A solid prepaid card with 1.5% cashback, priced for Canada

Updated October 2026

Licensed

Available in US

Fast payouts

18+ Only

The Shakepay Card is a prepaid Visa that spends a Canadian-dollar balance held inside a Shakepay account, paying up to 1.5% of eligible purchases back in bitcoin. For a Canadian resident who already keeps money in the Shakepay app, it is a tidy, low-friction way to turn that balance into everyday spending. For anyone outside Canada, or for someone who wants a card that protects money the way a bank account does, it is the wrong shape of tool entirely. I scored it 4.3 out of 10.

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

Verdict: a competent prepaid card inside a crypto platform

Shakepay gets the simple version of a crypto card right. There is no annual fee, the card itself is free once your account is fully verified, and the spending side — Apple Pay, Google Pay, a physical Visa, a PIN you set at order time — works the way an ordinary payment card is supposed to work. On top of that sits an automatic bitcoin cashback, and a three-tier reward ladder that can bring the foreign-exchange fee down to zero if you keep a large balance moving through the platform.

But this is not a bank card, and the score reflects that plainly. It is available only to Shakepay customers in Canada’s 13 provinces and territories. The funds sit with Shakepay as a custodial balance and are explicitly not CDIC-insured. Trustpilot sits at 2.3 out of 5 on the small sample of reviews there, with recurring themes of frozen accounts and delayed withdrawals. And several of the numbers a reader most wants — the issuance fee, ATM fees, general spending limits, conversion fees on crypto purchases — are simply not stated on the public pages. That silence matters, because you are the one filling the gap with an assumption.

Who it suits: Canadian residents, of the age of majority in their province or territory, who already hold a Shakepay account and want a spendable balance with bitcoin cashback. Who it does not suit: anyone outside Canada, anyone who needs deposit insurance, anyone who wants a virtual or metal card, and anyone planning to use it as their primary everyday card with a large balance parked in it.

Here is how the six criteria break down.

Who will they give you the card to?

Short answer: Shakepay customers resident in Canada. That is the whole gate.

The card is available to all Shakepay customers in all 13 Canadian provinces and territories — Canada only. If you are reading this from anywhere else, this is the end of the line, and no amount of account tweaking will change it.

One thing worth knowing, though, is what the cardholder agreement does *not* say. It does not explicitly require Canadian residency. Some countries and merchants are restricted, and the address for questions on that is the email [email protected]. So the geographic restriction is real and enforced on the card page, but the paperwork leaves a little room around the edges of the word “residency.”

For eligibility beyond geography, the card itself requires a fully verified Shakepay account, an applicant of the age of majority in their province or territory, one card per person, and an eligibility questionnaire in the app. There is no credit check. The verification tiers themselves, how long processing takes, and the reasons a verification can be rejected are not stated in the pages I read — so if you are trying to work out why an application might stall, you will not find the answer published.

A note on who owns what: Shakepay is a CIRO member and an Investment Dealer registered with the AMF and the provincial regulators, and it carries FINTRAC registration #M17065696. The card itself is issued by Peoples Trust Company under licence from Visa International. That structure — a regulated crypto platform fronting for a federally regulated issuer — is normal for this category and is not a warning sign in itself.

How to get it

It is a short process, and the absence of a credit check is the part most people will care about. You need a fully verified Shakepay account first. From there, the setup is described as taking minutes, with no credit check at any stage.

You order the physical card inside the app. You set your PIN during the ordering flow, not after the card lands. The card then arrives within 21 days by Canada Post regular mail, with no tracking — worth internalising before you order, because an untracked envelope that has simply gone missing in the postal system is an unpleasant surprise. Shakepay describes delivery as happening “regardless of where you live in Canada.”

Cost-wise, the card is free for fully verified accounts. The issuance fee is not stated, so the honest reading is: for fully verified customers it costs nothing extra, and for anyone in a lower verification state the card’s public pages do not say what it would take to obtain one.

If something goes wrong with the card itself, there is a “Replace card” option in the app. The distinction that matters here is what happens to your card details:

• A damaged card keeps the same number, expiry and CVV.
• A lost or stolen card gets new card details.
• A replacement fee is not stated.
• After reporting a loss, the reissue arrives within 30 days.

One design decision that will irritate you if it catches you out: your PIN cannot be changed once set. If you need a new PIN, the route is to replace the card entirely.

Fees and what a payment really costs

There is no annual fee. Beyond that, the picture depends on your reward status, which is assigned by calendar month. The good news is that the headline FX charge can go to zero; the bad news is that several fees you would expect to find simply are not published.

