Spending stablecoins in 150+ countries
What the 150+ countries number actually means, what works at a checkout abroad, and the handful of things to know before you travel with a Fundly card.
"Works in 150+ countries" is one of those phrases every card company uses, and it is worth explaining what it means for Fundly specifically, because it does not mean what people sometimes assume.
What the number refers to
The 150+ countries figure is about where your card is accepted, not where you can sign up. A Fundly card runs on a global card network, and that network is accepted anywhere you see its logo: physical shops, online checkouts, hotel front desks, ride-hailing apps, ATMs.
Where you can open a Fundly account is a shorter list that depends on our licensing and our partners. We are launching in a first group of countries and expanding from there. The supported countries page on the site is the source of truth and we update it as each one opens.
So: sign up from a supported country, then spend almost anywhere.
How a stablecoin becomes a coffee in Lisbon
You do not spend USDC directly at a checkout. Nobody does, whatever the marketing says. Here is the actual sequence.
- You deposit USDC, USDT or another supported asset from your wallet.
- It is converted to your account currency, EUR or USD, at a published rate with the fee shown first.
- Your balance is now ordinary money held with a regulated partner.
- You tap your card. The merchant gets paid in their local currency through the card network.
Steps 1 and 2 happen once, when you top up. Steps 3 and 4 happen every time you pay. That means the crypto part is settled before you ever reach a till, and a payment never waits on a blockchain.
Paying in your account currency
If your account is in EUR and you pay in EUR, there is no FX and no card payment fee at launch. What you see on the receipt is what leaves your balance.
Paying in another currency
If you pay in a currency other than your account currency, the card network converts it and Fundly applies an FX fee. At launch the FX fee is 1.5 percent on the Free plan, 0.5 percent on Plus and 0 percent on Premium. There is no additional spread from us on top of the network rate.
One practical tip that saves more money than any fee schedule: when a foreign terminal asks whether you want to pay in your home currency or the local currency, always choose the local currency. The "pay in your own currency" option is called dynamic currency conversion and the exchange rate attached to it is usually 3 to 7 percent worse than the network rate. Decline it every time.
Online purchases and subscriptions
This is where a card funded by stablecoins earns its keep. If you live in a country whose cards are routinely rejected by international services, a Fundly card is issued by a partner in a supported jurisdiction and looks, to the merchant, like any other card from that jurisdiction.
For subscriptions we recommend a dedicated virtual card. Plus and Premium include several virtual cards at launch, so you can give one to streaming services, one to software tools, and freeze any of them without touching the others. If a service raises its price or you want to leave, freeze the card and the renewal fails cleanly.
ATMs
Cash is still real in most of the world. Verified users can withdraw at ATMs on the card network. At launch the Free plan includes 100 EUR of withdrawals a month before a 2 percent fee applies, and Plus and Premium include higher free allowances. The ATM operator may add its own fee on top, which is shown on the machine before you confirm and which we have no control over.
The Instant card has no or very low ATM access, since the light sign-up limits apply to cash as well.
Travel checklist
A short list from our own trips.
- Add the card to Apple Pay or Google Pay before you leave. A phone tap works even when the physical card has not arrived. Fundly is a web app at launch, so you manage the card from your browser; native mobile apps come later.
- Keep a buffer in your balance. Hotels and car rentals place holds that can be larger than the final bill. The hold is released after checkout, but it counts against your balance until then.
- Turn on notifications. Every payment produces a notification with the merchant name and amount. If you see one you do not recognise, freeze the card from your dashboard.
- Know your limits. Instant card users have a per-transaction limit, expected to be around 500 EUR equivalent at launch. A flight ticket can exceed that. Verify your identity before a big purchase, not the night before the flight.
- Deposit before you need it. Confirmations on most chains take under a minute, but Bitcoin on-chain can take half an hour. Do not top up from the queue at passport control.
Where cards do not help
We would rather tell you now than have you find out at a market stall.
- Countries under comprehensive sanctions are excluded from the card network entirely.
- Some merchants only take local schemes or cash. Rural areas, small food stalls, some transport systems.
- A few countries block foreign-issued cards for specific categories such as fuel or government fees.
For all of these, an ATM withdrawal beforehand is the fix.
The bigger point
A card does not make stablecoins magic. What it does is move the crypto step to a place where you control it, at a rate and fee you can read, and then hand the rest to a payment network that already reaches most of the planet. That is the whole trick. It is not complicated, which is why it works.
If you would like a card that treats your stablecoins as money, join the waitlist at /join.