Since app version 6.3.1 (16 September 2026), purchases made with Tangem Pay earn cashback. It’s 1% on the free Basic plan and 2% on Plus, paid in USDC straight into your Tangem Pay balance. There are no points to convert and nothing to redeem.
That’s the short version. The detail is in the caps, the US$30 minimum, a handful of exclusions, and the question of whether Plus is worth paying for. We go through each below, then cover the two things a New Zealand customer should check first: whether Tangem Pay is available to you at all, and how cashback is likely to be treated at tax time.
Tangem Pay cashback rates and caps
| Plan | Monthly price | Cashback rate | Monthly cashback cap | Spend that reaches the cap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | Free | 1% | US$100 | US$10,000 |
| Plus | US$29.99 | 2% | US$300 | US$15,000 |
Only purchases of US$30 or more count. A US$50 purchase earns US$0.50 on Basic or US$1.00 on Plus. A US$25 coffee-and-muffin run earns nothing on either plan, however many times you do it.
Prestige, a third tier at US$999 a year, is listed as coming soon. We’ll cover it when it’s actually available.
How and when it’s paid
Cashback builds up through the month and is deposited into your Tangem Pay account at the end of each billing cycle, in USDC. Once it lands you can spend it with the card like any other balance. There’s no minimum payout threshold, no separate rewards wallet and no loyalty token.
USDC is a US dollar stablecoin, so your cashback is worth roughly what it says in US dollars. In NZD terms, the value moves with the exchange rate like any other US dollar amount.
To see what you’ve earned, open the Tangem Pay section and tap your cashback summary. The cashback screen shows this month’s earnings and the date they’ll be deposited, your tier, rate and cap, and a month-by-month chart of what you’ve accumulated.
What doesn’t earn cashback
Three things to know.
- Purchases under US$30. As above, small transactions don’t qualify.
- In-store purchases at EU and UK merchants. Tangem puts this down to interchange fee regulation in those markets. It covers tapping at a terminal with Apple Pay, Google Pay or a physical card. Online purchases from EU merchants still earn cashback. If you’re travelling in Europe or the UK, expect card-present spending there not to count.
- Excluded merchant categories. Some merchant category codes are excluded, which is standard for card cashback programmes. Tangem publishes the full list as a PDF linked from its cashback announcement. If you’re planning a large purchase partly for the cashback, check the category first.
When Plus pays for itself
Plus costs US$29.99 a month and doubles the rate from 1% to 2%. The extra 1% only covers the fee once your eligible spending passes about US$3,000 a month. Below that, Basic leaves you better off on cashback alone.
There are two ways to get Plus without the fee. Tangem waives it if you spend US$4,500 a month on the card, or if you hold US$65,000 in Yield Mode. If either already describes you, Plus is the obvious choice. Our post on earning yield with Tangem Wallet explains how Yield Mode works and what the risks are.
Cashback isn’t the only difference. Plus also comes with zero fees on card purchases, Visa Signature benefits instead of Visa Platinum, a 2% ATM fee instead of 4%, up to five cards instead of three, and one free physical Tangem Pay card delivery. Some Plus perks, such as free ACH and wire top-ups from a US bank account, only help people with US banking, so don’t count them if that isn’t you.
A simple way to decide: look at what you actually spent on the card last month in purchases of US$30 or more. If it’s well under US$3,000, stay on Basic. If it’s near or above US$4,500, Plus costs you nothing. In between, it comes down to whether you value the other Plus features.
Check you can use Tangem Pay first
None of this matters if Tangem Pay isn’t open to you. Tangem says it’s available in select countries in the USA, Latin America, Asia-Pacific, the Middle East and Africa, and it doesn’t publish a full list. We can’t confirm New Zealand either way.
The reliable check is in the app. Start Tangem Pay onboarding, and eligibility is decided by the country of residence you give during verification. If you’d rather ask first, email pay@tangem.com. Our earlier post on the Tangem Pay virtual Visa card explains how the card account sits alongside your self-custody wallet.
A note on tax in New Zealand
We’re a hardware wallet seller, not tax advisers, so treat this as a flag rather than an answer. IRD treats crypto-assets as property. Cashback paid in USDC is a crypto-asset arriving in your account, and rewards like this are likely to be treated as income. When you later spend or swap that USDC, that can be a disposal too.
In practice: keep the monthly cashback records the app shows you, note the NZD value on the day each deposit lands, and talk to your accountant about how to report it. Our guide to crypto tax in New Zealand covers the record-keeping side.
Keep the card balance small
Cashback is a reason to use Tangem Pay for spending, not a reason to keep more money on it. The card account holds what you’ve loaded for spending. Your longer-term holdings belong in your Tangem wallet, with the keys on your cards or ring. Top up the card with what you plan to spend, and let the cashback accumulate there. For the rest of what changed in the app recently, see our Tangem app 6.3 roundup.
FAQs
Tangem Pay is for spending, and a Tangem hardware wallet is for keeping. Tangem NZ is an authorised New Zealand seller with stock in Auckland and prices in NZ$ including GST. Three-card colourways such as Classic Black are NZ$139.99, and the 2-card set is NZ$109.99.