Two things about that table deserve a flag. First, the cardholder agreement’s own fee table lists only the 3% FX charge — the reduced 1.5% and 0% rates come from the help centre and reward-status structure, not from the contract document. Second, the limits row is not as settled as it looks: another help article and the cardholder agreement have been reported as differing, with one more recent article saying $3,000 per transaction and per day. That difference is unverified. Limits cannot be increased, and the limits help article was updated on 21 April 2026.

Now, three ordinary payments, to make this concrete.

Buying coffee in Toronto, CAD $5. No FX charge, because there is no currency conversion. Cashback of 1% at Base, 1% at Bright, 1.5% at Blue lands in your bitcoin balance automatically. This is the card working exactly as intended.

A $40 online subscription billed in USD, at Base status. Visa converts at its own rate and adds the Foreign Exchange Charge. At Base that charge is 3% — so roughly $1.20 of the $40 goes to the fee, plus whatever the Visa rate itself does to the amount. If you want to avoid this, the reward-status ladder is the lever: Bright takes it to 1.5% and Blue to 0%.

A purchase while your status is Blue. Zero FX charge, 1.5% cashback, and priority support. Blue is reached by exchanging $1,000 or receiving $2,000 in eligible direct deposits in the calendar month; Bright by exchanging $100 or $200 in eligible direct deposits.

The reward ladder, in full:

• Base (default) — 1% card cashback, 3% FX fee.
• Bright — 1% cashback, 1.5% FX fee. Earned by exchanging $100 or receiving $200 in eligible direct deposits.
• Blue — 1.5% cashback, 0% FX fee, priority support. Earned by exchanging $1,000 or receiving $2,000 in direct deposits.
• Business — automatic.

There is no metal card. One more trap worth knowing about, because it quietly costs money: foreign refunds come back at the rate you paid to Visa *minus* the charge, so a refund from an overseas merchant usually returns less than you originally paid.

How to top it up

Top up the Shakepay account, and the card spends the Canadian-dollar balance. That is the whole model. Coins and networks for funding the card specifically are not stated, so if you are trying to route a stablecoin transfer straight onto the card’s balance, the public pages will not confirm that path for you.

What is published:

There are no activation fees and no minimum balance. Interac e-Transfer is the sensible default: free, near-instant, and the ceiling of $10,000 comfortably covers normal top-ups.

If you close the card, your Shakepay Wallet balance stays accessible and the funds do not expire with the card. Withdrawal fees from the wallet are not stated in the public help material — you are funding a custodial wallet and should know the exit cost.

Paying with it every day

This is the card’s strongest section, and the reason it scores 7 out of 10 rather than lower.

You get a physical Shakepay Visa Prepaid Card drawing on a Canadian-dollar balance. A virtual card is not disclosed, so if you want something in your phone’s wallet before the envelope arrives, you are relying on tokenising the physical card once it lands. Apple Pay and Google Pay are supported “where available.” Blocked merchant categories are not stated on the pages I read.

Cashback is up to 1.5% in bitcoin on eligible purchases at eligible merchants worldwide. It is credited automatically to your BTC balance and can be withdrawn to your own wallet. That automatic crediting is the genuinely nice part — no monthly claim, no minimum redemption threshold mentioned, and you do not have to think about it.

The app is where the card lives: disputes, card controls, and support chat are all in the Shakepay Mobile App. The App Store and Google Play ratings and review counts were not obtained, so I cannot tell you how the app is rated, and I would rather say that than guess.

Spending caps to plan around: CAD $5,000 per transaction, $5,000 per day and $50,000 per month, with an Apple/Google Pay tap limit of $250 — that last one catches people out, because $250 is low enough that a routine online purchase at a hardware store or an appliance will simply decline on tap.

What can go wrong

Four risks, in rough order of how much they should worry you.

Your balance is not deposit-insured. The funds are not CDIC-insured, and Shakepay holds the balance in a custodial wallet. That is a structural feature of this category, not a Shakepay failing — but it means your money’s safety depends on a company’s solvency and security, exactly as it would with any exchange or custodial platform. This is the single reason I cannot score the card higher for reliability.

