- Firstly, please read my article about acceptance of prepaid cards at places like hotels, flights and for car rentals.
- Secondly, I have a more in-depth guide about prepaid cards and their pitfalls, but read the top 5 first!
- Thirdly, if you're considering a regular credit card (or looking to upgrade your current card!), look at the best cashback rewards no-annual fee credit card in Canada page.
Now, starting from the fifth best card, going to the best Canadian Prepaid Credit Card/Gift Card:
5. The Vanilla Mastercard deserves respect
Although this card is known for its poor customer service, and some people seem to have extreme difficulty merely using it, plus its fees are high if you don't use it within 6 months, it is the most available privacy-filled card out there. It really started the trend too. You can walk into many shops, like 7-11 or major drug stores, and pay $104.95 cash for a $100 Vanilla prepaid Mastercard without presenting any ID or other identifying information. As far as I know, no other card offers this level of privacy at more convenient locations (ie: not only at a particular credit union only).
Just watch out, like the RBC card, if you don't use it up within 6 months, you'll be charged, but at $2.50/month!
5b. Vanilla Mastercard alternative!
The myTreat Visa (issued by a subsidiary of the awesome VanCity Credit Union) is a non-reloadable card with just a $2 load fee, but issued only at VanCity Credit Unions in Vancouver.They are also available at retailers for a $5.95 load fee, including PharmaPlus, Save-On and Safeway.
4. ZoomPass Prepaid Mastercard - Reloadable
ZoomPass is technically not a prepaid mastercard program, but rather a mobile money transfer system launched by the Canadian cell phone companies. But it does incorporate a prepaid card, and you can use it just for that if you please. It functions as a reloadable card.
There are no fees to get the Zoompass account (with card), and no fees to add money from a bank account. Their business model is reliant on SMS fees (which you may incur) and fees to send money to other Zoompass users.
So far, several months into the launch, Zoompass as a money transfer system appears to be a dud. Generally, I'm not a fan of the Canadian telecoms (I'm looking at you Rogers System Bell Access Telus Fee) getting into finance, but this card isn't a bad deal. You do require a mobile phone number to get one, and I'm not sure if WINDmobile, a new cellular provider I talk about on my LandlineFree website, counts.
3. RBC Prepaid Visa – Non-reloadable Semi-anonymous
The Royal Bank Prepaid Visa is a non-reloadable prepaid card, so it can be intended as a gift card, or for personal use. It does require Photo ID to purchase, but it is transferrable, so I'm not sure what the point of teh identification requirement is. You don't need an RBC account to purchase one, you can just walk into a branch and buy the gift card on the spot. The cost is $3.95, but watch out, a $1.50/month fee kicks in after 6 months.
2. BMO Mosaik Travel Mastercard - Reloadable
This card is $9.95 to buy, but lasts ~3 years from purchase, with no fees to load. You can add funds through your bank's (it doesn't have to be BMO!) bill payment service. Presumably you could walk into a branch and deposit cash as well. If you have a problem, I think BMO will be able to help you out.
1. Canadian Tire Prepaid Mastercard - Reloadable
The Canadian Tire Prepaid Mastercard is cheap (free???), and easy to get, just fill out an online form.
The card is free to get, and has no monthly fees. I received mine within 1.5 weeks of applying, pretty sweet. The card is registered with your name on it, so it should work better online and for other purchases. The card does charge you $1.50 for each load of the card (unlike BMO), so if you're the type of person that never likes to keep a credit on your prepaid card (instead loading it up for the exact amount needed for a purchase), then it can be more expensive. As far as I know, you can't load funds at a Canadian Tire store.
Although branded as a Canadian Tire card, it's really issued by someone else, hopefully they keep the Canadian Tire name clean rather than tarnish it.
The major downside is that the CT Prepaid Mastercard is Ontario only, so for those outside of Ontario, take a look at the BMO Mosaik Travel Mastercard or the Zoompass Prepaid Mastercard.
Top 5 Prepaid Cards in Canada Conclusion
Overall, these cards are beneficial for those that do not qualify for regular credit cards and want the security of purchasing with a credit card, such as liability protection in case you make a purchase and the vendor doesn't come through. However, it is very important to register your prepaid card with the issuer, in case it gets stolen or otherwide defrauded. This can also help with online purchases, since your card will now have an address.
Another alternative to prepaid cards is a Paypal account, as many companies are now accepting Paypal directly for purchases, so you can pay with your bank account (or sell some things around the house on Ebay).
Finally, only use prepaid cards if you need them, and give cash as gifts, not prepaid cards (sending by mail? Send a cheque or a postal money order), the fees are usually more complicated than they need to be.
