Bitcoin debit card provider Shakepay has joined fellow card service Xapo in stopping the issuance of debit cards to residents outside of European territory.
Xapo promulgated these changes last week at the acknowledgment of new requirements coming from Visa. Likewise, ShakePay stated that its partner bank is being nudged by Visa to immediately halt issuing cards to residents living outside of Europe.
All Shakepay users outside of the Visa European network countries will have their cards deactivated on October 15th, 2017.
As a result of these changes, any new sign-ups to Shakepay will be required to have proof of residence from the following list of European Visa network countries:
| Andorra Austria Belgium Bulgaria The Canary Islands Croatia Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Estonia Finland France |
Germany Gibraltar Greece Greenland Guernsey Hungary Iceland Ireland The Isle of Man Israel Italy |
Jersey Latvia Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Madeira Malta Monaco The Netherlands Norway Poland |
Portugal Romania San Marino Slovakia Slovenia Spain Sweden Switzerland Turkey The United Kingdom The Vatican |
- Steps required if your address of residence is in Europe – None, customers can continue on as normal.
- Steps required for Shakepay user cards if their residence is outside the European Territory – All top-ups and card loads will remain operational until October 15th, 2017. As of now, these users will not be issued a new card. Shakepay did not mention whether they are currently coming up with a separate solution for clients outside of the EU other than to expect “awesome things” on the way. The team is also recommending to spend all available balances on the card by October 15th, 2017.
Unfortunately, the Shakepay team said that the EU-only list now excludes most of their staff. Lastly worth mentioning, for those getting their cards deactivated, Shakepay is offering the choice to have their balances refunded in crypto, more details are available on the Shakepay website.