Account freezes and closures. User reports, read alongside the Trustpilot data, cluster around account freezes and closures without stated reasons, across 2021 through February 2022 and again July 2025; support going unresponsive for days (2021, December 2023, July 2025); delayed or blocked withdrawals and wires (2022–2023); unreturned funds including a $250 bill payment not received (September 2026); and source-of-funds questioning (November 2022). Trustpilot stands at 2.3 out of 5 across 22 reviews, only one of which was in the last 12 months, and only one of which mentions the card at all — that December 2021 review, and it is positive. That last point cuts both ways: the negative score is overwhelmingly about the platform and its support, not about the card, but you are still holding money in the platform.

I should be honest about a disagreement here rather than pick a side silently: CryptoCardHub, on 11 August 2026, cites Trustpilot at about 1.5 out of 5. That is unofficial and disagrees with what I read. I have used the figure I saw directly.

Officially, no incidents are stated, and I found no first-hand user report to add.

Getting money out. Withdrawal delays are among the most common complaint themes, and the withdrawal fee is not stated. Plan for a balance you can live with being slow to leave, not just to arrive.

The programme can end. Card programmes close. Visa terminated its global agreements with FTX on 13 November 2022 and the FTX US debit card was wound down by its issuer; WaveCrest, a Visa issuer that supplied several crypto card brands, was suspended by Visa in Europe in 2018, closing every WaveCrest-issued Visa programme. The pattern is usually a notice period, then loading and spending stop, then you are asked to withdraw what is left. One 2026 closure reported by a secondary source had new loads ending 8 July 2026 and spending stopping 8 August 2026 — a single source, unconfirmed, and not about Shakepay, but it shows how quickly the ground can move.

The practical mitigations Shakepay does offer are real: instant lock and freeze in the app, two-factor authentication, and a 24/7 lost/stolen line on 1-855-574-2539. Note that your PIN may be disabled after three wrong entries, and that transactions before you report a loss may be treated as yours.

Support contacts: [email protected], in-app Support Chat under Settings > Help > Support Chat, phone +1(438) 802-1221. Blue and Business status get priority live chat, weekdays 8am–10pm EST and weekends 9am–5pm EST.

What to take instead

I want to be straight about the field here: the alternatives I can compare against Shakepay are mostly not prepaid cards at all, and I am not going to pretend otherwise. Three options, with their published numbers.

Who each of these fits:

• If you want a crypto card with no FX drag and are willing to accept thin published detail — Lava scores highest of the three, claims no FX fees and no FX spread, and pays up to 5% back in bitcoin. The catch is that the conditions on that 5% are not stated, and its eligibility is not stated either.
• If your priority is rewards and you want a real card network product — Gemini gives you a Mastercard World Elite credit card with meaningful category rates and no foreign transaction fees. But it is credit, it is not a spend-from-balance card, and its own score here is lower than Shakepay’s neighbours.
• If you are already in the GoMining ecosystem — the card is virtual today with a physical version “coming soon”, and the cashback arrives as mining power rather than money, which is a different proposition entirely.

Eligibility on these three is not stated in a form I could verify, and GoMining notes its products “may not be available in your jurisdiction”. I would not read any of these numbers as a reason to switch without checking them yourself first.

Who I would recommend it to

I would recommend this card to a Canadian resident of the age of majority who already uses Shakepay, keeps a modest balance there, and wants spending that earns bitcoin without thinking about it. If that is you: get it free once your account is fully verified, push your reward status up to Blue if you travel or buy in foreign currency even occasionally, use it through Apple Pay or Google Pay rather than handing over the plastic, and set your PIN carefully because you cannot change it.

I would not recommend it to anyone who needs a card to be their primary banking. The balance is not insured, the support record is poor, the ATM and conversion fees are not published, and the geography is a hard wall.

Three specific situations where I would point you elsewhere. If you live outside Canada: there is no version of this card for you. If you need deposit insurance or want your crypto in your own wallet rather than a custodial one: this is the wrong model entirely. If you need a virtual card right now, or a metal card ever: neither is offered.

One more thing before you commit: bitcoin cashback is treated as a disposal for tax purposes in the US, where digital assets are property and each payment funded from crypto can be a separate taxable event measured in local fiat at the fair market value on the transaction date. I am not giving you tax advice and I am not qualified to — but if you are in the US, understand that a 1% or 1.5% reward is not free money, and check it with someone who can advise you properly.

Finally, a small operational note that caught me out while checking. Shakepay moved physical-card ordering into a general order flow, with the limits help article updated on 21 April 2026 and the reward-status article on 31 August 2026. Unofficial reporting from CryptoCardHub on 11 August 2026 says the physical-card rollout opened gradually by waitlist rank, announced in May 2026 and opened 21 May 2026 — but the official help article I read does not mention a waitlist at all. If you are expecting an instant order to appear, that mismatch between the two sources is worth a support chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is the Shakepay card?

