A crypto card with a virtual-only card, two currencies and very few published numbers

Updated October 2026

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The hi card is a payment card that sits inside the wider hi app, and on paper it is a modest proposition: a virtual Mastercard debit card, linked by default to a personal IBAN in EUR or GBP, that also lets you pay from crypto held at hi. On paper that sounds like a clean answer for someone who cannot easily open an ordinary bank card. In practice, when I read the card’s own pages alongside what users report publicly, it is much thinner than that: no published fee schedule, no stated country list, no stated ATM or daily limits, no named mobile wallet support, and a complaint record that is dominated by withdrawal problems and a card that stopped working. My score is 4.9 out of 10.

Who this suits: someone who already holds an IBAN in euros or pounds, already uses the hi app, and wants a virtual card as a secondary way to spend money they would otherwise have to keep in a bank account. Who this does not suit: anyone choosing a card for the first time, anyone in a country whose eligibility nobody has published, and anyone who needs a physical card, a fee table, or an answer to “what happens if it stops working”.

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

Verdict: 4.9 out of 10, and the reasons split wide open

Let me put the marks on the table before I explain them, because the shape of the scores matters more than the total. Cost is the strong mark. Reliability and complaints are the weak one, and they are weak by a lot.

Two things I want to be honest about before the details. First, the 8 out of 10 for cost is not a statement that the card is cheap — it is a statement that I could not find a fee schedule to be expensive about. When the mark is high because there is little evidence rather than much, that is itself worth knowing. Second, the 2 out of 10 is not my opinion of the service today; it is the weight of what users reported between 2022 and 2025, when a lot of what happened was the UK exit.

The audience this card was built around, judging from the design, is existing hi app members in Europe paying from an IBAN. That is a narrow, sensible niche and it is where I would look first if I were in that group.

Who will they give you the card

Here the honest answer is: the card’s own pages do not say. Eligibility is not stated on the official page. The only country signal is the starting data on the card, which is EEA, and an unofficial note saying that at launch in 2022 it was offered to members in 25+ EEA countries and the UK, per Mastercard and press coverage, with the UK exit coming later according to user reviews. Neither of those is the same as a current eligibility list you can rely on.

Why this matters in practical terms: if you live somewhere outside the EEA, you may be ineligible, and the card’s pages will not tell you that in advance. If you live inside it, you may be eligible, and the pages still will not tell you that either. Your route in is the same in both directions — the app, and the address verification step described further down.

One more thing worth putting in plain words: this is a virtual card. The card page states virtual only, and says nothing about a physical version. If you have been picturing a plastic card in your wallet, that picture is wrong.

How to get it

The process described by the card is short, and short is nice, but it is also thin. In the card’s own words, once your address has been verified you can activate the card, and activation happens in the app’s Card section. That address check is the only step the card actually spells out.

What it does not spell out is the rest. Documents required are not stated. Minimum age is not stated. What level of identity verification applies is not stated — the help centre does have an “Identity verification (KYC)” collection, but it was not opened, so I cannot tell you what it asks for. For a regulated payment product you would expect name, address, date of birth and an identity document to be collected at some point; that is the pattern across this whole category. But the pattern is not the card’s promise, and I am not going to present a general expectation as though it were hi’s published rule.

So the practical shape of getting the card is: sign up for hi, get your address verified, turn the card on in the app, and add it wherever you intend to use it. If the address check is where your application stops, you will find out there.

The card you get is a virtual Mastercard debit card. The card states it works where Mastercard is accepted, which it puts at more than 90 million merchants. Currency comes from your IBAN: EUR or GBP. If your balance runs out, the card’s guidance is to top up or switch to another secondary currency — more on both of those in their own sections.

Fees and what a payment actually costs

The costs table below is the honest centre of this review. Almost every cell reads “not stated”, and that is the finding, not a formatting accident.

An unofficial source — a blog review of hi, undated — describes no transaction, FX or issuance fees, with issuance free for eligible users who complete KYC and fees possible later. Treat that as third-party description, not as something the card has committed to.

Now the part you actually came for: three everyday payments, and which of those fees could touch them.

Coffee, same currency. You buy in the country your IBAN is in, say euros in the eurozone. The transaction runs off IBAN funds in EUR, with no conversion involved, so if the card really charges no transaction fee, this is the case where nothing is deducted beyond the price. This is the cleanest scenario and the one the unofficial description is most plausible about.

