BTC-E : Sell Bitcoin, Transfer Funds To Your VISA/Mastercard

The tight-lipped Bitcoin exchange, and CoinDesk Bitcoin Price Index member, BTC-e is now allowing customers to withdraw funds to Visa and MasterCard debit and credit cards, with some exceptions. The company’s blog post on 21st March indicated that the new program is now available to customers in any country, using any currency. All customers will pay a 5% fee for the service.

This new functionality is noteworthy as it will allow customers to send money to debit and credit cards issued by two of the largest and most commonly used international card issuers. At present, the transfer of funds is only possible in US dollars.

Now some of us have questions about how long the customers have to wait until they receive their money. BTC-e estimated that customers will need to wait between two and four days to receive funds. BTC-e did tell us that “If your card is not in USD, the money will be converted at the rate of VISA / MasterCard or your bank’s rate, depending on the agreement that VISA/Mastercard has with your bank.” It is a bit wooly but there you go.

However this service isn’t open to everyone. According to BTC-e, MasterCard’s Maestro debit card and other cards issued by PayPal and Visa Electron debit cards are not able to be used in conjunction with the service. It is possible that they will enable these cards to the same service but that will be in the near future.

Customers will be able to create feedback on their transfers & withdrawals, so BTC-e claims. Furthermore, the exchange indicated the transactions will display as “affiliate payment” or “refund affiliate payment” on credit card statements. It added that funds can be sent to cards in any country and that on some cards such transactions would not be possible due to restrictions imposed by banks.

Now how could this company get “back into the hotseat” and gain popularity? First they had a major stroke of luck when Mt.Gox got scrapped and their pending lawsuits. The second reason is their adaptability to new situations and their new experiments, like the one mentioned in this article. BTC-e also did something most exchanges do not like to think about. On February 28rh, BTC-e cut withdrawal fees via some of its third-party services in a move that increased the ease with which some customers would be able to move funds out of the exchange.

Becuase of all these innovative ideas and their flexibility,the BTC-e exchange has shown that they mean business and that they are a less greedy than a lot of other so called “exchanges” out there.