The 6 Best Prepaid Cards in Canada (2024)

Choosing between paying debit and credit can be challenging. On one hand, credit cards put you into debt, but on the other, they have nice rewards programs, such as cashback. On the other hand, while debit cards only allow you to spend the money you own, there aren’t any good cashback programs. That’s where prepaid cards come in. They combine the best of both worlds, allowing you to spend only the money you own while still offering some nice cashback programs. There are so many cards currently on the Canadian market, but here are 6 that (in our opinion) stand out.

What Is a Prepaid Card?

Prepaid cards function quite similarly to credit cards, but without the credit part. To spend money, you have to load it onto the card first, all most like a gift card, except that it can also be reloaded. As opposed to a debit card, you can’t write cheques and a prepaid card isn’t linked to a bank account.

Prepaid cards are mainly used as an alternative to credit cards. They can help with budgeting, as they only allow you to spend the money you’ve loaded into them, and you don’t go into debt when using them. Most prepaid cards also offer some sort of cash back, while most debit cards do not. In other categories, however, they are quite similar to debit cards.

There are a lot of prepaid cards available in Canada, but very few of them actually offer any features that you couldn’t get with a debit card. That’s why our list only features prepaid cards that put something special on the table. So without further ado, here are Canada’s 6 best prepaid cards.

Best Overall: PC Money Account

In my opinion, PC Financial’s Money account is Canada’s prepaid card. It’s issued by PC Financial, there’s no monthly fee and it offers plenty of great features. Unlike most prepaid cards, the PC Money account gives you access to no-fee ATMs. While you can withdraw money from these ATMs, you can’t deposit any. Most PC-branded stores (think Loblaws, Shoppers Drug Mart, etc.) will offer access PC Finacial ATMs, but outside of that, they’re pretty hard to find.

As for cash back you’ll earn 25 PC Optimum points on purchases made at Shoppers Drug Mart, 10 at other PC-branded stores and 5 PC Optimum points on all other purchases. A PC Optimum point is worth a tenth of cent, so this is equivalent to 2.5% back at Shoppers, 1% and most other Loblaws stores and 0.5% on everything else. Your PC Money card also functions as a PC Optimum card, meaning that you can also earn regular offers on top of the existing points you earned. These points can be redeemed at any participating PC Optimum store. You’ll also earn 1,000 PC Optimum points, equivalent to $10, when you make a bill payment of over $50. This offer is capped at 5 bill payments per month.

Support is available by phone and by chat. If you want to, you can talk to someone in-person at a PC Financial pavilion, usually located within a Loblaws store.

As of right now, when you sign up for a PC Money account, you can earn up to 200,000 PC Optimum points, equivalent to $200, when you open an account and fund your account with over $150.

Runner-up: Free KOHO Account

Koho comes as a pretty close second to the PC Money account. It runs through Mastercard, and comes at no monthly fee, while also offering generous cashback on purchases.

When spending your money, you’ll earn 0.5% cashback on everything, regardless of the category. KOHO has partner with some companies, known as cashback partners, to offer bonus cash back on purchases made there, between 1% and 6%. This will be added on top of the basic cashback rate of 0.5%. You can learn more about KOHO’s cashback partner program here.

If you set up direct deposit, you’ll earn 1.2% interest on you’re account, for free. That’s better than most savings accounts in Canada! Unfortunately, a standard KOHO is not CDIC-insured, meaning that if they were to lose you’re money, there’d be no way to get it back. However, funds held in an interest-bearing account, meaning ones with direct deposit, are insured.

If you need help, you can contact support in-app via live chat, or through phone or email.

Close third: Wealthsimple Spend

Wealthsimple is well known as Canada’s only no-fee stockbrocker. However, they now also offer a no-fee prepaid Visa card, that can be linked to your no-fee stock trading account.

When using the Wealthsimple card, you’ll earn 1% cashback on all your purchases. You have a variety of choices on how you want to manage this cashback. You can choose to have this cashback sent directly to your spending account, or to your Wealthsimple Trade investment account. If you prefer crypto, you can also choose to have it invested into over 40 different cryptocurrencies.

