Mogo Visa Platinum Prepaid Card: a full review

Interested in the Mogo credit card? Well, there’s good news and bad news for you. Bad news first: the Mogo credit card doesn’t exist. But here’s the good news: Mogo’s Visa Platinum Prepaid Card is worth a look instead.

Although it’s a prepaid card rather than a credit card, it’s got several useful and interesting features that mean you might still want to consider it. So let’s dive in. Also, you’ll read about on the Wise card - if you’re interested in saving money when spending in different currencies, you’ll probably want to know about it.

MogoCard: the basics

Mogo is a Canadian fintech company that offers several different financial products, including credit scores, loans, and mortgages. It’s unusual in that it places a big emphasis on environmental concerns: “the planet’s health” is one of the factors it lists on its website.¹

Mogo doesn’t offer a credit card, but instead a reloadable prepaid card, which it calls the MogoCard.

Like all prepaid cards, it only lets you spend money you’ve loaded onto it: you don’t borrow money from a bank and pay it back later, like you do with a credit card.

What makes the MogoCard stand out from other prepaid cards? A couple of things. Firstly, every time you spend using the card, Mogo plants a tree, enhancing its environmental credentials. Secondly, as well as planting a tree, each spend earns you rewards in the form of satoshis – a small unit of bitcoin. These are carbon offset, too.²

MogoCard fees and limits

Credit card or no, the MogoCard does have a few costs you should know about, and like with most prepaid cards you also have to be mindful of limits on how much you can load on and withdraw. Here are the details:² ³

Do watch out for those ATM withdrawal fees, then – ideally, just don’t use the card for cash withdrawal. And don’t leave money dormant in the account for too long or you could end up paying the inactivity fee. But so long as you’re using this card for small- or mid-sized purchases, the fees and limits should be manageable.

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MogoCard extra features

On its website, Mogo leads with its green credentials: every time you use a card, you plant a tree. That makes it appealing to those who want to get involved with climate action on the day-to-day.

Mogo also says that its card helps you “control your spending.”² According to its research, users save $201 on average through using the card. Take note: this is not because of a particular reward or offer from Mogo; it’s simply down to a change in habits when using this prepaid card. But, hey, if it works, it works.

And the spending monitor tool that comes with the app, as well as its automated top-up feature, mean that it could indeed help you develop good spending habits.

You also get free credit score updates every month with Mogo. But again take note here: using the card itself doesn’t necessarily improve your credit score. You just get the update.

Mogo notes on its website that “You can also improve your credit score by using the MogoCard”² – that’s because, if you’re using it, you’re not building up debt. The flipside is that, with a prepaid card, you’re not successfully repaying a credit card bill every month, which is the traditional effective way to build up a positive credit rating.

MogoCard bitcoin rewards

As well as planting a tree, each time you spend with your MogoCard you get rewards – in that sense, it’s like a credit card. But unlike with a credit card, these rewards are in the form of bitcoin.

Or, rather, small units of it: you get 50 satoshis per spend, which is a fifty-millionth of a bitcoin, or 0.0000005 BTC.⁴

Bitcoin is very energy intensive, so to counter its environmental impact Mogo’s bitcoin are “green” as well. The company plants trees with every bitcoin purchase – enough to absorb 500,000 lbs worth of carbon dioxide. That should be enough to make it a climate positive transaction.⁵

How much are those rewards worth in dollars? Famously, bitcoin’s value changes a lot. So you’ll need to keep a close eye on it!

What are the pros and cons of the MogoCard?

Mogo’s credit card-like prepaid card is certainly distinctive, offering a range of novel features. But do they really stack up?

The main benefit is that it is low on fees. Loading money onto the card doesn’t cost anything, and the limits shouldn’t hold you back for most reasonable purchases. ATM withdrawals are expensive, but ideally you’d use a bank card for those anyway. Plus, its tree-planting initiative is certainly a positive.

Mogo’s tools to help you monitor your spending could well come in handy as well, and may even help you save money each month. But nobody knows you better than you know yourself, so it’s down to you to say whether this would apply to you.

The cons? Well, unlike a credit card you can’t make a big positive impact to your credit rating through using the MogoCard, because you won’t have a monthly credit card bill to repay. That said, as Mogo itself notes, you won’t get into further debt through using this card, so it could still have a positive effect.

What about those bitcoin rewards? It’s an extremely low amount of bitcoin you get per purchase, but over time it’s possible that they’ll mount up, and if the value of bitcoin goes up too, there’s a chance this will turn out well. But cash back or points-based rewards, like you can get from many a standard credit card, might be a tempting alternative.

MogoCard alternatives

The MogoCard isn’t the only option if you’re looking for a prepaid card in lieu of a standard credit card.

In fact, there are several more from youthful fintech companies: the Koho and Stack cards. Both of those offer attractive, credit card-like features: Koho offers cash back on spending, and Stack has no foreign transaction fees, so might prove useful abroad.

Other Canadian prepaid cards are on offer from the likes of CIBC and BMO.

If you’re looking at prepaid cards because of credit rating issues, getting a secured credit card could also be an option: Home Trust and Refresh Financial have popular options that can allow you to build up a good credit rating once again so long as you can put down a deposit first.

And if what you really want is a card that helps the environment, there’s always the American Express Green Card, made from 99% recycled plastic.⁶ Although that’s not going to plant as many trees.

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