Sofia Meier is 31 and runs an early-stage fintech startup from Zürich. She speaks at conferences, meets investors, and visits clients. Most months, she is in a different city. Her Swiss bank card travels with her. It doesn't always cooperate.
SM
Sofia Meier, 31
Startup founder · Zürich · Switzerland
She is in Singapore for three days, then Dubai for two, then back to Zürich before a panel in Berlin the following Thursday. This is a fairly normal month for Sofia. The flights are booked, the hotels are sorted, and the eSIM for each destination is already on her phone before she boards.
None of that goes through her Swiss bank. She stopped routing travel expenses that way about a year ago, after a card decline in Kuala Lumpur left her standing at a hotel front desk for twenty minutes while her bank's fraud team verified the transaction. The card was fine. The timing was not. In the end, it was crypto that covered the gap that evening, much faster than the bank did.
The Kuala Lumpur incident
Card declined at check-in. Twenty minutes on the phone with her bank. The fraud check cleared eventually but the stay was booked in crypto as a backup. That backup became the default.
Started with eSIMs
She was buying data SIMs at airport kiosks in every new country. Time-consuming and expensive. Switched to eSIMs bought in USDT before departure. Activated on the plane. Connected on landing.
Moved flight bookings over
Three or four short-haul trips per month adds up fast. Booking through Cryptorefills with USDT removed the foreign transaction fees and the occasional card block that came with booking across multiple countries in a short window.
Stays followed
Conference stays are usually two or three nights. She books them on Cryptorefills. Same flow as the flights. One less card to worry about at international front desks.
Her co-founder does the same
He travels a similar schedule and had the same card friction. They both switched around the same time. Neither has had a declined payment on travel since.
Three or four trips a month across different countries means her bank sees unusual spend patterns constantly. Crypto doesn't have an opinion on where she is.
Where Sofia's crypto spending goes
Almost entirely travel — flights, stays and connectivity
Flights44%
Stays32%
Travel eSIM14%
Other10%
Her day-to-day in Zürich runs on the bank. Groceries, coffee, rent, dinners with the team: none of that has changed. Crypto is specifically a travel tool for her, so when she is in her home city, she rarely touches it.
Crypto vs bank: monthly spending split
A distinct travel slice — high relative to most people, low relative to how much she travels.
Crypto ~35%
Bank / card ~65%
Travel is a significant share of her outgoings. Almost all of it runs on crypto.
3–4
trips per month, all booked with crypto
0
declined payments on travel since switching
20+
countries visited in the past year
The fintech angle is not lost on her. She spends a good part of her professional life talking about financial infrastructure, payments and what breaks when systems don't talk to each other across borders. Her personal workaround is a practical illustration of the same problem.
Her bank works well in Switzerland. Outside of it, she'd rather not find out whether it will work today.
She does not hold more crypto than she needs for the next few trips. She tops up when the balance gets low, uses it on travel, and moves on. The bank handles the rest.