The Shakepay Card is a physical Visa Prepaid card that spends a Canadian-dollar balance held inside your Shakepay account. It is not a credit card: purchases draw down money you have already loaded, and eligible purchases pay up to 1.5% back in bitcoin, credited automatically. The card is issued by Peoples Trust Company under licence from Visa International, and the balance itself is held by Shakepay as a custodial wallet balance.

How does the Shakepay card work in practice?

You top up your Shakepay account, usually by Interac e-Transfer, and the card spends the Canadian-dollar balance that results. Purchases in Canadian dollars cost nothing extra. Purchases in other currencies are converted at the Visa rate and then hit with a Foreign Exchange Charge of 3% at Base status, 1.5% at Bright and 0% at Blue. Spend limits are CAD $5,000 per transaction, per day, and $50,000 per month, with a $250 tap limit in Apple Pay and Google Pay.

Is Shakepay a bank?

No. Shakepay is a CIRO member and an Investment Dealer registered with the AMF and provincial regulators, carrying FINTRAC registration #M17065696. The card is issued by a separate regulated institution, Peoples Trust Company. The money you load sits with Shakepay as a custodial wallet balance and is explicitly not CDIC-insured, so it is not a bank deposit and carries no deposit guarantee.

Who is eligible for the Shakepay card?

The card is available to all Shakepay customers in all 13 Canadian provinces and territories — Canada only. Beyond that you need a fully verified Shakepay account, to be of the age of majority in your province or territory, and there is one card per person, with an eligibility questionnaire in the app. No credit check is involved. The cardholder agreement does not explicitly require Canadian residency, though some countries and merchants are restricted.

How much does the Shakepay card cost?

There is no annual fee, and the card is free for fully verified accounts — though the issuance fee itself is not disclosed on the public pages. The ongoing cost that matters is the Foreign Exchange Charge on non-Canadian transactions: 3% at Base, 1.5% at Bright, 0% at Blue. ATM withdrawals run up to $500 per transaction and $1,000 per day at PLUS-logo ATMs, with operator fees possibly applying; the card’s own ATM fee is not stated.

Can I top up the Shakepay card with cryptocurrency?

The card spends the Canadian-dollar balance, and the public pages do not state which coins or networks can fund it. What is documented is funding the Shakepay account itself: Interac e-Transfer is free, arrives in minutes, with a $5 minimum and $10,000 maximum, and a wire transfer is free, arrives in 1–2 working days, with a $10,000 minimum. There are no activation fees and no minimum balance.

Does the Shakepay card work outside Canada?

You can spend it abroad, but that is where the Foreign Exchange Charge matters: 3% at Base, 1.5% at Bright, and 0% at Blue. Reach Blue by exchanging $1,000 or receiving $2,000 in direct deposits in the calendar month and that charge disappears. One caveat to keep in mind: foreign refunds come back at the Visa rate minus the charge, so a refund from an overseas merchant usually returns less than you originally paid.

Is the Shakepay card safe to use?

The balance is held by Shakepay as a custodial wallet and is not CDIC-insured, so your protection depends on the platform rather than on a deposit guarantee. Shakepay does provide instant card lock and freeze in the app, two-factor authentication, and a 24/7 lost/stolen line on 1-855-574-2539. Reviews on Trustpilot sit at 2.3 out of 5 across 22 reviews, with recurring complaints about frozen accounts and delayed withdrawals.

Does the Shakepay card offer cashback or rewards?

Yes — up to 1.5% cashback in bitcoin on eligible purchases at eligible merchants worldwide, credited automatically to your BTC balance and withdrawable to your own wallet. The rate depends on your reward status for the calendar month: Base gives 1% cashback with a 3% FX fee, Bright gives 1% with 1.5% FX, and Blue gives 1.5% with no FX fee plus priority support. Business status is automatic.

Is the Shakepay card worth it?

For a Canadian resident who already holds a balance with Shakepay and wants it spendable with automatic bitcoin cashback, yes — there is no annual fee and the Blue status removes the FX charge entirely. For anyone outside Canada, for anyone who needs insured funds, or for anyone wanting a virtual or metal card, no: it is unavailable, uninsured, or simply not offered. The 4.3 out of 10 reflects a good card for a narrow audience rather than a poor one.

Content created by the «cryptocardtested» team