Introduction to prepaid credit cards in Canada

Prepaid credit cards are a relatively new financial product in Canada, the first appearing in 2005. While prepaid credit cards are affiliated with Mastercard and Visa and bear their logos, they aren't actually credit cards. Prepaid credit cards are essentially electronic cash. You load funds onto the card and spend it doing the same things you might do with credit card such as purchasing things online or in person in a store.

The catch is of course that there are fees associated with using the funds which you can compare on the next page. One nice benefit is that Visa brand Canadian-issued prepaid cards can be replaced if lost or stolen which makes them good cash alternative.

But because you are not borrowing money or opening a credit account, credit checks are not required however reloadable cards require that you provide confirmation of your identity when applying. Non-reloadable cards however are anonymous unless you decide to add personal information to the online account management.

Click to compare these cards!

  • Bank of Montreal Prepaid Travel Mosaik MasterCard
  • Citizens Bank VISA Gift Card
  • EPIC Prepaid Mastercard
  • Give and Go Visa
  • HorizonPlus Mastercard
  • Money Mart Titanium Visa
  • MuchMusic Prepaid MasterCard
  • myPlash Mastercard
  • Peoples Trust 3V Visa Gift Card/Voucher
  • PRIZM Visa
  • Royal Bank PrePaid and Gift Cards Visa
  • Shell Prepaid Mastercard
  • Shell Prepaid Mastercard
  • Thomas Cook Travel Money Visa
  • Travelex Canada Visa TravelMoney
  • Vancity enviro Reloadable VISA card
  • Vancity mytreat VISA Gift Card
  • West Edmonton Mall WEM Mastercard
  • Zoompass Prepaid Mastercard

There are two types of prepaid credit cards:

Reloadable:

  • No credit check required but must provide confirmation of identify.
  • Are personalized with your name on the card.
  • Can be reused and reloaded with additional funds as many times as you like.
  • Almost like a real credit card but you cannot rent a car with it.
  • Monthly fees and service charges apply for almost any transaction.
  • You can check your card balance online or by phone.
  • You have to apply for these cards online, by mail or in-person.

Non-reloadable (also called gift cards):

  • No credit check required.
  • Are anonymous though some cards can be personalized.
  • Can only be loaded with funds once at purchase time and after the funds are spent, the card is no longer usable.
  • Monthly fees and service charges apply for almost any transaction. Monthly fees may only start after 6 months.
  • You can check your card balance online or by phone.
  • Most non-reloadable or gift cards can be obtained at many retail locations such as: 7-Eleven, Canada Post Corp, Husky/Mohawk, International News, Jean Coutu, Money Mart, Pharmasave, Quickie, Shoppers Drug Mart, Wilson Fuel, Zellers.

Card websites visited by CanadaPrePaidCreditCard.com visitors

This chart shows the relative percent of clicks on links in the table above. Some of the credit cards in the table above were recently added so they haven't yet begun to show up as of early May 2012. This chart will be updated to regularly so keep coming back to see what card is most popular.

For now it looks like an overwhelming percent of visitors to this site are interested in the Bank of Montreal Mosaik Mastercard. A distant second popular credit card is the Money Mart Titanium Mastercard. The remainder of the credit cards are more or less similar in relative popularity.



Percent cards viewed by site visitors