KOHO Reviews & Overview

Becoming a KOHO member is free. To get started, head over to the website or download the app and create your account. You'll be asked to provide your email address, full name, date of birth, address, and phone number.

From there, you'll be asked to verify your identity. This can be done in a few ways:

1. Uploading a photo of yourself and a piece of government-issued photo ID.
2. Linking a supported bank account that matches the name you signed up with.
3. Uploading a photo of a recent financial statement or bill.

Whichever route you choose, your identity should be reviewed and verified by KOHO within 2-4 business days. After that, you can start depositing money into your account(s) via direct deposit, e-transfer, or debit card.

Intro offer: 30 day free trial of any paid plan. Sign up here.

KOHO offers two main types of accounts:

• Personal prepaid account. This is the basic account you'll start off with.
• Joint prepaid account. This is almost identical to a personal account but can be shared with one other person. You can only have ONE joint account at a time.

All accounts are CDIC insured, which means up to $100,000 of your funds (in each account) will be returned if KOHO (or its partner bank) fails.

Each KOHO account comes with a variety of features:

• Interest. Earn a varying amount of interest on your personal KOHO balance (not available for joint accounts) by opting in. Rates depend on your plan (more info in pricing section).
• Prepaid Mastercard. With each account you have, you'll get a virtual Mastercard (which exists digitally only) and a physical Mastercard. You can only spend as much as you have deposited in your KOHO account. You can lock either card (i.e. freeze spending) at any time. The card works almost anywhere Mastercard is accepted, and can be used for ATM withdrawals as well.
• Cashback. Earn cashback on purchases made with your prepaid KOHO card. Cashback rates vary depending on your KOHO plan (more info in pricing section) and the type of purchase being made.
• Cashback partners. Shop at KOHO partners within the cashback section of the app to get extra cashback on your purchase.
• Round-up savings. Enable this feature to round up your purchases to $1, $2, $5, or $10, and save the rest. For example, if you round up to $1 and make a $5.50 purchase, KOHO will round that purchase to $6 and save the $0.50 for you automatically.
• Savings goals and recurring savings. Set up savings goals with a recurring deposit (daily, weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly). KOHO will automatically calculate how long it'll take for you to reach your goal.
• Free e-Transfers. You can send unlimited Interac e-transfers from your KOHO account for free.
• Financial insights. When viewing your transaction history, you can open KOHO's insights page, which will tell you things like your monthly and weekly spending, savings, spending categories, average spending, and more.
• Budgeting. KOHO offers a basic budgeting tool where you can input your monthly income, set up target monthly spending for different categories, and then get a simple overview of your progress and potential savings.
• Bill payments. Add payees, pay bills, and set up automatic payments. (You won't earn cashback on these.)

Other KOHO features include:

• Credit building. More info available in pricing section.
• Cover. More info available in pricing section.
• Referrals. Refer other members to KOHO using your unique referral link to earn $20 per referral. To qualify, the person you refer must sign up and make a min. $20 transaction within 30 days. You can only refer up to 50 people.

KOHO offers four (4) different plans:

• Easy (Free). Includes all basic features + 1% cashback on groceries and transportation and 0.5% interest on your entire balance.
• Essential ($4/month). Adds 1% cashback on eating and drinking, 0.25% cashback on all other purchases, and 4.5% interest on up to $500 (2% on the rest).
• Extra ($9/month). Adds 2% cashback on groceries, transportation, and eating and drinking, 0.5% cashback on all other purchases, 4.5% interest on up to $1,000 (3% on the rest), no foreign transaction fees, and 1 free international ATM withdrawal/month.
• Everything ($19/month). Adds 4.5% interest on your entire balance and real-time e-transfers.

They also offer separate subscription plans for other services:

• Cover (variable pricing). Available to a specific set of users, Cover is a subscription service offered by KOHO that allows you to spend a bit more than what's in your account.
• Credit building (variable pricing, ~$10/month). With this service, KOHO opens up a fee-free and interest-free account (aka tradeline) that'll show up on your credit report. Simply make payments into your line of credit to establish your credit history and build your score.

Pricing for these subscription services will vary based on your account history and plan.