[Discontinued] Voyager Debit Mastercard [Earn 9% Interest on Deposits & up to 3% Back on Spend]

It is not often that you come across a debit card that offers a lucrative rewards structure. In fact, most debit cards offered by legacy financial institutions offer no rewards at all. Voyager Digital is looking to drastically change the status quo by offering you 9% interest on USD Coin (USDC) deposits and up to 3% back on purchases made with its debit card.

If your head is spinning already, don’t worry! In this guide, we will teach you everything you need to know about Voyager Digital, its upcoming debit card, and its loyalty program to help you see how it might fit into your overall rewards strategy.

What Is Voyager Digital?

Voyager is a cryptocurrency exchange that offers commission-free trading on over 80 digital assets. The platform also offers an Earn program, allowing users to deposit their crypto with Voyager and earn interest for doing so, along with a loyalty program, and a soon-to-be-launched debit card.

As of November 2021, Voyager surpassed 1 million funded accounts, increasing funded accounts by 2,225% in just over 10 months, and announced registered users at 2.7 million, up from 1 million announced in April 2021.

Voyager Debit Mastercard Details

Voyager’s latest product is a debit card that allows users to spend the USD Coin in their account and earn rewards for doing so.

Hot Tip: If you’re not already familiar, USD Coin, or USDC, is what is known as a stablecoin. Stablecoins are crypto-assets designed to peg themselves to a fiat currency, in this case, the U.S. dollar. Every unit of USDC is backed by $1 that is held in reserve, in a mix of cash and short-term U.S. Treasury bonds, so that it can preserve its 1:1 basis.

When you deposit USDC into your Voyager account and opt-in to the Earn program, you’ll earn a whopping 9% APY on your balance, so long as you maintain at least 100 USDC.

The downside is, at least previously, that in order to spend any of your USDC you’d need to convert it back into U.S. dollars, then transfer them to your bank in order to have the balance to complete any purchases with your debit card.

However, keeping your funds in a checking account with a legacy bank usually earns a paltry return of something like 0.03%, if you earn any interest at all. This is where the benefits of the Voyager Debit card come in.

With your Voyager Debit card, you can spend your USDC balance (without needing to perform any conversions) immediately and with no additional fee anywhere in the world that Mastercard is accepted.

This allows you to continue earning the 9% APY on your USDC balance while giving you access to spend those funds any time you’d like.

Better yet, those with status in the Voyager Loyalty Program will also earn up to 3% crypto-back rewards on their purchases.

Here is a glance at the full list of benefits the Voyager Debit card offers to cardholders:

• Instantly spend your USDC anywhere Mastercard is accepted
• No annual fee
• Earn 9% APY on USDC deposits, with no lockup required to earn rewards
• Earn 1% to 3% crypto-back on purchases based on your level in the Voyager Loyalty Program
• Anytime access to assets via ATMs
• Integration of debit card balances and transactions within the Voyager app
• A personal routing and account number for direct deposit and bill pay for each card

Hot Tip: Would a debit or credit card make more sense for your financial goals? For a look at alternatives to a crypto debit card, check out our guide to the best credit cards that earn crypto rewards.

Voyager Loyalty Program

Those who gain status in the Voyager Loyalty Program can boost their rewards in the Earn program and earn crypto-back rewards on their trades and debit card purchases.

To gain status in the Voyager Loyalty Program, you need to hold a certain number of VGX tokens, which is the native token of the brokerage and used to reward users within its ecosystem.

Voyager Loyalty Program Tiers:

• Adventurer: requires 500+ VGX tokens (currently valued at ∼$1,000)
• Explorer: requires 5,000+ VGX tokens (currently valued at ∼$10,000)
• Navigator: requires 20,000+ VGX tokens (currently valued at ∼$40,000)

Now, let’s have a look at the benefits you’ll receive at each loyalty tier.

Adventurers will not only be able to boost their USDC holdings up 0.5%, for a total of 9.5%, but they will also get 1% back on all of their purchases with the Voyager Debit card. These rewards are paid out monthly in the form of VGX, but you’ll have the option to sell your VGX rewards and purchase another crypto if you so choose.

Explorer is where things really start to get interesting, as the 1% boost gives you a total of 10% APY on your USDC holdings, and you’ll earn 2% back anytime you spend some of your USDC balance. This is quite impressive as 2% back on all purchases with a no-fee debit is essentially unheard of, and rivals even the best cash-back credit cards.

Finally, those who reach Navigator will rake in some serious rewards. Of course, this tier does require you to have a sizeable balance of VGX with Voyager, but those who can meet that requirement stand to benefit greatly. After all, not only will you earn 10.5% on your USDC holdings, but also an uncapped 3% back on all purchases made.

To be clear, that rewards rate isn’t just fantastic, it is unprecedented, as there are virtually no cards on the market that offer an uncapped 3% back on all purchases.

How To Use the Voyager Debit Card

If you’re interested in adding the Voyager Debit card to your wallet, here is a quick run-through on how to get set up:

• Step 1: First, you’ll need to create a Voyager account.
• Step 2: Link a bank account to your Voyager account, and fund your account with U.S. dollars.
• Step 3:  Use the U.S. dollars in your account to purchase USDC at a 1:1 rate, allowing you to start earning a 9% APY on this balance.
• Step 4: Preregister for the Voyager Debit card in the app. The card hasn’t fully rolled out to all account holders yet but is expected to soon. To do this, open the Voyager app, tap Debit on the navigation bar, then click Get Early Access to reserve your card.
• Step 5: Once you receive your debit card, you can begin using it for any and all purchases where Mastercard is accepted, provided that you have the USDC balance to cover the purchase.
• Step 6: Depending on your tier in the Voyager Loyalty Program, you can earn 1% to 3% back on these purchases, paid out at the beginning of each month.

Final Thoughts

Like it or not, crypto has the potential to bring a tidal wave of changes to legacy financial institutions, and companies like Voyager have the capacity to both promote and accelerate these changes.

Of course, like most innovations, taking full advantage of Voyager and its services comes with a bit of a learning curve. However, given that the current checking account likely offers you next to nothing for your deposits and zero rewards on debit card purchases, there is a clear financial incentive to pay attention to this space.

Make no mistake, the waters of the financial world run deep, and by that comparison, the world of crypto is like the deep end of the pool. While that may seem scary at first, many are jumping in to find out that they like the water just fine — and that it is a decision that more and more consumers are making each day.

The information regarding Voyager Debit Mastercard was independently collected by Upgraded Points and not provided nor reviewed by the issuer.