Stack Prepaid Mastercard to Be Discontinued

In the recent past, the prepaid credit card space in Canada has been shrinking, with some of the former titans of the industry, such as Mogo, folding entirely.

Another would-be disruptor has succumbed to the forces of the market, and has been gobbled up by a larger competitor. This time, the victim is the Stack Prepaid Mastercard, which will be discontinued on September 11, 2023.

Let’s take a look at exactly what’s happening, and how we got here.

Stack Prepaid Mastercard to Be Discontinued

On August 11, 2023, cardholders of the Stack Prepaid Mastercard were informed by email that the card is being discontinued as of September 11, 2023. As of this date, Stack Prepaid Mastercards will no longer function.

Similarly, it’ll no longer be possible to load funds onto Stack cards as of August 18, 2023.

In the email, Stack recommends that cardholders either spend down their remaining balance, or ask to withdraw it, either through the app or through online chat support, before the suspension of operations.

Any remaining funds will be returned to cardholders via e-transfer within 45 days of card cancellation, be that on September 11, 2023, or any time before.

The September 11 end date gives cardholders a 30-day window to remove all funds from their accounts.

In the email, Stack recommends that customers who wish to continue using prepaid products instead switch to the Koho Prepaid Mastercard moving forward.

As an incentive, former Slack cardholders can use the promo code KOHOSTACK when signing up for a new Koho Prepaid Mastercard. This will include one free month of Koho Premium, which among other benefits, provides no foreign exchange fees and up to 4.5% interest on cash deposits.

It’s worth noting that Stack suggesting a preferred partner to switch to is hardly novel, as the exact same thing happened earlier this year with another prepaid card at the end of its life.

In April 2023, the Mogo Prepaid Visa finally ran out the of probably fictitious trees it claimed to plant, and encouraged customers to sign up for an EQ Bank Card instead. At this point, Mogo’s parent company shut down its prepaid business to focus on other financial services instead.

It’s interesting to see prepaid companies obtain the customers of enterprises that fold without buying the underlying brand and assets. The future will tell if this…