APR

APR is the price of borrowing, quoted as a yearly rate. It’s what a lender charges you on money you owe — the balance you carry past the due date on a credit card, or the loan a crypto card draws against your holdings. Don’t confuse it with APY, which is what you earn; APR is what you pay.

Why it matters: if you pay your statement in full each month, a card’s APR may never touch you. The moment you carry a balance — or spend on a crypto credit line — it starts compounding against you, and the rate is often the largest cost the card has. A high APR can quietly outweigh any cashback you earned on the same purchase, so it’s the number to check before you let a balance roll.

For example: the Coinbase One Card charges a 19.49%–29.49% variable purchase APR, set by your creditworthiness (its cash-advance APR is higher still, at 32.24%). The Nexo Card works differently — spending in Credit Mode borrows against your crypto at a tiered rate, roughly 2.9% at the top Platinum tier up to about 18.9% at Base, depending on your tier and whether you pay interest in NEXO. Both as of June 2026.