Koho - Reviews and experiences

First saw it on the App Store after a colleague mentioned it, so I gave the membership a try about a year ago. The sign-up was painless and the features look promising, but what really disappointed me was the customer support — long waits, different reps giving contradictory instructions, and one call where I spent four hours only to be asked the same opening question again. I was hoping for measurable credit-score help but saw little change, and when I reported errors the fixes never stuck. Price isn't outrageous, and the app itself is OK, but after a year I'm left feeling let down. I still mention it to people who ask, but I warn them about the support. It's a bit frustrating.

I picked it thinking it might help my credit, but the whole thing felt clunky from the start — card arrived after two months and then wouldn’t work. The chatbot is... not great; you can’t actually talk to anybody, and when you do get an agent there are long pauses like 20–30 between replies. I had about $300 trapped in the account and was paying over $22 a month for the “everything” plan, which just made me mad. Weirdly, after insisting for weeks someone finally released the money — that surprised me — but by then I’d lost patience. If you’re considering this, maybe skip the premium plan and keep expectations low. Also support was slow to respond on weekends, fyi. Not what I hoped.

why is this harder than opening a normal account? They ask for so much ID — more than I needed for a legit credit card — and it felt weird because it’s my own money on the line. Tried to get clarification and that’s where the real snag is: customer service takes ages to answer, like days, and when they do it’s not very helpful. On the plus side, the card actually works for payments and I haven’t had any trouble using it at stores or online, so it does what it promises. But the extra verification steps and the slow replies make the whole thing annoying and a bit overbearing. Feels like they act like a bank but don’t follow what you’d expect from one, and they don’t really give clear paperwork up front. I’ll keep using it for now because it’s convenient, but I’m wary and probably won’t recommend it to friends unless they improve how they handle ID and support.

I almost didn’t open an account because I travel a lot and I wasn’t thrilled about everything being tied to a single phone number. That worry stuck with me, but the app looked handy for daily stuff — groceries, bills, tap-to-pay — so I gave it a shot. For a while it was fine. Smooth spending, low fuss. Then I moved abroad and lost access to my Canadian number. That’s when the problem hit. I tried to prove who I am — password, PIN, Face ID, even a video selfie — and still they insisted on SMS to that old number. I asked to switch to an authenticator app. Nope. There’s no user option, and support wouldn’t make the change for me. First agent didn’t get it. Second sounded like he did, then offered suggestions that didn’t help, and finally just refused. So now I can’t manage my own account until I somehow get that phone number back, which is unlikely. I get security is important, I really do, but locking everything to a single SMS channel without a fallback or reasonable workaround is too risky. I’m reluctantly cancelling because I don’t want my cash in an account I can’t access or control. If they add an authenticator option or some real backup flow I’d consider coming back.

I could still sign in on the website. That was a relief at first, because I thought at least I’d have access to move funds if needed. Turns out the web access didn’t solve the real issue.
I called support and after a few back-and-forths they said I’d used the wrong email. I knew which email I’d been using for years. I’d originally signed up with another address, sure, but I’ve used this one since. I tried the original and it accepted the address but then refused the password. Password-reset links wouldn’t arrive because apparently the “wrong” email was on file. So I was stuck.
After hours of explaining the same thing — and mentioning this had happened before when they updated the app in July — the tone changed. Suddenly my account showed “odd activity.” I pointed out I’d used the card to buy flowers for a friend whose spouse had died a week earlier. Legitimate purchase. Still, they asked for a government ID photo with me holding it next to my face. I asked why. I said I’ve been a customer for over five years, my pension is direct deposited, and the ID I used when signing up was already on file. They told me they needed that selfie-ID to re-open the account. I’m still trying to get my head around that: if they can’t close an account with funds in it, how did they end up closing mine and keeping the balance?
Long story short, my roughly two hundred dollars stayed in the account. I spent hours being passed from agent to agent — I lost count, maybe five different reps — and ended the conversation asking them not to contact me anymore. My blood pressure was up and I felt sick from the runaround.
So: the product worked reliably for years, and the website access saved me at one point, which I appreciate. But the recent handling of security, the communication, and the fact they held funds while demanding new ID made the whole experience very poor. Not perfect anymore, sadly. I expected better from a company I trusted and promoted.

If you need a reliable payment method, KOHO is not it. KOHO prepaid cards often get declined or fail when you need them most.



KOHO may look like a nice online prepaid card, but based on my experience and dozens of other reviews online, it has serious service, access and support problems that will cost you time and money. Users (myself included) have been locked out of accounts without explanation, experienced long or nonexistent responses from support, frozen funds, unresolved disputes, lost refunds, and trouble accessing help, especially if you can’t use the app to chat.
Myself and many other customers repeatedly had to submit personal information and ID with no clear explanation of why or how it was processed, despite KOHO keeping this information on file. This raising serious privacy concerns.




KOHO is not a bank... they are a Payment Service Provider (PSP). While they are registered under Canadian regulatory frameworks, they are not subject to the same consumer complaint protections or dispute resolution bodies as traditional banks and there is limited direct oversight focused on individual customer disputes.

That means dispute organizations such as OBSI (ombudsman) will not be able to help you.




