For me, it didn’t seem to move the needle much at all. My Equifax score started at 849 and at the end of the experiment my score was… 849. I already had pretty established credit, so I could still see this being more useful for newcomers or people rebuilding after financial difficulties.
Ultimately, if I had to choose between Koho and Neo for my day-to-day spending and credit building, I would pick Neo, but that’s just me. The right choice for you will come down to how you spend, and how much you’re willing to pay for extra perks!
Of the landlords who clearly answered the question, 11 out of 20 said they required a credit check as part of the application process. That works out to 55%.
The activation fees are absurd. On my $20 Vanilla card, the $7.95 fee was nearly 40% of the card’s value. That’s objectively ridiculous. Then add in the restrictions and the cards smell even more like poo.
I often say that money is one of the last taboos in Canada. Unsurprisingly, a survey we recently conducted at...
EQ Bank would have paid me $1.85 in cash back for my total one week spend. That still doesn't beat the $2.55 I got from Neo for spending less overall, but more on groceries and gas.
After completing my birthday reward journey, I collected over $100 worth of free goodies. The highest value items were from Denny’s ($14.59) and Freshii ($13.49). The lowest value item was the cookie from Subway ($1.35).
A first-time bankruptcy stays on your credit report for 6 to 7 years, but you can start rebuilding your credit much sooner than that. The Canadians I spoke to got secured loans or credit cards with low limits and rebuilt within a few years.
