No Fees Cash Back Prepaid Card - Koho Review

Tired of paying interest plus monthly/yearly fees just to be able too purchase items digitally? How about prepaid gift cards😂?

Well the Koho Visa Card is there for you with their no fees .5% rewards platform! I for one refuse to have a credit card(not great with spending), rather use my debit MasterCard(cannot spend more then I have). Recently I ran into an issue with my debit MasterCard not being accepted(bank issue) by my new employer SkiptheDishes for online purchasing hot&cold food delivery bags. I was forced to go buy a prepaid visa gift card which still has an unusable balance of $1.03, made me think I cannot be the only one facing this dilemma. I am from Canada which makes things a little more complicated, as USD cards are not worth the exchange rates paid and complications arise during loading with Canadian accounts(many just don’t support Canada). Other options here have extremely high fees and loading becomes a nightmare having to go into your branch, never mind the approval process for even prepaid credit cards is a pain(tons of questions). Koho aims for simplicity in function backed by unchallenged features, just verify then load. Boom!

KOHO was suggest by the Apple AppStore of all things!

I cannot take full credit for finding the app, I was searching through all the options for about a week and didn’t find a damb thing with limited fees. Well it wasn’t available yet and the AppStore alerted me via weekly email what you may be interested in and new loved apps by the Apple team. Talk about coincidences, my Apple Music subscription ran up and boom gift card cycle all over again. I registered immediately!

One week later.

My card arrived within the week and after my initial subscription I found out they offer a gift for early subscription, load my card with $5 within 24hrs of activation as long as I activate within 2 weeks. I think this is to encourage people to activate immediately! I did and as promised I received my gift within 24 hrs.
Everything went flawlessly! Recieved my card, loaded $100. Went to the store for a new Vape head from the CEV Store, and coffee from COOP gas station. Forced me to use signature on the first transaction then has been pin and tap ever since.

Layout:

The launch screen greats you with the unlock screen, opening into your transaction feed. Account balance at the top with add funds and create savings goal buttons directly underneath. The transaction feed includes name of business, value, category all organized by date.

Further details on spending can be found on the insights tab at the bottom. In this panel there are 3 pages each with an different perspective on your financial habits. Insights by category, spending, goals.

Spending page has a detailed breakdown including, so far this month, typically spent per month, per week, typically per week, status towards both typical week/month habits and days remaining.

Below that we have graphs showing spending by day and week aswell as averages, also a projected spending average.


The third page is goals, listing current savings, so far this month, typically saved per month, monthly projected savings compared to typical savings.

The savings tab loads up your powerups & goals.


Loading the card on the final tab couldn’t be any simpler then with E-Transfer. You can also pay bills, auto load, or transfer to other KOHO users or anyone else for that matter with E-Transfer very handy.

App Review:

I will start by saying excellent support staff, immediate response in app to any questions I have had. The app has an awesome layout, great usability, integrated security. Easy on the eyes, everything is extremely easy to locate and function. Support chat is built right into the controlling app for mobile with alerts. Security feature being able to turn card on or off without having to cancel and get a new one is genius, say someone borrows my car and it’s left in the non used ashtray like it has been. I could just switch it off till I wish to use it again, or have it perpetually off till I turn on to use it again. My first load took less then an hour, and the app alerts let me to know when it was available. App alerts kept me updated seconds after purchases, loads, the gift, support replies(which if you don’t respond they email you aswell), then a balance reminder for below $50. Very, Very handy app that’s been put together by this company. This will help me a lot with my crap spending habits, at least it will allow me to view my progress good or bad in a graph format that’s easily laid out.

Card Review:

The card itself looks pretty clean(sorry no photo), the chip could be better protected from damage but unlike some reviews I have seen it does not feel like it would fall out or loose contact overtime. No fees, free card, that’s right I’ve had no fees plus they offer to reimburse you for any fees occurred. The kicker on top of no fees is the .5% cash back they call powerups. This can be converted to spendable balance at any moment at the click of a few buttons, immediately available. Now for me that was the seller, sure no fees, ok manageable spending limits but cash back on a prepaid Visa card. They have an awesome business model that is aimed at empowering those that wish to be in control of their financial situation. How? Well they run strictly from merchant fees paid by vendors to use the transaction services, then since they are a prepaid service the whole fractional reserve thing that plagues credit does not come into play. In short business pay VISA/MasterCard already why should you have to pay to use your money through a system that’s paid for? The only fees you will ever have are for, out of network atm $2, international atm $3, currency exchange 1.5% rate, inactivity $1/month(makes complete sense with a system built on use not interest).

Suggestion:

Cryptocurrency support I would imagine isn’t the easiest to implement at least for Canada as their isn’t currently a card available. I will be putting forward a suggestion to Koho about adoption of cryptocurrency for deposits/withdrawal, but with the setup of the card this would also entail being able to etransfer your balance after depositing crypto straight into your bank account. So an all in one exchange/prepaid card for Canada may be on the horizon. I challenge all of you to do the same, ask questions of Koho. Make certain they see the need in the market for such a tool, and they should see how it could be profitable for them.

Conclusion:

I’m sold. I doubt that I will ever have a fee again, excluding the USD purchases I make online now and again. For anyone that uses gift cards for anything other then gifts this is the way to go never will I have to run to the store set up the card and be left with $1.03 per card you can’t really use(other then full depletion with other funds to complete purchase in-store ). Have you or do you ever send your card with someone else or leave where it could potentially be used? Well track exactly what they do via app alerts to your mobile or shut them down with the flip of a switch and turn it back on instantly when needed. I want cash back with out paying monthly or yearly for the card, .5% on everything for me thank you! So one final thing is the gift basket top right of main screen, they have a referral program. That’s right another kicker, 10 referrals with a cash incentive $10 each on first spend on the Koho Card must be within 30 days of registration. Then an additional $40 each for your first direct load $500+, seems completely legit with limits in place. I haven’t investigated costs for merchants but I did ask they owner of CEV and he said it’s pretty high. So if I had waited for the $5 gift to make my first purchase plus been referred by someone I would have gotten another $10 on my first purchase without even loading the card in the first place!?! So try it out let me know if it works that way. The alerts are the icing to the support staff being the cherry, the app is the Black Forest filling with rich devils food cake the card itself(sorry I’m a baker).

My Gift to You and Me!

After asking a few people in person with blank faces like 🤔“pay me to use credit”😒 I have decided to bring my 10 referrals for Steemit, I’m not sure how I can support the community and this is my first real contribution as an article and intention. The referral bonus’s I will be using to purchase Steem for the sake of power thus revolving that bonus back into the community through investing to which I have no intention of withdrawal anytime soon.
Referral link - https://app.koho.ca/referral/8B1AV77U
Or use this code on sign up: 8B1AV77U

Thank you for stopping in, I hope I brought some light to your financial situation.

Please if you found this helpful upvote&follow, definitely resteem! If I have missed anything or I am incorrect please let’s discuss it down below. I am new to steemit, blogging, crypto, so I would appreciate feed back on anything I do here.

As a knower on the path of knowing to discover the known I reveal to you my findings, good and bad.