$100 GeniusCash + Up to 1.5% cash back on purchases + Lower annual fee.*
Pros & cons
Pros
- Up to 1.5% cash back on purchases.
- No credit check required.
- Earn up to 2.5% interest on your balance.
- Charges no foreign exchange fees.
Cons
- Does not improve your credit score.
- No insurance included.
Your rewards
$100 GeniusCash offer
On approval, receive $100 GeniusCash on us when you apply for KOHO Extra Mastercard using this offer page.
GeniusCash offer expires on Oct 31, 2025.
Getting your welcome bonus
Based on $2,000 in monthly spending, you can get up to an estimated $20.◊
For all welcome bonus details click here.
How you earn rewards
Each card earns rewards differently. Part of choosing your card is deciding what type of rewards you want to get. With KOHO Extra Mastercard, here's how you earn rewards:
- 1.5% cash back on groceries , restaurants , and transportation
- 0.25% cash back on all other purchases
For all reward details click here.
How much your rewards are worth
The dollar value of your rewards depends on the specific rewards program ‒ and what you choose to redeem your points for. For KOHO Extra Mastercard in particular, if you spend $2,000 per month, here's our estimated annual rewards earned depending on which reward you choose:
| Direct deposit | $192 |
Calculating your annual rewards
$24,000 annual spending x 0.80% return on spending = $192 annual rewards
$192 annual rewards − $144.00 annual fee = $48 net annual rewards
Details and eligibility
- Estimated Credit Score
- 300 - 559
- Personal Income
- N/A
- Household Income
- N/A
- Annual Fee
- $144.00
- Extra Card Fee
- $0
- Card type
- Prepaid
- Purchase
- N/A
- Cash Advance
- N/A
- Balance Transfer
- N/A
Genius Rating
KOHO Extra Mastercard's 2.2 Genius Rating is based on the weighted average of the following scores:
Methodology
All scores are produced by our math-based rating algorithm that takes into account over 126 credit card features.
Top cards if you have Poor Credit
Our review
Want a prepaid card, but also a premium experience? Then say hello to the KOHO Extra Mastercard. For a fee of $12 a month, you'll earn great rewards while saving on other fees in the process.
How KOHO works
Before getting into the features, what is KOHO and how does it work? You're basically getting a basic chequing account with a prepaid Mastercard to use for purchases.
And it's easy to get money into it. You can simply send an Interac e-transfer to your account, and get it loaded instantly.
Or, you can choose to send your payroll deposit directly to your KOHO account if you want. And since KOHO has free Interac e-transfers, it's easy to send your money to another account if you need to.
As a bonus, when you send your first direct deposit into your account (of at least $500), you'll earn a bonus 0.5% cash back on all purchases for the following 90 days.
Getting cash back rewards
For simple and easy-to-use cash back rewards, the KOHO Extra Mastercard has some great earn rates.
You'll earn:
- 1.5% cash back on groceries, restaurants, and transportation
- 0.25% cash back on all other purchases
Your rewards are easy to use too. 1 - 2 days after every purchase, they get deposited into your KOHO account so you can use them for your next purchase.
KOHO also has bonuses when you refer a friend. For every friend you refer who makes their first purchase within 30 days, you'll both receive 1% bonus cash back for 90 days.
The fees that are waived
To keep your KOHO Extra Mastercard, you have to pay either a monthly or yearly fee. But with the fee comes extra savings as well.
Here's what having KOHO Premium will save you, on top of what the
No foreign transaction fees
Most credit and prepaid cards charge a foreign exchange fee of 2.5%. But not KOHO Premium. In fact, you'll pay no fee at all. Save that 2.5% for yourself on all your purchases that are made with your KOHO Extra Mastercard.
1 free international ATM withdrawal per month
Travelling outside the country?
Your KOHO Premium account comes with 1 free ATM withdrawal every month, saving you up to $5 if you need some cash and you're outside of Canada.
