HalocardvsGetsby

Getsby is explicitly regional: its own terms say only residents of the EEA, EFTA and the UK, aged 18 or over, can open an account. A shopper in Germany, France or the UK can open and use a Getsby card; a shopper in the US, Canada, Asia, Africa or Latin America generally cannot. Halocard is a US-issued Visa credit card for customers in the US and 120+ countries. Outside the US? You don't need an SSN, a US address or a US bank account. See supported countries

Halocard sits on a US Visa BIN and behaves as credit, so it satisfies both the country-of-issue filter and the credit-versus-prepaid filter that many US platforms enforce. Getsby runs on Mastercard, with 36 million acceptance points by its own figures, broad for everyday European retail. But it is a prepaid BIN, so platforms that reject prepaid cards will reject it regardless of network, and it carries a European issuing origin, so US services that filter by card country, and expect a US billing address, will often decline it. Check merchant acceptance

Getsby funds in euros through cards, bank transfer, WERO, Apple Pay or Google Pay. The catch is the layered cost of getting money onto a card: an activation fee per card, a 3% top-up fee on the Green Card, and a 2% FX fee on any spending outside the euro. Because funds sit on a specific card rather than in a flexible balance, funding is a repeated cost rather than a one-time setup. Halocard keeps one US-dollar balance you top up by debit/credit card, Apple Pay, Google Pay, bank transfer, stablecoins, or crypto. See how to deposit

Halocard's headroom is far larger, with spending of up to $1M a day against Getsby's €2,500 to €9,000, depending on the card, and no load cap per card. Getsby gives you a fixed euro load as the limit; Halocard lets you set daily, weekly or monthly caps on each card. See card spending limits

Halocard includes a US bank account with its own account and routing numbers, so you can receive salary, transfers from friends and family, and any other payment you'd send to a US checking account. ACH transfers arrive in 1 to 3 business days and domestic wires the same day, straight into your Halocard balance and ready to spend. Getsby offers no bank account or account numbers: money is loaded onto each prepaid card. Send and receive USD payments

Getsby's advantage is disposable volume for small purchases, since you can order 5 burner cards a day. If you need a steady set of reusable cards for subscriptions or ad accounts, Halocard's model fits better: 3 to 60 cards held at once, included in your plan. Compare Halocard plans

Getsby's model is built around disposability and prepaid isolation: the Black Card is single-load and not linked to any bank account, so exposure is capped at what you loaded, with Mastercard 3D Secure and tokenisation on top. Halocard's model centres on configurable controls and address flexibility: you can set daily, weekly or monthly limits on each card, lock or cancel any card instantly, and choose the billing address and cardholder name on each card, which is often what clears verification on international platforms. Set a card's name and address

Getsby has no single subscription; it charges across the card lifecycle instead: activation plus 3%, a €0.99 monthly fee on the Green Card after the first month (waived on a zero balance), a 3% top-up fee, and a €2.99 monthly dormancy fee on an expired Black Card with money left. Putting €100 on a new Green Card costs €6.99 before any FX. Halocard plans are $12, $15 and $75 a month, a fee that doesn't scale with how much you load, and Essential is free with 3 referrals. Compare Halocard plans

Getsby charges 2% on any spending outside the euro, lower than many bank cards for European travel. Halocard charges nothing on US-dollar purchases and 1.5% + $0.30 on others, so a US checkout costs nothing extra. See all Halocard fees

Halocard answers by chat, email, and phone on every plan. Getsby answers by email and contact form and by phone on weekdays, with no live chat; its card issuer runs a 24/7 line for blocking cards. Visit the help centre

Getsby is a legitimate, licensed operation, but its reviews are weak: 2.3/5 from 123 reviews, with complaints clustered around getting started and getting money back. Halocard names its company, card issuer, account bank and founder. About Halocard