My BitPay Debit Card Account Was Closed And I Need An Alternative ASAP!

I've been a big fan of BitPay, the debit card you can load with bitcoins which then converts in into USD on a Visa debit card. You can spend it and make ATM withdraws just like a regular debit card.

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I got it about a year ago and everything worked just fine until now. (beginning of my rant)

Last April I moved to Mexico and called BitPay to let them know I would be making regular ATM withdraws from out of the country. They assured me that would be fine and it was.

Then in July a third-party customer service center for BitPay blocked my card. I called them and sorted it all out. Everything was fine once again.

About a week ago the card was blocked again so I called customer service again and sent copies of my passport and various ID's to verify my identity and was told they should be able to clear things up in 1 to 2 business days.

Those days went by with no response so I called them again and they asked me to send them an image of the back of my ID's assuring me that in 1-2 business days it should be cleared up.

The days passed and still no response so I called again. They said they had everything they needed and assured me it should all be fine. They also sent me an email this time saying;

A request was sent to our Compliance Department regarding the status of your account. An update should be available before the end of our business day today.

Two more business days go by and still no response so I called again and again was reassured.

Then I got this email.

Please contact our Customer Service department by phone to discuss the update on your account.

Regards,

Card Services

To which I responded:

I have already called the customer service department 3 times and each time I am told this will be resolved in 1-2 business days.

I got a response an hour later that read:

We asked that you call us since our Compliance Department agreed to allow you to withdraw your funds. Please contact us while you are at an ATM. We will temporarily activate the account to allow the withdrawal and if there are still funds remaining, you may make a purchase to use the remaining funds.

The email made it sound like they were "temporarily" unblocking my card which made me concerned. You see, the only source of cash I have at the moment is this card. I use it to pull cash out and pay my bills.

So I called them and a very nice lady said she saw and removed the block on my card and I can now use it and no, it is not temporary.

Great! So I go to the ATM and it still did not work. I called them again and this time, only 30-minutes from being told that all is good with my card, I was told that the account is being closed.

To their credit they did lift the block for 4-hours allowing me to withdraw the funds I had in there, but damn, I'm now in Mexico with no way to get cash at the moment.

This just illustrates that banks can do whatever they want with your account and close it at any time.

When I asked why they closed my account they said it was for "suspicious activity". What is so suspicious about pulling money out of an ATM, even a foreign one, considering I called them prior to coming to Mexico to let them know that this is normal behavior for my account.

They said it was duly noted on my account that I would be in Mexico for an indefinite amount of time.

So, what is so suspicious about it seeing how they were told ahead of time?

(end of rant)

Thankfully, my landlady is being cool about the rent until I make other arrangements but it still leaves me with no cash until I can.

So, I'm asking the community to recommend another Bitcoin debit card that works well for travelers. I wonder what Andreas Antonopolus uses?

Can anyone here recommend a bitcoin debit card that works and works well even if you travel a lot? Preferably with low transaction fees and that could be shipped to Mexico.

I was just about to book my flights to Lisbon, Portugal for SteemFest 2 and this is really setting me back. The longer it takes me to sort this out the higher the price of the flight may be.

I sure would appreciate your recommendations.

Thanks

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