So yesterday Kelly and I met up to go buy our tickets to Thailand. I’m not sure if I’ve said it before but I’m not terribly interested in going to that part of the world. I don’t know why. However, while waiting at Student Flights for Kelly I was staring at all the brochures and the ones for Thailand looked unbelievably gorgeous! So now I’m all excited. Ah ha ha. I am lame.
So before our meet-up, I loaded up my pre-pay credit card that I bought online (called the Canvas Pre-Paid Visa – it looked legit so I paid the $20 for this card) with $1200 AUD. I realize now I probably could have just paid debit but… I’m dumb, clearly. I’ve used this credit card for online purchases before with no problems. I got it because I figured it would be cheaper in the long-run to use this for all my ticket purchases from Australia instead of emailing myself money from my Australia to my Canadian bank account and then using my Canadian Visa card. I’d get doubly charged for conversion rates if I did it that way.
So we get there and lo! and behold! my Visa will not work on their credit card machine. And the problem with this is? You can’t take your money off that card once you load it. So I had $1200 on that Visa. There’s no way I will be able to spend that much money in my remaining time in Australia. I call the number on the back of the card.
So it costs $1 to access my information. I grumble but accept only to get a list of options I don’t want. No option of talking to a representative. I press 0 just in case. Ah, suddenly I’m in line to talk to someone. I wait. And wait. And wait. Finally, they tell me it is $3 to talk to a representative. Do I want to do so? Yes. By this point I’m already unimpressed with the service.
So I get some woman. She tells me there’s nothing wrong with my card. I insist there is. She tells me I’m wrong. She tells me she can’t help me. She tells me to go buy somewhere else. Uh, no. I have a deposit on this flight. I’m not going anywhere else.
During this exchange, the lovely travel agent, Lenka, was calling up their bank and found out their terminals wouldn’t accept these kinds of cards, as they aren’t as secure as regular credit cards. So I tell the woman on the phone, “Oh, she says their terminals doesn’t accept this credit card.”
“That’s what I told you before! It is the terminal’s fault.” So. Rude.
“So can I get my money back then? I want my money refunded.”
“I am not sure if we can help you, m’am. I will put an enquiry into the concerns desk but you will have to call back in 2-3 business days to see if the request will be approved.” Another $4 phone call. Great.
“So what are the chances I will get my money back?” There is no way in hell I am paying for this ticket without knowing for sure that I will get this money back.
“I cannot comment on this situation at present, m’am. You will have to call back in 2-3 business days to find out if you will receive a refund. I cannot help you at this point.”
At this point, I hang up on her. I don’t know if I’ve ever had someone so rude on the phone before. It wasn’t just what she said but the tone of her voice. I am so frustrated. It hasn’t been the best week and I am tired and emotionally exhausted. I start crying outside the travel office. How embarrassing. I cry more because I don’t want to cry and this is awkward. There are people walking around me as I stand there trying to get my act together. Kelly comes out. She’s being sweet but I feel even more embarrassed that she’s trying to calm me down.
A man in the take-out restaurant next door sees me and insists I get some free gelato. I refuse and try to wipe away my tears. He insists and Kelly pushes me over. I get mango and chocolate. Well, that’s nice. At least Australians are nice.
I go back into the travel office, feeling awkward and embarrassed. The agents at Student Flights are super nice to me. They ask if my card has a pin number and I realize that I can treat my pre-pay Visa card like an ATM card. I had forgotten about that. So I whip out my tried and true Scotiabank Visa, charge it and pay for my trip. I’ll have to send myself the money in Canada but at least I get Money-Back Rewards on my Canadian Visa.
I’m withdrawing all my money from that stupid Canvas card and CUTTING IT UP into a tiny million little pieces. I get bad service, bad service I PAID FOR, and you will never get my business again. And I will tell whomever I can that Canvas pre-pay credit card is so not worth their time or money!
The funny thing is, I had Googled “canvas prepaid visa card scam” before to see if it was a legit card and wish I had come across a blog post like this before I bought it. I hope I save someone from this mistake by publishing it here.
Ugh!
I just stopped by your blog and thought I would say hello. I like your site design. Looking forward to reading more down the road.
thanks! this was very helpful
did you ever register the card on their website
with your name and address
it sound like you didnt go this
as its usully required for that so the CVS can verified the card
if you failed do this that might be the problem
Mark -
Yes I did register on the site. You have to to activate it. It was definitely activated. That wasn’t the issue. The issue was that the card wasn’t secure enough for the credit machine at the travel agency.
We are in Iceland at the moment, desperately trying to use a Visa pre-paid travel card. We wish we had looked at the travel blogosphere before we bought it. It is a piece of junk. It does not work. We bought it specifically for use at remote, unmanned gas stations. The card comes back rejected/not enough cash…however; in checking the transactions, we now have been charged four times for gas that was not purchased. It is going to be a nightmare to get fixed when we get back. The on-line secure message center was useless as well. The response was “they could not respond due to security reasons” and they gave us the 1-800 toll free number to call. That number does not work from Iceland.
I use the canvas card. I am not sure I fully understand your problem. If the travel agents machine didn’t accept the card, why didn’t you just go outside to an ATM and withdraw the cash to pay the travel agent?. They also rarely work in petrol stations, but again, if there is an ATM at the station you just withdraw the cash.
omgsh! you know i had the exact same problem!
1. i could barely understand the lady and
2. she was being a total cow! ddnt give me the right information… didnt help at ALL and took away $4 from my credit! grrr!
i bought my reload pack worth $250 and usually the money shows up in my balance within a 24hrs right..
i reloaded my pack on tuesday yet my balance is still $0
im so concerned right now ayeee
has any of you guys ever had this problem?
Oh S**t! I just bought a canvas card AND $500 worth of reload credit! I tried registering online, however it keeps saying there’s something wrong with my licence and id information. Has anyone else experienced this during the initial setup? It says to post/fax/email my identification details to verify. Should i even bother? or am i likely to run into more problems? Why oh why didn’t i read this blog and other online complaints (i’ve read heaps! cry) before wasting $500+ ! it seems like it’s all rigged or something, like from the get go you can’t even register without jumping through loops! AAAARRGHHH!!!
Just read your story and thought about how unfortunate your experience was with the company. I myself am a user for 2 years now but I have always had a 1-up on them in terms of their charges. Funnily enough, when you do a recharge at a BP petrol station, the charges don’t apply until about 1 hour after charging and the funds come in straight away- trick is to spend all that money within 1 hour and they don’t get a single dollar- haha. Sucked in to date, they’ve only taken about 20 of my hard earned dollars in terms of their charges- and their recharge cards are total crud- do yourself a favour and charge via a BP station
this might sound stupid. but i dont know how to withdrawal out of the canvas card.
is it cheque or savings or credit, and it’s all so confusing because sometimes charges show my temporary card and i dont even know anymore. BLAH!
Mine works fine for almost everything. Canvas cards are more secure than non-prepaid cards, especially Paywave cards that can be skimmed without physical contact.
patience is a virtue as we just found out if you submit more than once it autmoatically blocks you because you are actually requesting a card online.
the pink canvas card you can only use once, if you want a reloadable card you need to obtain the black canvas visa card.
i was just wondering, im about to order this prepaid canvas credit card and hearing all these problems! i just want to make sure if its okay for me to use this online I MEAN does it work if i wanna buy somthing online ?!
thanks please reply ASAP OX
Hi Zeina – If you want to buy something online, I’m sure it’s fine. It’s been a couple years since I wrote this blog post and I’m sure they’ve upgraded all services since.