I used CardUpNow.com for about a month
I used CardUpNow.com for about a month, and honestly my experience was disappointing.
The most important thing I noticed is that almost everything on the platform seems to be handled manually by a person behind the scenes instead of being automated like a real fintech service.
First, opening the account cost me $50. After registering, I received my first virtual card, but the card was extremely limited. Almost every payment required me to contact support just to get the authorization code (OTP/AVS), and support responses were slow (not often ). Because of this, many payment attempts failed, yet they still charged around $0.40 for each failed transaction, which was frustrating.
Later, I decided to upgrade to their “Elite Card,” which cost me an additional $300 one-time fee. Unfortunately, after testing it, I found almost no real difference compared to the normal card (just no OTP :) ). In my opinion, it was absolutely not worth the price. The card still had many limitations and could not even be added to Google Pay or Apple Pay.
The biggest issue happened today: my virtual card suddenly disappeared from my account. When I contacted support, they told me it was because the card balance was below $10. The card still had around $7 remaining, but they said low-balance cards are removed anyway. I monitored the card for about two days before it disappeared, which made it feel like the card was manually removed. The remaining funds most likely went back to the issuing bank/account owner.
Overall, my experience was poor:
* Very high fees
* Expensive upgrades
* Too many manual processes
* Limited card functionality
* Hidden frustrations during usage
I personally would not recommend it unless they significantly improve their system and transparency.
Réponse de CardUpNow
Thank you for sharing your experience. We genuinely appreciate all customer feedback, even when it is critical.
However, we would like to clarify several important points regarding your review.
During the entire time you used our service, our support team actively assisted you with every issue you faced. Whenever you contacted us through support messages, we responded and tried our best to help you complete your payments successfully. In many situations where payment attempts failed because of incorrect usage or merchant-side restrictions, we guided you step-by-step and helped correct the mistakes.
Regarding the transaction fees, failed authorization charges are part of the banking/issuer processing system and are not manually created by us. Your card balance became very low because repeated payment attempts continued even after previous declines. Despite this, many transactions were still processed successfully after support assistance.
About the Elite Card upgrade, the main difference is reduced OTP/security friction and higher flexibility for certain payment types. It was never advertised as an unlimited or restriction-free card. Compatibility with services like Google Pay or Apple Pay depends on multiple external factors, including issuer support and regional limitations.
Concerning the removed card, cards with balances below the minimum operational threshold may be automatically disabled according to our banking policy and system rules. This is part of the platform policy and not a “manual removal” targeting any customer personally.
We understand that our system may not fit every user’s expectations, but describing the platform as entirely “manual” is inaccurate. Security verification, fraud prevention, and banking compliance sometimes require human review to protect both customers and the platform itself.
We continue improving our services every day, but our policies, banking rules, and system structure will remain in place to ensure long-term stability and compliance for all users.
We still appreciate your time as a customer and wish you the best moving forward.
Note: We also noticed from your Trustpilot activity that you have left negative or highly critical reviews for multiple well-known companies, such as Hostinger, Stripe, Namecheap, Paxful, LocalCoinSwap, Contabo, Bity SA, and others.
These are established platforms serving thousands or millions of users globally. While every customer has the right to share feedback, repeatedly posting strongly negative reviews across many different services suggests that the issue may not always come only from the platforms themselves.
In our case, we continuously supported you, replied to your messages, helped with payment attempts, and explained the system limitations clearly. Many of the issues mentioned in your review were related to banking policies, failed payment attempts, balance limitations, or usage expectations — not platform misconduct.
We respect honest criticism, but reviews should also fairly acknowledge the support and assistance provided throughout the process.