Another issue is that KOHO does not appear to have a dedicated complaint escalation department. Regular customer service agents handle complex disputes, with poor results. 
It’s not accredited with external dispute bodies like OBSI and just by reading the reviews, you’ll see a clear pattern of unresolved billing and access issues, refunds held for months and customer service that often fails to help. 



This means there are few avenues for real help when something goes wrong.

If you value reliable access to your money and effective complaint escalation pathways, reconsider before signing up.
It’s not worth the risk, lost time, poor customer service, money and peace of mind trying to resolve basic issues. 



There are better banks and providers with stronger protections and customer support.

My account got shut down by the company out of nowhere, no reasons given. It's just not right to treat customers like that, eh.

My mom tried sending money through the app, but it got rejected 'cause she went over some limit. They said to split the cash, but didn't say why there's a limit in the first place. The app kept kicking my mom out even after she changed her password. Customer service wouldn't even talk to her on a Saturday, have to wait 'til Monday. First time using this app and we're not happy. Shutting this down right away!

I decided to give Koho a try after a friend told me about it. I have to admit, I'm pleasantly surprised by all the perks it offers. Getting cash back on groceries and gas purchases without a monthly fee is a real game-changer for me. I haven't had any issues with the platform so far, and I like that they listen to feedback from users and keep improving their features. One of my favorite things is being able to lock both my virtual and physical cards for added security and peace of mind. It's good to know my card info is safe from unauthorized use. Overall, I definitely recommend Koho to anyone looking to save more and keep their money secure.

My experience with Koho was all good until they decided to switch up their plan tiers. These changes basically made my current tier less valuable, so now I feel like I'm not getting as much bang for my buck. If I want to keep the same perks, I'd have to fork out double for the next tier. It feels like they're trying to force customers to upgrade by cutting back on the lower tier benefits, and that's just not right, you know?

I used to always tell my friends how great this company was, but now I can't do that. They decided to lower the cash-back rates on their packages and it really made their deals not as good. I enjoyed being able to get rewards for my everyday purchases, but now it's just not worth it. I think they really disappointed their loyal customers.

I tried to make an account but it keeps saying my email confirmation is expired even though I just got it. I can't find customer service to help me, they tell me to go to chat/support but I can't find it anywhere. It's really frustrating to set up and I can't get any help.

I was really looking forward to using the travel cash back feature on my card, but I was let down when I realized that I could only use my Canadian phone number for verification. This would mean I'd have to pay a lot of extra money to my phone company whenever I wanted to check my account while I'm on a trip. Other banks and services have better ways to verify like email or Whatsapp, which would make it easier for travelers like me to access their accounts without paying more. It's too bad that Koho didn't think about how this could help people who travel a lot. I'd give this feature a two-star rating overall.

I recently used my card while traveling from Canada to the USA, and I was really upset with the fraudulent activity I ran into. I saw some weird charges on my account, so I told the company right away. Even though I locked my card, I kept seeing transactions from those same fraudulent places getting denied, which meant they were still trying to use my cancelled card. Even after getting a new card number, I found out that a fraudulent seller had gotten access again, making me think that maybe the company let it happen. Because of their carelessness, I decided to close my account because I was scared of losing more money. Trust is so important with financial stuff, and unfortunately, Koho didn't keep up their end of the deal in my case.

I gotta tell ya about my experience with this company, eh. First off, their interest payment system is a total joke, I still haven't got the interest I'm supposed to and it's like it just vanished into thin air, eh. It's so frustrating and just not right, eh. And to top it off, their credit building service is a total scam, don't believe their lies and shady ways, eh.

I had a really bad experience with this company, they just up and suspended my account for no good reason. Their customer service was just terrible, they couldn't even explain why they did it. They sent me a message on their app saying they were looking into it, but I was left totally clueless. It felt like they were unfairly keeping me from my own money. Honestly, nothing about dealing with this company was good at all.

Stay away from this website, eh? It's full of scammers who just want to take your money. And once they got it, you're stuck with no help in sight. Customer service? Forget about it. Especially this one lady, Edna - she's useless. Save yourself and steer clear of this site if you care about staying safe and secure.

I just found out that someone made a fake transaction on my account, so I contacted the company for help. But they said I might have to wait 90 days for it to get resolved. And now it's taking even longer. I'm really frustrated with how slow and uncommunicative the company has been.

I've been having a tough time trying to access my account with this company. Even though I've sent in all the documents they asked for several times, I still can't get into my account. It's causing me a lot of financial stress. I've tried reaching out to customer service, but they haven't been helpful at all. They're not responding to my requests for help or letting me speak to a manager. The lack of communication and support from this company has really hurt my finances, and now I'm facing eviction and homelessness. I just want to warn others to think twice before opening an account with this company.

Stay away from this company. I made the mistake of opening an account and moving money on April 7th, only to regret it soon after. After reading lots of bad reviews, I realized I didn't want anything to do with this company. I spent over an hour trying to close my account, talking to a customer service rep named Valentina. Every 10 minutes, Valentina had a new excuse for why she couldn't close my account right away. I wasted a lot of time and ended up losing my money. Don't bother with this company, just stay away.