A subscription in another currency. Say your IBAN is in EUR and the merchant bills you in dollars. Now a conversion happens, and the rate and any markup on it are exactly what the card does not publish. This is the payment where the absence of fee disclosure hurts most, because a conversion is the one thing you can never avoid and the one thing you cannot price in advance.

A weekend abroad, paid from a crypto balance. If you spend from crypto held at hi rather than from IBAN funds, the card has to convert crypto to a spendable currency first, and the spread, the route and the timing are all things the card does not describe. Nobody can tell you from the public pages what that costs you. Treat it as unknown rather than as free.

Two limits are also missing, and missing limits have a real consequence: because neither a daily nor a monthly limit is stated, you cannot tell how much of your balance is exposed at any moment. That is a genuine operational problem, not a pedantic one. If you fund the card, you are funding an amount you cannot see capped.

The costs section is where this card looks best and where I would still hold back, because a high score for “nothing found” is not a high score for “nothing charged”.

Top up: an IBAN first, crypto second

This is the part I think is genuinely well thought out, and it is the part that explains the card’s design. By default the card is linked to your personal IBAN currency, EUR or GBP, and transactions are covered by IBAN funds. On top of that, you can also pay with crypto you hold at hi, one secondary currency at a time, and you choose that secondary payment currency in the app.

For a member who already has a bank account in euros or pounds, that is a reasonable design: the card behaves like an ordinary debit card first, and the crypto balance is the optional second source. The word “one” is doing real work in “one secondary currency at a time” — you are not mixing two crypto currencies in one purchase, you are choosing one and using it until you choose differently.

What is missing is the part that decides whether the crypto route is usable: coins and networks are not stated, and a top-up method is not stated. So I cannot tell you what to send, on what chain, or whether there is a fee for getting it in. The card’s own guidance for an empty balance is simply to top up or switch your secondary currency.

One category point that applies here and is worth knowing before you transfer anything: network fees for a deposit are charged by the blockchain, not by the card provider. And transfers are irreversible. If you send on a network the provider does not support, or to an address belonging to a different network, the funds can be gone and recovery may depend on support with no guarantee. So the first thing to establish, before your first transfer, is which network hi expects — because the card does not tell you.

Paying with it every day

Here the card gets thin in a way that decides practical use.

Where it works. Anywhere Mastercard is accepted, which the card puts at more than 90 million merchants. That is the good news and it is real.

Mobile wallets. Apple Pay and Google Pay are not officially named. One theme in user reviews is that Google Pay did not work. So if your everyday paying is tapping a phone — which, for many people, is most of it — you are adding the card to a wallet and hoping, rather than reading that it is supported.

Cash. Not disclosed. You do not know whether ATM withdrawals work, what they cost, or what the per-day cash limit is.

Card-free and merchant-side friction. Worth knowing generally: address verification that compares the billing address you type with issuer records is mostly offered in the US, Canada and the UK and is generally unavailable for foreign-issued cards, which can cause declines. Some merchants decline prepaid or foreign card numbers because the issuer lookup reveals the card type and country. Neither of these is a hi-specific fault — they are properties of how card payments work, and they are the reason a virtual card issued in one EU country can look foreign in a shop in another.

Rewards. The card says users can earn crypto rewards with it. No rates and no conditions are given. An unofficial figure from 2022 launch coverage describes 1–10% back on spending depending on tier — and user reviews report that the rate was cut, for example from 8% to 1% in July 2023. So treat rewards as a bonus that has already been reduced once, not as a headline number.

Tiers. The card page says nothing about tiers. The help centre has a “hi Benefits” collection about tier-based membership based on HI held, which was not opened. So there may be a membership structure behind this, and its content is not something I can tell you.

Disputes. Not stated. If a charge goes wrong, the card’s pages do not say how you contest it. In this category a chargeback is a refund ordered by the issuer, with reason codes such as fraud, duplicate billing or goods not received, and prepaid-card coverage varies and should not be assumed — which means “read the card’s policy” turns out to be “there is nothing here to read”.

What can go wrong

This is the section that produced the 2 out of 10, so I want to give you the reports as reports, not as conclusions about what will happen to you.

