KOHO Review

New(er) kid on the block, KOHO, has come in to shake Canadian’s finances for the better. Their mission: help Canadians take control of their finances by monitoring spending, educating the masses, and providing the tools to save and budget.

What Is KOHO?

KOHO is both a physical pre-paid card, integrated with an app that shows you real-time insights about your spending. The app shows you where your money is going and how to save it, allowing you to track your spending and better understand your financial health. The KOHO Easy version of the card is a free, preloaded, rechargeable Mastercard® that you can use to make purchases, earning cashback when you do. So spend wisely and save all in the same place. KOHO is also a good resource for budgeting, with real-time insights about your monthly spending.

KOHO’s Kool-Aid

• No Annual Fee
• Earn saving interests on your entire KOHO account balance, up to 2.00% depending on the version of the card
• Earn up to 5% cash back extra at partners with KOHO EASY
• Learn about your spending habits in Real-Time
• Round-Up your purchase and save the rest!

KOHO Accounts

KOHO offers two types of accounts: personal and joint.

Personal KOHO Accounts

A personal account lets you load up your prepaid Mastercard®, accepted everywhere Mastercard® is accepted, with however much funding you want access to, and use it to make everyday purchases. So if you load up $500, you’ll be able to access, budget, spend and earn cashback with those funds. Personal accounts come with access to the mobile app that’s loaded with features like spend notifications, insights, and savings plans.

Joint KOHO Accounts

Joint accounts are a convenient way to efficiently share an expense account or split funds with someone else. You’ll get real-time notifications on spending, good for keeping tabs on how much and on what your teenager is spending, for example. You’ll also be able to set goals together. And the joint account has no minimum balance requirement.

KOHO Essential

Between KOHO Easy and KOHO Extra, KOHO offers KOHO Essential for an annual fee of $48 (or $4/month). This version earns 1% on Groceries, Transportation, Eating & Drinking and 0.25% all other categories, plus up to 5% extra cash back at partnered merchants.

KOHO Extra

KOHO also has a Extra plan. You’ll get perks like:

• No foreign transaction fees
• 1 free international ATM withdraw per month
• Higher load and withdrawal limits
• More Cash back earning potential
• Earn rate on select categories

Want to learn more? Read our KOHO Extra review.

How Can I Apply?

Signing up with KOHO was very fast. Start with the application process:

1. Fill out the quick application form. It’s the usual questions like email address, birth date, and home address
2. Pick your card color scheme (fun!)
3. Agree to the terms, and sign up is done.
4. Next, you’ll get a Mastercard® in the mail that you can activate and reload whenever you want. This can be done via an e-Transfer or direct deposit of a portion or all of your paycheque.

Once loaded, you can use your KOHO card for all of your spending needs, including groceries, purchases, and utility bills. You can spend whatever money is on the card. But KOHO does encourage you to save by giving you a smart spending account.

On May 16, 2022, the KOHO Prepaid Mastercard® updated their product offering from Visa to Mastercard®. New users will receive a Mastercard® from this date forward while existing users have the option to make the switch until October 2022. A new KOHO Physical Mastercard® will be sent to the user within 10 business days once a request is received and during this time period users will be still be able to utilize all of the features available in the KOHO mobile app.

Why Go With KOHO?

In a nutshell, KOHO is dishing out a great offer. Get a card from a Fintech company without the pricey, complicated fees structure that you’re used to from your bank, earn rewards, and get some additional perks thrown into the mix.

Rewards

KOHO comes with an unusual perk: cashback rewards. This is pretty much unheard of with chequing or prepaid accounts, so it’s a big deal. With KOHO Easy, KOHO offers 1% on Groceries + Transportation and up to 5% cash back extra at partnered merchants. However, get 2% on three specific categories for a fee when you sign up for Extra with up to 6% cash back at partnered merchants.

Cardholders will earn an additional Cash back when you use your KOHO card with many of their participating retailers, helping you earn more on top of what you’re already earning. For example, you’ll get 3% extra cash back when you use your KOHO card at Chef’s Plate at this time. If you have a Extra account, you’ll get even higher cash back earning rates.

Redeeming the Rewards

Your rewards are automatically sent to your savings tab within one to two business days and can be spent however you want.

Saving Interest

KOHO allows you to earn saving interests on your entire KOHO account balance. This interest ranges from 0.50% to 2.00% depending on if you have KOHO Easy, KOHO Essential, or KOHO Extra.

Spend Tracking

Another big benefit of using the KOHO app is that it gives you a bird’s eye view of your spending habits and amounts. See in real-time and actual numbers how much you’re spending on your weekly Timmies run! KOHO breaks up your spending into categories, so you can clearly chart where your money is going. You can even see how your spending compares to other KOHO members. That’s a good way to shame you into more responsible spending habits(because you can’t run from the truth!).

Savings Goals

While most Canucks won’t put money aside at random, nearly everyone will put away a little bit at a time if they have a concrete goal in front of them. The KOHO app sets up your savings goal and gives you a concrete goal to work towards along with a breakdown of the exact amount you should squirrel away each week/month/paycheque/etc.

