Karta - New credit card for IBKR user

Banks, Insurances & Third Pillar
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IBKR has launched in partnership with Karta a credit card for IBKR users holding more than usd 50k. The card is a real (not a prepaid) credit card and non US citizen are allowed. The fee is 300 usd. Advantages: priority pass, no fx and foreign currency charges, global health care insurance, limit up to 200k.

This type of offer only target specific user (retiree with no income), but from my pov is really interesting and innovative.

https://www.nerdwallet.com/credit-cards/news/karta-card-launches

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As a Swiss citizen (with no US citizenship) with a IBKR UK account, how would I possibly qualify for

An automatic refund on taxes for purchases made in Europe: The refund is credited to your credit card when you take a picture of your receipt and send it to the concierge via WhatsApp.

What taxes? VAT?

Also:

Points: The card earns 1 point per $1 spent. Points can be redeemed for statement credit or to pay for preferred airlines and hotels

And 1 point equals how much statement credit, 1 cent? So a 1% cashback like Swisscard Cashback, but for foreign currencies without fees (except for the annual $300)?

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According to FAQ, you need a US Visa:

In order to apply for Karta, you must have an active US bank account, a copy of your passport, a utility bill, and a US VISA

https://www.conkarta.com/

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Technically, CH/EU citizens don’t need a VISA for entry into the US.

An IBKR account is not a bank account. I guess there are some US banks that offer accounts to non-residents but I’m not sure about that. It’s not clear to me whether they require US residency or not. Terrible website in that regard. (That said, I’m not actually interested in that offer anyway).

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Edit: After @markus654 's post, my comment is basically obsolete, but I’ll post it anyway.

Interesting. I think that for me personally this card doesn’t make much sense, because I’d first need to hit the USD 300 break-even point (I’m currently using Neon Plus with a CHF 20 annual fee and no FX markup aside from Mastercard’s own rate). Still, it could become attractive if you expect a declining USD: since the statement is billed a month later, you might squeeze out a few extra bps — the higher the spending, the more relevant that becomes.

My questions would be:

  • Does the Karta x IBKR card use IBKR-style FX conversion or Visa’s FX model?
  • Are credit cards in the US structured differently than in Switzerland? Here in Switzerland, I basically get a free one-month credit period; but as soon as I’m late, the penalty rate is brutal (typically above 11% p.a.). With the IBKR Visa I’d happily take 4.37% and essentially run it like a margin position — why not?
  • I honestly don’t see a real USP: I currently have a Viseca Gold (free through my employer) which offers very similar benefits. Sure, let’s ignore the FX topic for a moment, but realistically I only use the Viseca Gold for purchases I want insured (hotels, flights, rental cars). Everything else I pay with a neobank card. I’m also not the type who arrives two hours early at the airport to sit in a lounge (and I almost never have long stopovers). The VAT refund feature would be interesting, but I spend most of my holidays in Asia — and it seems that only Europe is supported for now.
  • Do you need an additional app?
  • IBKR already offered a debit/credit card in the past, but discontinued it. What would be fundamentally different with Karta now?
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This is not an IBKR card. It’s just linked to your IBKR account. And presumably IBKR gets a commission from Karta for the advertisement.

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If it works for Swiss citizens shopping in Germany, it would be a significant simplification of the process. Assuming it really is as simple as “take a picture of the receipt, done”, which notably doesn’t include any proof of export or interaction with customs. You get statement credit, not store credit!

It seems too good to be true.

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Swissquote has a similar offer: Elite Debit Card: Multi-Currency, No Fees & Gold Cashback | Swissquote

(Yes, more expensive and even a limit on the FX conversion fee. But it seems, it’s in one app). Waiting for some more opinions, since the company behind is very young: https://app.dealroom.co/companies/karta_2?utm )

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300 lmfao

I use Migros and Cembra for 0 fee. Revolut (and still ) Radicant abroad, again no fees and no FX.

For what would I ever pay 300?

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The card includes lounge access and insurances. (The metal offer from Revolut is around 900 usd a year, which also include lounge. )

If you are working, this card hasn’t a lot of advantages. However, if you are not working (early retiree) it can be difficult or impossible to have a non prepaid credit card or a high limit. In this case, this card could make sense.

The website is bad and don’t provide a lot of details.

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Insurances every card has.

Lounge access, not, fine, but a) do you not fly business class? (this is not snobbery, this is a swiss based forum where people are very keen on accumulating significant wealth) b) paying for lounge access is cheaper than 300, so how often do you fly that paying for it would be above 300? And if you fly that much you likely have airline loyalty access anyway c) more and more people complaining how lounges are so full and cards don’t let you in, only actual tickets paid for them.

So alone the 300 ain’t worth it. But adding the poorer FX compared to Radicant/Revolut, it really isn’t worth it financially.

I am not sure I know enough about your second argument. My non-prepaid card I have one month extra. Hardly life altering. So I don’t understand the big benefit to this. High limit ok, I have no idea what it is like for retirees. Does having significant assets not give you a high limit? But again, that limit only applies to non-prepaid and as I said, I don’t really see the massive benefit of non-prepaid. You get one month. What are you doing in that time, invest? Market could go up or down in that month.

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In the meantime I’ve checked out Karta’s offering a bit:

  • It’s a relatively young company, founded in 2022 and based in Miami. The website contains very little information and some links don’t work (for example, the QR code at the bottom of the page doesn’t work). According to LinkedIn they have about 10 employees. I’m generally a fan of new competitors in the space and would be open to testing their product at some point. I’m particularly curious about their FX fee.
  • IBKR also announced the new card on Instagram. The comments were full of questions about whether the card is available in Mexico, Venezuela, Peru, etc. It’s clearly tied to LATAM: Yahoo ist Teil der Yahoo-Markenfamilie.
  • Apparently you can build a US credit score with the card.
  • I see regulatory risks (new company, seed rounds with Canary, Clocktower and FJ Labs), high demand from lower-income LATAM countries but a global roll-out.
  • The “24/7 premium service” via WhatsApp is an AI service — so no real humans behind it.
  • Priority Pass regularly runs Black Friday promotions. And anyone who has used Priority Pass lounges knows what a mess they can be — anyone can buy access. Status lounges or business/first class lounges are the complete opposite: not crowded, people behave, they’re clean and offer a proper range of services — something you can’t always say about Priority Pass lounges (just my experience).
  • Since this isn’t an IBKR-issued card, it will probably use Visa’s FX rates. At that point you might as well stick to WIR/Revolut/Neon, etc. Still, I’m curious to hear real-world reports.
  • Metal cards can get stuck in ATMs. How quickly would they send a replacement? All this information is missing. Compare their website and information depth to American Express — that’s the gold standard.

I’m not sure whether this card is a good fit for us. There are aspects in favor of it, but also several that really aren’t. Regarding retirees and credit cards: as a retiree you can simply declare your assets instead of income when applying with most credit card issuers. You’ll get your card — credit card companies are very interested in you spending as much money as possible through them.

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I would hope the credit card can support spend in CHF and repay in CHF via ibkr, spend in USD and repay in USD via ibkr, spend in EUR and repay in EUR via ibkr. But I guess it won’t be the case.