To the point
The KOHO Mastercard Prepaid Card is an option to replace a debit card and manage your budget while earning cash back!
KOHO Mastercard Prepaid Card: Overview
In Canada, there are two KOHO Mastercard Prepaid Cards:
- KOHO Mastercard Prepaid Card
- KOHO Premium Mastercard Prepaid Card (no foreign currency conversion fees)
This Card received the Award of the Best Prepaid Card in Canada for 2022. Mainly because the KOHO Premium Mastercard Prepaid Card offers 2% cash back on grocery purchases, including Costco and Walmart! It’s one of the only cards to offer this at these stores.
The KOHO Card is halfway between a debit card and a credit card:
- Like the debit card, the KOHO Mastercard Prepaid Card allows you to spend only what you have in your account
- Like the credit card, the KOHO Mastercard Prepaid Card offers you rewards (in the form of cash back)
This type of card will not affect your credit score: by getting one, there will be no impact. However, it won’t help you improve your credit score either.
KOHO prepaid cards have some things in common:
- Accepted worldwide through the Mastercard network (including at Costco)
- Cash back on all your purchases
- Possibility of automatic savings
- No interest fee
- No fees at merchants charging fees to credit cardholders
- Possibility to buy online
- Bill Payments
- Possibility of joint accounts
- Available on Apple Pay
KOHO Mastercard Prepaid Card
Special Offer:
- Enter the code MILESOPEDIA when you apply for your card
- Get $20 in your KOHO account after the first purchase within the first 30 days
The features of the KOHO Mastercard Prepaid card are as follows:
- No annual fee
- 0.5% cash back on all purchases
- 1.5% FX fee
- $2 to $3 ATM Fee abroad
- Accepted at Costco
KOHO Premium Mastercard Prepaid Card
Special Offer:
- Enter the code MILESOPEDIA when you apply for your card
- Get $20 in your KOHO account after the first purchase within the first 30 days
The features of the KOHO Premium Mastercard Prepaid card are as follows:
- 2% cash back on groceries (including Costco and Walmart), dining and transportation
- 0.5% cash back on all other purchases†
- Accepted at Costco
- No FX fees
- 1 free international ATM withdrawal per month
- Monthly fee of $9 (or $84 per year) with a 30-day free trial
Automatic savings and cash back
The automatic savings program
Both KOHO Mastercard prepaid cards offer an automatic savings program.
Purchases made with your KOHO card are rounded to the nearest $1, $2 or $10 (you choose the amount). For example, if you activate the automatic savings program and make a purchase of $2.25, $0.75, $1.75, $2.75 or $7.75 (whichever you choose) will automatically be set aside for you!
At any time, you can see in your KOHO app how much you have saved. Note that this money can be accessed at any time: if your available balance is less than the amount of the purchase you wish to make, the funds will be withdrawn from your savings account.
The Cash Back Program
Both KOHO Mastercard prepaid cards offer a cash back program.
You receive 0.5% cash back on all purchases.
You’ll see the cash back in your Savings tab within 1-2 business days of the original authorized purchase.
You can earn cash back on more purchases through KOHO partner merchants like:
- Altitude Sports
- Chefs plate
- DashPass/DoorDash
- Harvey’s
- Hudson’s Bay
- Indigo
- Pizza Pizza
- And more!
For example, with Altitude Sports, you can get 4% extra cash back. This is in addition to the base rate, for a total of 4.5% cash back!
And with Harvey’s it’ll be 3% extra cash back. And if you use the KOHO Premium Mastercard Prepaid Card, you’ll get 5% at Harvey’s, combining the 2% restaurant discount with it!
Credit Building
Usually, prepaid cards do not report your account activity to credit bureaus such as Equifax and Transunion. To counter this, KOHO has a credit enhancement option called Credit Building.
For $10/month for 6 months, you can subscribe to Credit Building by KOHO.
When you sign up, Koho will deposit $225 of dedicated credit enhancement funds into a separate account from your expenses (so you won’t have access to it). Each month, Koho will recover $75 of these dedicated funds and report it to Transunion as a positive action for your credit score.
For clarity, your total balance on KOHO will not change when KOHO adds the dedicated funds. Your only job is to make sure your Spendable account has $10 in it each month to cover the subscription fee, and KOHO will do the work to build your credit score behind the scenes.
This credit enhancement feature works in 6-month cycles (so you can subscribe once every 6 months). To be able to benefit from it, you must already have a KOHO Mastercard Prepaid Card.
KOHO fees
KOHO does not charge a monthly fee for the KOHO Prepaid Mastercard ($4 for the KOHO Essential Prepaid Mastercard and $9 for the KOHO Premium Prepaid Mastercard).
And there are no interest charges, insufficient funds charges or wire transfer fees. The following is a summary table of other fees:
| KOHO Easy | KOHO Essential | KOHO Premium | |
| Monthly fees | $0 | $4 | $9 |
| Conversion fees | 1,5 % | 1,5 % | 0 % |
| International Withdrawal | $2-3 | $2-3 | 1 free withdrawal per month |
Reload KOHO Mastercard Prepaid Card
The following is a summary table of the reloading limits:
| KOHO | Premium KOHO | |
| Maximum reloads | ||
| Per day | 20 reloads / $10,000 total | 40 reloads / $15,000 total |
| Per month | 60 reloads / $40,000 total | 120 reloads / $45,000 total |
| Maximum reloads (payroll) | ||
| Per day | 4 reloads / $10,000 total | 4 reloads / $10,000 total |
| Per month | 6 reloads / $20,000 total | 60 reloads / $20,000 total |
| Maximum reloads (Interac) | ||
| Per day | 10 reloads / $5,000 total | 23 reloads / $10,000 total |
| Per month | 60 reloads / $20,000 total | 120 reloads / $20,000 total |
Bottom line
Credit cards offer more rewards – and some have no conversion fees for foreign currency transactions – KOHO is aimed at a different audience.
The KOHO Mastercard Prepaid Card, with no annual fee, can appeal to those who want to control their budget while earning cash back. One thinks, for example, of young people and students.
The KOHO Premium Mastercard Prepaid Card is designed for people who spend a lot of money in the 2% categories and who regularly pay in foreign currencies (in order to benefit from no conversion fees). Especially since the 2% grocery category also works for Costco and Walmart purchases!
For either cards, you can get $20 free by downloading the KOHO app via this milesopedia link. And by entering the code MILESOPEDIA when you register.
Otherwise, if you prefer credit cards, you can check our recommendations:
Come to discuss that topic in our Facebook Group!
