Nº 5 Best exchange card

Krak Card review

Kraken built this for Europe first, and it shows: an Irish MiCA licence, zero fees from Kraken's side, and cashback that pays instantly with no monthly cap — if you keep a balance.

The Krak Card is a Mastercard debit card on top of Kraken's payments app, launched for UK and EU residents in November 2025 under Kraken's Irish MiCA licence. You can pay from hundreds of assets and even split one payment across several, and the account comes with a virtual German IBAN for salary deposits.

Since March 2026, cashback is tiered by your 30-day average balance across Kraken products: 0% below €200, 0.5% from €200, 1% from €1,000, 1.5% from €10,000, rising to 2% at €50,000 — paid instantly with no monthly cap. The average builds up gradually: a deposit is spread evenly over 30 days. New customers start on the top 2% tier as a welcome offer, whatever their balance.

Salary Match pays a second reward on your pay. Have at least €2,500 a month of salary paid into Krak, in up to four payments from your employer, and Krak adds a percentage set by the same balance tiers: 0.25% from €200, 0.5% from €1,000, 0.75% from €10,000 and 1% from €50,000, up to €250 a month. It is paid at the start of the following month, in your local currency or in BTC. It is open in the EEA except France, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Liechtenstein, and Krak calls it a promotion it can change or end at any time.

Krak vs Wise, N26 and Starling

Krak sells itself as a payments app as much as a crypto card, so it gets compared with the accounts people already use for travel and everyday spending. On card fees abroad the four are close. The real differences are cashback, how your money is protected, and who can open an account.

Krak vs Wise. Wise is the better tool for holding and converting many currencies, and it is free when you spend a currency you already hold. Spend in one you don't, and Wise adds a conversion fee from 0.2% on top of the mid-market rate, while Krak passes on the Mastercard rate with no markup in the EEA and UK. Krak also pays cashback once your balance reaches €200, its plastic card is free where Wise charges €7, and Krak sets no free-withdrawal allowance where Wise charges 2.69% above €250 a month (the ATM owner may still add a fee).

Krak vs N26. N26 is a German bank, so up to €100,000 is covered by the German deposit guarantee; nothing on Krak is. Both add no fee to card payments in other currencies. Krak pulls ahead on cash abroad, where N26's free plan charges 1.7% outside the euro, and on rewards, since N26 Standard pays no cashback. If you buy crypto, N26 charges 1.5% on bitcoin and 2.5% on other coins on its free plan, against Krak's 1% for an instant buy. N26 is not available in Romania, Hungary or Croatia, where Krak is.

Krak vs Starling. For UK residents, Starling already charges nothing to spend or withdraw abroad and uses the Mastercard rate, and deposits are protected by the FSCS up to £120,000. Krak matches it on fees and adds cashback, a euro IBAN and crypto, but without that protection.

The trade-off is the same against all three: Krak pays you to keep money with it, but that money sits with an e-money institution and a crypto exchange rather than a bank. A sensible split is to keep savings at a bank and hold on Krak only the balance that sets your cashback tier.

Who it's for: Kraken users and anyone who wants a clean, regulated exchange card with no fee surprises on fiat spend.