Metal Pay Review – Should you use MTL?

Metal Pay is basically a new version of Paypal. They offer accounts like a typical savings account that is FDIC insured. Then they integrate Paypal type payment services. Of course the person you are sending money to also have to have a Metal Pay account. Just like Venmo or Zelle, they are a Paypal clone.

Where things get a bit different is they integrate cryptocurrency. They allow you to store cryptocurrency on the app and use it to pay other people who use the Metal Pay app. Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of Metal Pay.

Privacy

Metal Pay even ignores the “Do Not Track” feature of many browsers meaning they track what you do online. If you install the Metal Pay app on your phone they track how you use your phone.

Just like any bank Metal Pay collects a lot of information about you. All the basic things you would expect a bank to collect like name, address, social security number and more

They also go on to say they collect information about your transactions, who you do business with, what devices you use, information from your web browser aboutyour browsing or navigation behavior, and information. Metal Pay even ignores the “Do Not Track” feature of many browsers meaning they track what you do online. If you install the Metal Pay app on your phone they track how you use your phone.

Metal Pay offers no real privacy and in fact, they admit they ignore most consumer privacy choices.

Security

Trusting your bitcoin or ethereum to a company to hold is a huge mistake.

While your US Dollars are FDIC insured any money held in cryptocurrencies are not.

As anyone familiar with cryptocurrency knows trusting your Bitcoin or Ethereum to a company to hold is a HUGE mistake. The large exchanges have been hacked, shut down and gone out of business. Trusting your coin to a company to hold is a huge risk.

Metal Pay is just like Paypal and the rest in that they can dictate what you do with your money. As anyone familiar with Paypal knows, these companies reverse transactions, make unauthorized withdrawals, cancel payments and freeze accounts. If they don’t like how you spend your own money, they freeze and cancel your account.

Trading the freedom and security of cryptocurrency for letting another bank to tell us what to do just sounds foolish. Add to that Metal Pay is a bank based in the USA. Just like any banking service your account can be frozen or seized by government entities or legal means.

Metal Pay controls your crypto and your money, not you.

Convenience

If you want to use the money someone sends you to pay your electric bill or buy gas, you still have to wait 3-5 days for it to be transfered to your normal bank account.

As we mentioned earlier Metal Pay works like all the other payment apps. The problem with Paypal, Venmo and Zelle is the other person has to sign up for an account with the same company. You can only send money with Metal Pay if your friend also has a Metal Pay account.

You can only send money with Metal Pay if your friend also has a Metal Pay account. That means they have to go online, sign up and wait for their account to be approved before you send them anything of value.

If you want to use the money someone sends through Metal Pay to pay an electric bill or buy gas, you still have to wait 3-5 days for it to be transfered to your normal bank account. This is where Zelle and Paypal are better as Zelle goes directly to your bank account and Paypal offers a normal debit card.

Metal Pay doesn’t allow you to send or receive cryptocurrencies. If you want to add cryptos like Bitcoin or Ripple to your account you have to buy it from Metal Pay and pay them a fee for the transaction. Metal Pay has their own cryptocurrency called “MTL” but it is only usable in their app.

Why would someone download an app and wait for their account to be approved and hope their friends also had the app. With cryptocurrencies anyone can download a wallet like Coinomi (for iOS and Android) or Mycelium (for Android) and send bitcoin to anyone else. No waiting needed, no banks to deal with

If they want a real crypto wallet that allows them to spend their crypto anywhere with a Visa credit card they can use sign up for Blockcard.

When we said Metal Pay works like all the other payment apps that wasn’t quite true. The Metal Pay app is only available for iOS so if you want to send money to someone who doesn’t have an iPhone, you are out of luck.

With lots of restrictions, a small user base, lots of converting and fees, Metal Pay is a lot slower and less convenient than other apps. It is no where near as convenient as using a cryptocurrency like Bitcoin.

Costs

Metal Pay claims that you can send and receive money without any fees but that is only to other Metal Pay users. To buy or sell crypto, transfer money from other accounts and so on, there are fees.

The costs of Metal Pay fees are a lot harder to decipher. They could easily have posted a fee structure on their website but even their Terms of Service don’t specify the fees.

Hiding the fees of all the features they tout doesn’t strike us as worth the cost.

Is Metal Pay an app you should use?

Metal Pay does look like a decent payment app but its small user base, lack of Android app and no brand recognition make it a lot less useful than services like Paypal or Zelle. You aren’t going to be able to use it to pay back the friend you owe or buy the mermaid cat costume on Etsy.

MTL is an Ethereum based token that has no real value or use outside the Metal Pay app. MTL’s market cap and value have been on a steady decline as seen here https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/metal/

While Metal Pay does allow someone to buy and sell other cryptos with their bank account, it is not a true crypto wallet. You cannot send or receive crypto currency from friends or people you do business with. You are paying them a fee to sell you crypto and then Metal Pay holds onto your crypto. You cannot send your crypto to your own crypto wallet or anywhere that is safe for long term storage.

Metal Pay tries to do a lot but does none of it well. There are a lot better options out there for online payments, sending money to friends buying cryptocurrencies or using cryptocurrencies to make payments.

(We did reach out to Metal Pay and one of their employees through Twitter but our questions were ignored)

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