Please read all terms and conditions of any card you decide to purchase or not purchase for your needs and come to your own independent conclusions.
Please leave comments here with your experiences, advice and complaints!
Canadian Tire Prepaid Master Card
I received a CT prepaid Mastercard but have been unable to use it. I activated it by telephone but have been unable to activate it online which is the only way you can load anything on it. I email tech support as suggested and received the usual 'this will be answered in 48 hours.' However, there was no further response. I called customer service telephone number on the back of the card and they referred me to the online tech support which again said 'r8 hours'. I did this at least four times with no success. The most suspicious part of this is that the telephone support had no connection with the online part of it. One of the managers told me that their only way of contacting the online people was to email tech support the same as I was doing. Surely something with Canadian Tire name on it and Mastercard name on it would be expected to work seamlessly. Anyway, I gave up. It is too scary to put my money on to a card that operates as badly as that.
Pre PAid cards
My SOn will be travelling from Canada to Ireland, England and Wales.
What type of card do you suggest, instead of him using cash all the time.
ATM Alliance
Scotiabank Debit Card: Check out the ATM World Alliance. He can use it to withdraw cash at Barclays Woolwich branches with no fee, and rumour has it the exchange is a good rate too.
This thread is great!,
This thread has helped me out a lot. I was actually googling which bank would be a better choice to apply for a basic credit card to do mainly online shopping, and I foudn this thread and was introduced to pre-paid cards which I didn't even know existed. For me I already have an RBC Visa card that I use for my monthly payments, and various online shopping. I friend of mine recently had his credit card number copied from an online purchase and it really screwed up his bill payment since like me he uses one credit card for everything. So now I'm looking to get a second credit card just for online shopping and have a low credit limit like 500$ so if something does happen it won't cause a huge dent and also cause a head ache with me Visa. I think I'm going to go with the BMO pre-paid mastercard because I'm probably only going to load it up when I need to buy something online, and if I read correctly you don't get charged for loading it up whenever you want? and also there isn't a fee for every time you use it online or over the counter?
Thanks!
Mosiak Card
I went on the BMO website to read over the application for a BMO Mosiak prepaid card. I was a little put off by the disclaimer that they could disclose my information to the credit bureau. Why would this be necessary on a Pre paid card? It should not be relevant to them?
BMO Mosaik Prepaid Mastercard Credit Check
- Financial Identity Verification in Canada is often done through credit checks, as it's one of the few databases that banks can access to make sure the name, address, date of birth, etc., that you give are legitimate.
- Even though it is a prepaid card, there are instances where you could spend more than your available credit. For instance, many parking machines dump their transactions for the day overnight, so they're basically trusting that your credit card will cover the transaction. This is also the case with retailers that merely make a carbon-copy of your card and submit it weekly to their transaction processor to debit your credit card. If you're in debt on these, it'll get reported to a credit bureau (as it should).
I'll email BMO to get a more definite answer. Thanks for your question!prepaids - in US funds?
My 10 year old likes to buy things on-line I bought a Vanilla card for her to do so.
Great concept; however, many items are priced in US funds. Not only does Vanilla soak you on the exchange rate but they also charge a 2.5% fee for the service. That makes the entire exercise a little expensive.
Is it possible to get a US funds pre-paid charge card in Canada?
US Dollar Prepaid Cards in Canada
Not that I am aware of, within Canada anyway. You could certainly purchase one from the US, however, you'll probably have difficulty purchasing things that will get shipped to Canada. Unless you have some other source of US$, 2.5% isn't a huge loss, since you'll have to pay ~2% or so just to convert your Canadian dollars into US dollars to pay the bill.
Canadian Tire Prepaid Mastercard - Security of Loaded Funds
I recently received my Canadian Tire PrePaid Mastercard and loaded it with $50.00 to start.
Since then, I have been doing some research and discovered that it is NOT covered by any deposit insurance such as "The Canadian Deposit Insurance Act", so people need to keep this in mind - if something goes wrong with the service provider, Mint Technology Corp. and Mint Capital Corp, our funds are not protected and could be lost. This lack of protection for consumers is mentioned in the terms and conditions of the Canadian Tire Prepaid Mastercard.
i live in kitchener ontario
i live in kitchener ontario and just bought a $100 mytreat visa gift card at my local pharma plus and the fee was $5.95. i was able to register the card online and access the balance for free (always) and already made a paypal purchase with it(after linking it with my paypal account first of course). sitting at the computer and registering the card at mybalance.ca, then linking it to my paypal account and finally making the ebay purchase all took no more than 15 minutes. i'm trying the canadian tire card next. sweet!
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