For those new to BitBay or who have been watching from a distance, this is a special day indeed! Today, I came home from work to find my Western Union NetSpend Prepaid Card in the mail! For those of you that are ‘unbanked’, this Prepaid Card is the perfect solution for all your BitBay to fiat transactions.

What I truly love about this card is that I can use it to buy Bay (coins)on the BitBay Market Client without leaving the comfort of my home*. I can also use it to receive fiat from a buyer when I sell Bay for cash**. It’s fast, secure, and I don’t have to leave my home to receive funds as long as the sender sends from a local agency. Once I have the tracking number (MTCN), I simply log into my card’s website and load the tracking number into my account! And since I signed up with their mobile phone alert app, I receive text messages telling me that funds have been received from the BitBay Client Marketplace for any type of sell contract I have open. Any feature that allows BitBay Client users to transact fiat through Western Union without the need for visiting one of its global agencies increases adoption. I can use my card anywhere that accepts a Debit Mastercard.

BitBay has many payment options that allow for users to transact securely amongst each other with a unique double deposit escrow system without the need for 3rd party ‘middlemen’ to manage the escrow. These options currently include:Bank Wire/SEPA, Western Union, Money Gram, Prepaid Debit Card, Cash in the Mail, Other. This eliminates the potential for human error and allows BitBay to be free (other than minimal miner fees typically costing fractions of a penny) from added transaction fees. Bank wires will always be the cheapest option for fiat transactions yet they are generally limited to banks within the same country. So for the sake of versatility on a global scale, and the unbanked, BitBay merchants and buyers utilizing the card as a payment option will expand their outreach maximizing potential sales and savings. This card provides great incentives to use; discounted fiat transfer fees on a global scale, ability to create virtual accounts minimizing online fraud, and a reward points system based on usage.

Snippet direct from www.wunetspendprepaid.com:

“Create a Virtual Account

A Western Union® NetSpend® virtual account allows you to shop online, order from catalogs, book tickets and make hotel reservations just about anywhere MasterCard are accepted. It works just like your Western Union NetSpend Prepaid MasterCard, without the plastic.

• Control — A virtual account can only be used online or over the telephone, so you don’t have to worry about someone stealing your plastic.
• Convenience — If your Western Union NetSpend Prepaid MasterCard is lost or stolen, you can create a virtual account so that you can continue to shop and pay bills while you wait for your replacement card.
• Security — You VICE have the same excellent level of protection that you have with your Western Union NetSpend Prepaid MasterCard, but you can also delete a virtual account at any time.
• Flexibility — Western Union NetSpend Prepaid MasterCard virtual account can be used anywhere MasterCard is accepted for “card-not-present” transactions.

The Virtual MasterCard was designed especially to provide added conveniences and security. The main difference is that there is no physical plastic — just a card number, an expiration date, and a security code.

Use it if your card is lost or stolen, or as an extra layer of protection when your shop online. Since you can instantly create or delete a virtual account at www.wunetspendprepaid.com, you can shop with confidence knowing that you’ve got protection if the account falls into the wrong hands.”

The card is supported by Mastercard and managed by “NetSpend”, an affiliate of Metabank***. So again, you can use the card anywhere that accepts Mastercard! Apply for your card today (no credit check — just a valid US address) a start buying and selling on Bitbay!

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

* Payees are limited to receiving prepaid card payment via cash at a local agency or directly into their bank account. They cannot load the payment into their own WU Netspend Prepaid Card.

**Same principal applies — Through online merchant transactions, you can only load payments into your Western Union Prepaid Card if Payers send the cash transfer through an agency. If they send cash transfer online through WU you cannot load it into your card.

*** Western Union Prepaid Card members limited to United States only.