The user-reported record on Trustpilot, as of a rating of 1.8 from 587 reviews with one review in the last twelve months, runs along these lines:

• Withdrawals and the UK exit (2023–24). Problems getting money out, in the context of hi telling UK members to withdraw by January, per user reports in December 2023.
• Rewards cuts and tier changes (2022–23). Cashback reduced, for example from 8% to 1% in July 2023.
• Card blocked, wallets not working (2023). A card blocked for about two months, with Google Pay not working, in August–September 2023.
• The HI token. Losses in value, and allegations of a rug pull, in 2023–25.

What I take from that pattern: the recurring theme is not fraud against cardholders but a product shrinking under them — a market left, a rewards rate cut, an account frozen at the moment you needed it. That is what 1.8 out of 587 mostly describes.

On the company side: the starting data names hi Technology Limited. Press coverage from 2022 says the card was issued by Moorwand Ltd, a Mastercard principal member, with a Contis partnership announced for the debit card and fiat accounts. The official page is silent on all of it, so treat the corporate picture as press reporting rather than as the card’s own account.

Security detail is not stated, which means the things you would look for — two-factor authentication, instant card freeze, spending limits — are things I cannot confirm. There is a help centre with a “Contact hi” collection, in English and French, but the channels, languages and hours were not read, so I cannot tell you what response you would get.

Two timeline notes that matter for orientation. On 30 June 2026 a help article stated virtual debit cards are “now available”, which is the most recent official statement I found about the product. In September 2022 Mastercard launched an NFT-customisable card, which tells you what the product was originally marketed as much as it tells you what it does today.

What to take instead

Here is where the comparison is fairest, because the alternatives are not obviously better on every axis — they are better on disclosure. Three of them, with the marks I would give them on the same basis.

International Visa Card — 6.7 / 10. A US-issued Platinum Visa card, virtual, paying in USD, with a physical card listed as “Coming soon”. This is the most transparent of the set: the account and card are not available to residents or legal registrants of a long named list — Belarus, mainland China, North Korea, Cuba, India, Iraq, Iran, Israel, Myanmar, Nepal, Nicaragua, Russia, Syria, Turkey, Ukraine, Venezuela and Vietnam — with FATF grey-list countries reviewed case by case, and purchases blocked in North Korea, Cuba, Iran, Russia, Syria, Ukraine and Venezuela. Note the rule is by residence or registration, not citizenship. Pricing is published: $5 one-time for the virtual card, no maintenance fee, and plans Classic free, Pro $9.00/month, Max $19.00/month. Card use in USD is free on all plans, and foreign currency costs the Visa exchange rate plus a 2% FX fee; deposits of any kind are free. You fund it with USDC or USDT into the USD account at 1:1, and also with USD, EUR, SEPA, SWIFT and FedNow. No cashback is stated. The single 2% FX line costs you more than hi’s silence probably will, but you know it in advance, which is the difference.

UNi Card — 6.1 / 10. A multicurrency card on the Mastercard network, spending from the UNi.Global account balance; whether a physical card exists is not stated, and so is eligibility. Its published economics are clean and unusually clear for the category: no annual fee, no foreign transaction fee, assets converted at live OTC rates, and “no hidden exchange fees”. Rewards are stated as spend-to-earn up to 3%. What is missing is the funding section and who can sign up — so if the rate is your main concern, this one is easier to judge than hi.

Whop Cards — 5.2 / 10. A Visa card that works anywhere Visa is accepted, spending from a Whop balance; the pending balance becomes usable as soon as a payment arrives, while standard withdrawals use settled funds, and the balance is backed by stablecoin collateral from a linked wallet. The page says “No extra fees” but lists no amounts, and neither the card type, the card currency nor the funding coins are stated. Its eligibility is unusually specific rather than absent: consumers in 31 US states are named individually, businesses in 41, and unsupported consumer countries are listed — the same broad set as the Visa card’s, with Hong Kong added and China (Mainland) kept separate. Rewards are 5% cashback at select merchants, currently Uber, with payout currency and conditions not stated.

What all three alternatives have that hi does not: published numbers. What hi has that they do not is a direct EUR or GBP IBAN link for people who already hold one. If your existing bank account is in euros or pounds and you just want a virtual card off it, that is a real advantage and it is hi’s best argument.

