You don’t need to already own crypto to order from us. You can buy it with a card and pay within minutes. This article covers your options, what each costs, and the one detail that catches most first-time buyers out.
At a glance: if you need to pay an order today, use a debit card — either on an exchange or through a card-to-wallet service like MoonPay. Buying through a bank transfer is cheaper but the funds are usually locked for a week or more before you can send them.
The thing that catches people out: holding periods
This is the most important part of this article, so we’ve put it first.
When you buy crypto on an exchange, how soon you can send it depends on how you paid for it. Exchanges hold funds that could still be reversed by your bank. Coinbase, for example, typically holds crypto bought by bank transfer for 7 to 12 days before it can be sent to anyone else. During that time the crypto is genuinely yours and you can see it in your account — you just can’t move it off the platform.
People run into this when they buy by bank transfer to save on fees, then discover they can’t actually pay their order. So: if you’re buying crypto specifically to pay for an order right now, don’t fund it by bank transfer. Use one of the two faster options below.
Hold lengths also depend on your account history, so a brand-new account may see a longer wait than an established one. If you’d rather not think about any of this, set your account up and buy a few days before you plan to order.
Your three options
Debit card on an exchange — best all-round choice
Create an account on an exchange like Coinbase or Kraken, connect a debit card, and buy. Fees are usually around 3–4%, and because a debit card settles immediately, the crypto is normally available to send straight away rather than being held.
An exchange account also gives you a support team to contact if a transfer ever goes somewhere unexpected, which is worth a lot the first few times you use crypto. Our guide to setting up a crypto account walks through this step by step.
Worth knowing: some platforms won’t let you send funds at all on the day you open the account, regardless of how you paid. If you’re on a deadline, the next option avoids that.
A card-to-wallet service — fastest, and the only option that takes credit cards
Services such as MoonPay sell crypto with a credit or debit card and deliver it straight to a wallet address you provide. Transak, Ramp, and Banxa do much the same thing and are worth trying if one isn’t available where you live.
Two real advantages here. First, there’s no exchange holding period — the crypto goes directly to your own wallet, so there’s no platform deciding when you may move it. Second, these services accept credit cards, which most exchanges don’t (see the warning below before you use one).
You will need somewhere for the crypto to land: a wallet app such as Trust Wallet, or the deposit address of an exchange account you already have. Our account setup guide covers both, including the safety basics for wallets.
Cost: card purchases through these services typically run up to about 4.5%, with a minimum charge of a few dollars, plus a small exchange-rate spread. That minimum matters on smaller orders — a flat $3.99 fee on a $65 purchase is closer to 6% than to 4.5%. The service always shows you exactly how much crypto you’ll receive before you confirm, so check that figure rather than the advertised percentage.
We aren’t affiliated with any of these companies and receive nothing if you use them. Availability varies by country and by US state, so confirm a service works for you before relying on it.
Bank transfer on an exchange — cheapest, but plan ahead
Linking a bank account is the cheapest way to buy — often free or around 1% — and it’s a good choice if you use crypto regularly or are buying well in advance. It’s the wrong choice for an order you want to pay today, because of the holding period described above.
Before you use a credit card, read this
Credit cards do work through card-to-wallet services, but your bank — not the crypto service — has the final say, and many banks treat crypto purchases as a special category:
- Some banks bill it as a cash advance. Chase, for instance, classifies crypto purchases as cash-like transactions, which carries an extra fee and starts charging interest immediately with no grace period. That can cost considerably more than the crypto service’s own fee.
- Some banks decline it outright. Capital One blocks crypto purchases automatically. If your card is refused, it’s almost always your bank rather than the crypto service — and a quick call to your bank sometimes clears it.
- A credit card adds no protection here. Once crypto is bought and sent, there’s no card dispute to fall back on, so the usual reason to prefer a credit card doesn’t apply.
A debit card avoids all three, which is why we suggest it first.
Expect an ID check
Every legitimate way of buying crypto with a card requires identity verification — that’s a legal requirement on the company selling it, not something specific to us. Expect to photograph a government ID, and sometimes take a selfie. It usually takes a few minutes, but it can occasionally take longer, which is another good reason to get set up before you have an order waiting.
What to buy
We recommend USDC on the Polygon network. USDC holds a steady value of about $1, so the amount you buy is the amount you can spend — no worrying about the price moving between buying and paying. Polygon has the lowest network fees of the options we accept.
One practical thing to check: sending USDC on Polygon costs a very small network fee, and that fee is paid in Polygon’s own token rather than in USDC. Some services include a little of it automatically with your purchase; others don’t. If your wallet says you can’t cover the network fee, buy a dollar or two of Polygon’s token and you’ll be fine — this catches out a lot of first-timers, and it’s a quick fix rather than a real problem.
Buy first, then pay
Have the crypto delivered to your own wallet or exchange account first, then send payment from there to the address on our payment page. It’s tempting to have a card service deliver straight to our payment address to save a step, but we don’t recommend it: our payment page expects an exact amount within a time limit, while card purchases arrive slightly reduced by fees and can be delayed by verification. That combination tends to produce an underpaid or expired invoice that then needs sorting out by hand.
If your payment window does run out before you’re ready, nothing is lost — your order stays pending and you can start the payment again. Get in touch if you can’t.
Putting it together
- Set up somewhere to hold crypto — an exchange account or a wallet app.
- Buy USDC on Polygon with a debit card, either on the exchange itself or through a card-to-wallet service.
- Check the crypto is available to send, not held.
- Place your order and choose cryptocurrency at checkout.
- Send the exact amount shown, on the network shown, to the address beneath the QR code.
Our walkthrough of an actual payment covers that last step in detail. If anything looks wrong along the way, contact us before sending — we’d far rather answer a question first than untangle a misdirected payment afterward.
Related articles
- Paying with Cryptocurrency
- Crypto For Beginners: Terms — our four-part guide starts here