible for our customers.”
CoinDesk has reached out to Xapo for comment, but at press time, the company had declined to comment on the situation. However, Xapo is expected to publish a blog post addressing the controversy.
Image via Xapo
XapoXapo Debit Card
Original author: Nermin Hajdarbegovic