KOHO makes this even more attainable by setting up auto savings plans. Tell KOHO how much you want to save, how much time you want to save it in, and the app will do the rest using a sneaky feature called RoundUp. It’s a simple concept in theory that we find absolutely brilliant in practice.

Here’s how it works:

• You make a purchase using your KOHO card.
• When the bill gets totaled, it is usually an odd amount ($3, $12.35, $7.50)
• KOHO’s RoundUp feature will round up your bill to the nearest $1, $5 or $10 and put the difference into your savings account.
• So, if you spent $7.50 on Timbits and you set your RoundUp to $10, KOHO will automatically round up the purchase to $10, charge you $10, and deposit $2.50 into your savings fund.
• Bam, you’ve just saved $2.50 without even thinking about it.

This doesn’t sound like a lot, but those loonies definitely added up and fast.

Other KOHO Perks

What else does KOHO offer? A lot, actually. These perks aren’t as prominent as things like cash back, no fees, and automatic saving tools, but they still add real value to the KOHO card and app. We particularly like:

App Efficiency

KOHO is an all-in-one solution that can easily replace several of your other financial management and other financial apps by pooling all of these resources onto one convenient app. In our book, that’s a major plus. Combine things like direct deposit, money transfers, auto-payments for recurring bills, savings accounts, and more to more efficiently manage your finances.

Fast, Convenient, and Available Support

Another smaller but pretty great feature KOHO boasts is its great customer support. KOHO customers have access to live chat support available seven days a week. While this isn’t 24/7, it is still a beauty of a feature.

Referral Program

KOHO‘s referral bonus may be a relatively modest $20, but it’s noteworthy because $20 is awarded to both the person who initiates the referral *and* the recipient of the referral if the referee make their first purchase within 30 days of registration.. This mutual benefit might go a long way in convincing your friends to sign up. Each cardholder is limited to a maximum of 50 referrals ($1,000 worth of referral bonuses) for the lifetime of their KOHO account.

Can I get a KOHO card?

Just about anyone of legal age can get a KOHO card. You may be required to complete additional verification steps if you do not verify automatically at first:

– Bank statement
– Credit card statement
– Utility bill
– CRA document
– Scan of Canadian provincial driver’s license

Should I Get a KOHO Card?

KOHO offers Canadians a lot of value for money. It’s convenient, free, and comes with oodles of features. It’s also got a great cashback program that you can’t beat.

But KOHO isn’t all peaches and cream. For example, there are limitations on how much you can put on or take off the card. The daily deposit limit is $3,000, and the withdrawal limit is $600 from an ATM each day. Your deposit cap is $20,000 total on the card, as well. There’s no spending limit on the card, though. So as long as you have the funds available, you can spend whatever’s there.

KOHO is a good choice for you if you are looking to save money but haven’t been able or are even sure how to do it. Just having more knowledge of your spending habits will usually encourage Canadians to spend less. Plus, with the convenient automatic savings feature, KOHO ensures that anyone can (and will) save constantly.

KOHO is also ideal for people who don’t want to pay high fees typically, travelers who want to save on foreign transaction fees, and tech-savvy Canucks.

Of course, if you’re very old school, are heavy into investing in major accounts, or need access to bundles of funds every day, then KOHO might not be your best choice.

The KOHO Cost

The real beauty of this card/app is in its pricing structure. With KOHO Easy, KOHO charges absolutely no fees; no joke. The KOHO card isn’t like other credit or other cards Canadians are used to dealing with. There are zero monthly fees to deal with, making it a much more affordable option for anyone looking to save. There are no transfer fees, no card replacement fees, no account balance fees, and no maintenance fees.

There are two fee versions: KOHO Essential and KOHO Extra. The Extra plan costs $84 (or $9/month). This pays for itself after with enough spending, thanks to the boosted earn rate and offers the added perks we mentioned above.

Comparing KOHO to the Competition

KOHO and Stack are very similar. They offer almost the same perks, including no fees, auto-savings, and budgeting tools. But Stack doesn’t have a cashback program, which is a bummer. Also, Stack isn’t available in Quebec.

Mogo is another option. Mogo offers a few different financial products, like loans, mortgages, and credit checks with free monthly credit score monitoring, and free fraud ID protection. The Mogo Visa* Platinum Prepaid Card is the most similar to what KOHO offers. The concept here is similar: you get a Visa card connected to an app that helps you control your spending. And for each transaction on the Mogo Visa* Platinum Prepaid Card a carbon-sucking tree will be planted—for free.

Our Final Word

To sum it up, KOHO is a great resource for any Canadian looking to both save and earn money at the same time. The card is completely free to use, offers cashback on purchases, and has no limits on spending. The KOHO app has loads of useful resources like savings insights and an auto-saving tool to help save even more.

If you need access to tens of thousands of dollars each day, KOHO isn’t for you. Otherwise, if you want to efficiently and conveniently manage your finances, a little at a time, save more, and earn some extra cash, KOHO is a great option.