Virtual card topped up with USDT (TRC-20 / ERC-20) for ads: 1%, credited within a minute

TRC-20 (the Tron network) is taken by all 14 live providers in the comparison, ERC-20 (Ethereum) by roughly half: Brocard, Flexcard, Combo Cards, FuncCards, CardsPro. The difference is the network fee and the speed: TRC-20 usually runs under $1 and confirms in about 3 seconds, ERC-20 costs $3–15 and takes 12–30 seconds depending on how loaded Ethereum is. The sender pays the network fee, and it does not depend on the transfer amount — which makes splitting top-ups into small ERC-20 transfers expensive.

For regular top-ups TRC-20 is cheaper almost always, and most media buying services run their main flow through it. ERC-20 stays as the fallback for people who keep USDT in an Ethereum wallet and do not want to pay for a bridge to Tron. NeCard takes both networks at the same rate — 1%, credited within a minute, deposit from $250.

“0% on top-ups” on a landing page often means the fee is taken at the next step, when money moves onto the card. At 4 of the 25 providers the deposit is free, but the effective “USDT → money on the card” rate across the market has a median of 4% and a range of 1.5–6.7%. That is the number to count, because the dollar does not reach the card in one move.

Two-step models where the first rate is deceptively low: 4x4 — 0% in plus 5% of spend; Spendge — 1% plus 3% to the card; AdsCard — 0% plus 4% per transaction; Colibrix — 0.5% plus 3.5% per transaction; Pay2.House — 0% plus 4% to the card; Zambulay — 0.5% plus 2.5%. The cheapest on the effective rate are Karta.io at around 1.5%, LeadingCards from 2% and FuncCards from 2.5%; the most expensive are e.PN at up to 6.7% on a low grade and PST at about 6% on ad cards (Ultima is 8% outright).

The 1% NeCard states puts it in the bottom fifth of the market on deposits and the bottom third on the effective rate.

NeCard has one step: 1% on the way in, transactions 0, declines 0. On $100,000 of spend that is $1,000 against $4,000 at the typical 4% and against $6,000 at the priciest. The difference is the budget for another test or two a month.

The full cost of a card is not one number like “from 3%”. There are five layers: topping up the balance, issuing the card, the monthly fee, the transaction fee on a charge and FX on cross-currency spend; cashback, where it exists, comes off the total. The Affpaying test on real Facebook spend showed what that adds up to in practice: Brocard 7–8%, PST on the team plan 2%, Capitalist 11.2%. So “from 3%” and an actual 8% is a normal gap.

The hidden lines get checked separately: a fee for an inactive card (Combo up to $2.35 a month, PST Ultima $16), a penalty for using an ad card off-purpose (PST — up to 30% of the amount, per the inokarti review), a minimum balance on the card, a fee to withdraw the remainder and a fee to credit a refund. The full cost at your own volume is easy to sketch in the calculator on the main page.

The market minimum deposit has a median of $100: Multicards $200, e.PN $50 to the account, Flexcard 50 USDT, 4x4 and Stellar $500 each, LeadingCards asks for a minimum top-up of $1,000. NeCard takes a deposit from $250 — the same as Brocard, which cut its floor from $500 to $250 in 2026 — above the median, but with open pricing and 1% on the way in.

On top of the provider deposit comes the network fee itself: fractions of a dollar on TRC-20, up to $15 on ERC-20 when Ethereum is at peak load. That is the argument against splitting: one top-up for the month is cheaper than ten small ones, especially on ERC-20. Keeping more than a week of spend on the balance is not worth it — a remainder at an unlicensed intermediary is not insured.

Here the models diverge. At providers with a single balance (Flexcard, LuckyCards, AdsCard, Multicards) money does not “sit” on the card — charges come off the shared account, and closing a card loses nothing. At providers who keep the balance on the card, a refund goes to the account: PST states 0% to withdraw from a card. At NeCard a refund from a closed card is 0, to the shared balance.

Withdrawing from the service itself is a different story and the main risk. e.PN pays a deposit out within 30 days, minimum $100, 5% fee. Reviews of PST and Flexcard in 2025–2026 record waits from 14 days to half a year; 14 days in the terms is the market norm, not a glitch. So you park at a provider no more than you are ready to have frozen for a month or two.

No. Neither Meta nor Google nor TikTok takes crypto — only cards, PayPal in some countries and manual methods (Meta manual payments are available only for a few currencies such as NGN, PEN, IDR). USDT gets in two ways: through a card provider (USDT → balance → card) or through an agency ad account that takes USDT and pays itself, charging its own fee. The second path takes the cards and the declines off the buyer but adds an intermediary between you and the platform — the two approaches are compared on the agency ad accounts page. Where to get USDT: the crypto exchangers catalogue.

A slice covering those who state USDT outright and publish prices. The full table is on the main page.