Who I would recommend it to

I would recommend it to exactly one person, which is a real person: someone already inside the hi app in Europe, holding a EUR or GBP IBAN, spending from that account most of the time, content to hold only what they can afford to have temporarily unavailable, and treating the crypto balance as a secondary option rather than the point. For that person the card does one job plainly.

I would not recommend it as a first payment card, because the two things you need most when you start somewhere are both missing: a stated list of who can have it, and a published fee schedule. I would not recommend it if you need a physical card, cash withdrawals, mobile wallets you can rely on, or stated spending limits. And I would think twice if your money is going to sit in the HI token on the strength of the rewards, given both the reported value losses and the reports of a rug pull.

If any of that is you, the alternatives above are worth reading before you commit — and if the deciding factor is simply that you want a card off an existing euro or pound account without opening another one, then hi’s design makes sense and you are accepting the disclosure gaps knowingly.

Frequently asked questions

What is the hi card?

The hi card is a virtual Mastercard debit card offered inside the hi app. By default it is linked to your personal IBAN in EUR or GBP and transactions are covered by that account’s funds, and you can alternatively spend from crypto you hold at hi using one secondary currency at a time. The card states it works where Mastercard is accepted, which it puts at more than 90 million merchants. It is virtual only on the card’s pages.

How does the hi card actually work day to day?

You check your balance, tap or insert the virtual card details at the merchant, and the payment comes out of your IBAN funds in EUR or GBP, or out of your crypto balance if you have set a secondary payment currency. The same payment in a different currency to your IBAN means a conversion happens, and the card publishes no rate or markup, so that is the case where you cannot predict the cost in advance.

Is hi a bank?

The card’s own pages do not say. The starting data names hi Technology Limited, and press coverage from 2022 says the card was issued by Moorwand Ltd, a Mastercard principal member, with a Contis partnership announced for debit and fiat accounts. Press reporting is not the same as the card’s own account of itself, so treat the banking question as open rather than answered either way.

Does the hi card require KYC?

Yes, in practice — the card is activated in the app once your address has been verified, and the help centre contains an “Identity verification (KYC)” section. The card does not state which documents, what age threshold, or what verification level applies. Across this category, regulated providers normally collect name, address, date of birth and identity documentation, but that is a general pattern, not a hi rule.

How much does the hi card cost?

The card publishes no fees at all: not issuance, not a monthly fee, not conversion, not foreign exchange, not ATM, and no daily or monthly limits. An unofficial blog review describes no transaction, FX or issuance fees, with issuance free for eligible users who complete KYC and fees possible later. Until a schedule exists, the honest answer is that you do not know what it charges.

Can I add the hi card to Apple Wallet?

I cannot tell you that you can. Apple Pay and Google Pay are not officially named anywhere on the card’s pages, and user reviews report that Google Pay did not work for them. What is true generally is that adding a card to Apple Pay replaces the card number with a device-specific number, and your bank can still decline to add it.

Is hi card free?

Nobody can answer that properly from public information. Issuance is not listed as free on the card’s pages, though an unofficial review says issuance is free for eligible users who complete KYC and that fees may apply later. “Not disclosed” and “free” are different answers, and only one of them is supported.

How do I top up the hi card?

The default source is your IBAN funds in EUR or GBP, so a normal bank transfer is the ordinary top-up. You can also pay from crypto held at hi, with one secondary payment currency set in the app. The card does not name which coins or networks it accepts, and on-chain network fees are paid to the blockchain rather than to hi, so establish the expected network before sending anything.

Is the hi card safe to use?

The security controls are not stated, so I cannot confirm two-factor authentication, instant card freeze or spending limits. What I can tell you about the risk picture is that the category carries real counterparty risk — custodial platforms have failed before, with Mt. Gox, Coincheck and Ronin Network among the largest — and that blockchain transfers are irreversible, so a wrong network or a wrong address can mean lost funds.

Is the hi card worth it?

For an existing hi member in Europe paying from an existing EUR or GBP IBAN, possibly — it is a thin, single-purpose card and it does that job. For anyone starting out, no: you would be choosing a card with no published eligibility list, no fee schedule, no stated limits and a Trustpilot rating of 1.8 from 587 reviews, dominated by withdrawal problems, a blocked card and losses on the HI token.

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