• Firstly, please read my article about acceptance of prepaid cards at places like hotels, flights and for car rentals.
• Secondly, I have a more

aka: CIBC Dividend Infinite Visa vs Capital One Cash Back Plus Platinum

It looks like CIBC card is the successor card to the CIBC Dividend Platinum Visa card that I've written about before.

The tiers are the same, and there's still an annual fee, but as a nice plus, the card now includes:

Background on Prepaid Visa/Mastercards in Canada

I've already written a very popular article on prepaid cards in Canada, and I do recommend reading it, as it is full of useful of information on this topic. When purchasing a card like this, it is very important to shop around and look at all of the available options. 

Canadian Will Soon Have Mastercard and Visa Debit Cards

Good news for Canadians that want the convenience of a Visa or Mastercard, but don't want to deal with monthly bills, are under 18, overspending, or have poor credit.

As stated in my review of the prepaid cards available on the Canadian market, there are those that are non-reloadable and anonymous, and those that are reloadable and engraved with your name and everything.

Seriously, I'd highly recommend reading through my Canadian Prepaid Visa & Mastercard review. Seriously. 

Avoid the MuchMusic Prepaid Card, you pay too much for what you get. 

I got hit with an overlimit fee on my TD Rebate Rewards Credit Cards

I'll say that these fees are a bit sneaky.

The cards give you a "credit limit", then they let you surpass that limit, and charge you $20 for it. So much for it being a limit. 

For Christmas, I'm sure many people are looking toward possibly buying one of those prepaid Mastercard or Visa cards. I would say DON'T buy one of these as a gift.

Prepaid Visa & Mastercards Are Worse than Store-Branded Cards as Gifts

It's like giving money that's less useful than money. Why would you want to do that? People like money, and I don't believe (unless it's really thoughtful) much in giving out non-unique gift cards when one could just use the cash.

Why Get a Prepaid Mastercard or Prepaid Visa?

In my opinion, there are only two reasons to get a Prepaid Mastercard/Visa card:

1. You can't get a credit card, but need to make some purchases that require a Mastercard/Visa Credit Card
2. You have a credit card, but want to make a purchase 100% anonymously, or pseudo-anonymously.

The Muchmusic Prepaid Mastercard is the kind that you need to fill out an actual application for, and you get a Mastercard that has your (teen's) name on it.

CIBC offers two Dividend Visas:

These are their two Visa credit cards that offer cash back rewards. Not points, but cash. I'll address their Aerogold and Aventura Visa cards in a later article. But for now...

Planning on travelling overseas, like to Europe or Australia, with your Mastercard or Visa Debit Card?

The answer is yes, it will work as a signature transaction the same way that a credit card is accepted. I've never had a problem using my US-issued Paypal Debit MasterCard or US-issued National City Debit Visa Card in Canada. I don't see why I'd have a problem overseas either. 

Doing cash withdrawls at an ATM may be subject to extra fees. There usually will be a currency conversion charge or some such, but it isn't too major.