You can also open a seperate Wealthsimple Save account, and earn 1.5% interest with no monthly fee.

Best for Cashback: KOHO Premium Account

While Koho offers a very nice free account, if you want more, you can also get a more premium account, and fancier, more premium Koho card.

Earning cashback is very nice. After all, who doesn’t want to earn money while spending money? Koho’s non-premium account will only pay you 0.5% on all purchases, which isn’t a lot. That’s where the KOHO Premium account comes in. For $9 per month or $84 per year, you’ll get 2% cashback on groceries, food and transportation, and 0.5% back on everything else. These rates are comparable to CIBC’s no-fee Dividend Visa credit card. But considering that it’s not a credit card, the rates are pretty good. They are, in fact, the best cashback rates we’ve managed to find out of all prepaid cards.

You can also earn 1.2% interest if you set up direct deposit, just as you could with the free Koho account.

Other than the extra cashback and the fancy card, this account is similar to the free account in almost all other respects. You will get priority user support and personalized financial coaching, but not much else.

If you’re interested, you can try a 30 day free trial

Best for travel: Wise Multi Currency Account

Travelling is quite fun. However, traveling often requires visiting foreign countries, and foreign countries generally use a variety of currencies, and most prepaid cards only allow you to hold Canadian dollars. Thankfully, Wise’s Multi Currency Account will, as the name suggest, allow you to hold multiple currencies, and spend them in-store with a prepaid Visa debit card.

There’s no annual fee, and Canadians can keep up to 53 different currencies on their card. You can also send and receive a variety of different currencies through Wise’s network. Unfortunately, since your account will neither pay interest nor cashback, holding foreign currency is really the only thing you can use it for.

Honourable mention: Mogocard

Mogo (not to be confused with Koho) is a Canadian company dedicated to “financial freedom for all”. They love Bitcoin, cashback and Bitcoin cashback. In fact, you can even get a mortgage with them and earn Bitcoin cashback on it. Naturally, the Mogocard offers Bitcoin cashback.

When using the Mogo card, you’ll earn 2% on all purchases made in Canada. MOGO also promises to plant a tree whenever you make a purchase with their card. Unlike most payment cards, however, you won’t earn your cashback in cash, but rather, in Bitcoin. After making a purchase, your Bitcoin is deposited into your Mogo Bitcoin account. This Bitcoin can than either be withdrawn for actual cash or left to grow or decline as the price of Bitcoin changes.

There’s no monthly fee, and you’ll also get free identity fraud protection and credit score monitoring, both for free as well.

Unfortunately, Bitcoin is the only way to receive your cashback, and Bitcoin can be quite unpredictable. If you prefer cash, there simply aren’t any other options. Your only choice would be to immediately withdraw your Bitcoin and exchange it for cash, which would probably be quite burdensome.

Summing Up + Which Card’s Best?

So many prepaid cards to choose from, and unless you plan on opening 6 different accounts, you’ll probably want to know which one is best overall. The answer, though, is it depends.

For those who shop at President’s Choice’s stores, the PC Money account’s PC Optimum cashback rates and convenient ATMs will be hard to beat. If you’re not a PC customer, however, it becomes hard to justify. Should you plan on using your prepaid card a lot, than Koho Premium’s high cashback rates may well be worth the annual fee. If you don’t need a high cashback rate, but want interest, than so long as you don’t mind setting up direct deposit, Koho’s free account is certainly worth a look. And if you use Wealthsimple and want to invest your cashback, you’ll probably enjoy being able to have your Wealthsimple Spend card’s cashback sent directly to your investment account. Bitcoin enthusiasts will almost certainly enjoy the Mogo card, and it’s ability to pay cashback automatically in Bitcoin.

In the end, the best prepaid card will depend on your shopping habits, your spending and your personal preferences. They all bring something unique and special to the table.