KOHO also charges no ATM fees inside Canada as well.
Other KOHO features
There are more features you can access with a KOHO prepaid card.
Earn interest on your prepaid balance with KOHO Earn Interest
Having a KOHO Prepaid card means you're holding a hybrid spend-savings account.
You can earn interest on your prepaid balance if you opt in to KOHO Earn Interest. All you have to do to activate this excellent feature is to set up a direct deposit to your KOHO card.
Once you do, you'll start collecting interest on your prepaid balance. For this KOHO Card, you'll earn 2.5% on your balance. It's an easy way to let your money grow while you wait to spend it.
Send money abroad with KOHO International Money Transfer
With KOHO International Money Transfer, you can send money abroad to people in over 190 countries, right from your KOHO balance.
Credit building
While prepaid cards don't build credit, you can do so with a KOHO prepaid card by opting into Credit Building. With this card, KOHO withdraws $7 per month. KOHO will then report to one of the major bureaus that you're making your payments on time, and your score will improve. But it goes both ways, don't have that money there, and they'll report you missed a payment.
In summary
KOHO has a great offering for a premium prepaid card – perks, low fees, and great rewards.
But if you don't like the annual or monthly fee involved, then take a look at the
The best part? It's easy to switch back and forth between the 2 if you find that one of them isn't right for you.
Key benefits
User reviews
Reviewed by 13 Canadians
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Im giving this 3 stars... When i signed up for koho a couple years ago it said there was no fees like other banks, it helps build credit... I used it as an actual bank, there was a $10 difference from the $9 package to the $19 one just to get instant etransfer instead of having to wait a half hour. Later they came out with "other" benefits, you still have to pay to use those on top of the monthly fees, depending on what plan your supposed to save a couple dollars off what your using, I was paying $19, then $5 to use cover, then all depending they take $5/10 on Me for the credit building when it was only supposed to be $5 cause of my package. Then another $5 to have the personal line of credit. If you get the lesser fees then you have to pay more to use those things.
I referred friends many times, never did get the credit for it.
People use koho to help build credit, people that are in a hard spot financially, thinking there's benefits. Having to spend/loose $50 a month give or take, I couldn't handle I anymore I switched to an actual bank and got $16 a month for my fees. The "benefits" should have been included in the package you have to pay for.
They gave me a $50 cover, never did Increase it yet I used it daily, but you can't do etransfers if you have $50 or less in your account. They offer a $225 line of credit, you can choose to have your own personal line and contribute to that but you have to pay for that as well.
Alot of places won't accept or recognize koho for payments and bills.
I've had this card for over 2 years. It works great for me as an immigrant: no FX fees means I can travel abroad and pay stuff in my country of origin with my Canadian salary without pesky fees. The 5% interest on my full balance (yes, this card gives 5% interest on the full balance despite what the description at creditcardgenius says) makes this a super convenient place to park my money. It's great seeing cashback arrive daily, sometimes multiple times per day. The phone app is very good, too.
I actually love koho. It’s pretty good to me in the sense of helping me out when I need it the most.
Everything seems good at the beginning until you actually want to use it. Tried to buy online lottery tickets in Australia and it was blocked by KOHO. The response from KOHO was "it was blocked to protect our clients". Right. I have been using the trusted site for over a year already with other card and had no problem at all. What a waste of time applying for this card.
I am a current koho user for about 1 year. At first this card seemed good. I signed up for premium for the extra cash back and the low foreign exchange fees. It worked well. I could track my spending and it was accurate.
Then things started to change. I've logged in and had 350$ balance left on the card. Transactions wouldn't go through, and they said it was showing the incorrect balance. They removed that money, didn't provide any proof.
When talking with customer service for WEEKS in order to secure proof they will close out conversations before resolution, say they will have a manager reach out shortly (they never do), will deflect or kick the buck.
I've been extraordinarily patient the past couple of weeks, but I've never seen anything like this from a company. If you've other choices and options, look elsewhere.
