Mastercards and Visa Cards for Canadian Teens
In Canada, to get a credit card one must be the age of majority for their province, which is 18 or 19 in most places. So, if you meet this requirement, check out my Credit Cards for Students in Canada article (which is aimed at College/University students).
However, there are several non-credit card Mastercard and Visa card products on the market.
Debit Visa
CIBC has finally come to the market with a Debit Visa card. You can buy anything online with it, and the transaction goes over the Visa network. When you buy things at a regular store, the transaction goes over the Interac network. So far, you can only get one of these cards if you have a CIBC chequing account (you can't attach it to, say, your Scotiabank chequing account). The other problem is that the Visa transactions still count against your monthly transaction limit for your account plan. The best aspects of the card are: No extra fees on top of your existing chequing account and there is no minimum age for it.
If you already have a CIBC debit card, you can phone up your branch to ask for the new Debit Visa.
Preloaded Mastercard and Visa Cards
You'll still be ineligible for most of the good prepaid reloadable Mastercards and Visas, since you'll still need to be the Age of Majority for your province to apply. You can get the reloadable Muchmusic Prepaid Mastercard on your own if you're 16, or a parentally sponsored card if you're 13-15, but it's not a very good deal in my opinion.
The two best prepaid preloaded cards are the RBC Prepaid Visa and the Canada Post Prepaid Visa Gift Cards.The 3v Cash Virtual Visa can be a very cost-effective option depending on what you're trying to buy. Just keep in mind that you'll need to register an address to be able to buy things online that require an address.
Paypal?
I'm honestly not sure how old they require you to be, but I had no problems setting up an account when I was 14, things may be different now.
Mastercard and Visa Credit Cards for Teens in Canada | Better
Wonderful, what a blog it is! This web site presents valuable facts to us, keep it up.
Unsatisfied Customer of Vanilla Prepaid card
I bought a prepaid Vanilla Visa card at Shoppers Drug Mart on Dec. 24th that was activated in the store. When I started using it on boxing day it did not work at all. I was told by Shoppers to call the number on the back of the card that I find it useless and not helpful at all. The only options available were "account balance" and "lost or stolen card" which none of this was the issue. I needed to talk to a live agent but that was not an option. I'm so very unhappy with the way this card works. A live customer service must be available at all times to fix problems of the card just like other credit card company. I've learned a good lesson from this; gift cash rather than Vanilla prepaid card no hassle no stress.
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