Revprepaid/Rev Prepaid, formerly known as "Canvas", is a service that provides a way for you to spend money online - if it wasn't for the fact that behind Revprepaid lies 2 pages worth of fees, and for the fact that payment takes 4 days to process through BPay (and even then using BPay involves more fees).
Want to open a Revprepaid account account with only $20? Well, since $6.95 goes to opening the account and $2.95 goes to depositing money through BPay, enjoy using your $10 online! Oh and wait, there's a $2.95 monthly fee associated with using Revprepaid as well...
The whole website, starting from it's reassuring messages on the homepage, to the you can get "24/7 support" pretension is a scam, to say the least.
In this case, "24/7 support" could be translated as after 24 days and 7 years Revprepaid will get back to you; an email and message that you send through their form will not be responded to in a day, nor have Revprepaid attempted to respond to my concerns on the amount of deception. The scam is in the fees that they charge - they state that the fees are publicly available however you do not encounter them during the course of registration, futhermore, the fees are not "simple".
Normally, I wouldn't be complaining, but considering that there are alternatives out there such as the Woolworths Mastercard and Load&Go to use - I'm personally not happy about the fact that it took 4 full days for the payment to fully process and the fact that I'm being charged $2.95 a month.
Now why make a big deal out of $2.95? Well because after a while, those fees count, and the fact that during the course of registration Revprepaid, the fees costings are not there, hence it is deceptive in the sense that it charges its customers unnecessary fees when in fact there are better alternatives out there.
I might as well consider Revprepaid to be a fraud, here's a break-up of the payment process:
- Transfer money with BPay
- Revprepaid's greedy fraud fees paid instantly (to ensure that Revprepaid can leech money as fast as possible). ($2.95)
- If you've paid on Friday, wait until the next Tuesday for Revprepaid to process the payment (and for the banks to generate interest from BPay). (4 days)
- Allow Revprepaid to cover additional interest and commission by throwing the money that you're transfering to their payments processor (2 days).
- Allow Revprepaid an extra day to defraud you of your cash as you cannot access it as advertised (they claim that it takes 2 days for you to be credited for your money, but it's actually a week for the payment to process, Rev Prepaid makes money for keeping you for long periods of time (as they charge a monthly fee which may as well be more then a monthly interest), money for allowing you to deposit money into your account (and not receive it)). Complete fraud is what Rev Prepaid
- Finally receive the money on Friday, a week after you've transferred it
$2.95 for a poor service with long and painful delays, using BPay through Revprepaid is not worth it, you're better off burning fuel to buy a load&go then to wait days and days to move your hard earned money around, just to get defrauded of a substantial amount. Rev Prepaid is unreliable and untrustworthy, hey investing in Bitcoin is more worthwhile then using Rev Prepaid; Rev Prepaid is a fraud and should be treated as much, a Bitcoin transaction is done in a few minutes, Rev Prepaid takes 3 days + 2 days + 1 day for you to deposit your hard earned money, Rev Prepaid own you and your money while they "process" the money, but hey, why do you think that they changed their name from "Canvas"?
If you're thinking about a long term prepaid card, Revprepaid is DEFINITELY not the way to go (think about it, $2.95 a month for a year, or how about 2?)!
So first of all, as a review, I would like to say that Revprepaid was horrible to set up - you had to confirm your address a few times, and then confirm it again, oh - and then you have to use edentity to confirm it again - which means verifying your identity with your medicare card, drivers license, or oh.. A passport!
Well here's a little snipplet from Revprepaid's website from what you are required to have before you make the decision to create an account:
You are almost done!
We are required to verify your identity. You can easily do this electronically. Click "Verify Now" and you'll be taken to our online verification tool that allows you to safely and securely verify your identity online. Please have two of the following documents ready to speed along this process:
- Driver's Licence
- Passport
- Medicare Card
- Employment Visa
Oh, and as a note, if you have a passport, then you can't use you medicare card in conjunction, you must be in a phone book or have a Driver's license. Ha. Suck it! Just another layer in Revprepaid/Canvas's deception!
Registering is a complete pain, but once you're past the verification stage, you can immediately access your card, which as mentioned far above incurrs a charge no matter what payment method you use to get money onto your Revprepaid card.
Once you've set up your card though, the system works as you'd expect it, though the monthly fees will constantly come back and bite you and limits the ability for you to "spend" money online. Futhermore, of course, as it uses Visa, the currency conversion rates would be a little dodgy at some times, but this doesn't really apply to Rev Australia and is more of Visa's issue...
Rev Prepaid also has similar products issued by Rev WorldWide, do not trust the entire organisation! They're behind: VCARD, RêvCOIN Prepaid, Vodafone SmartPass, The Rêv Visa Prepaid Drivers Card, Pronto Prepaid MasterCard, RêvCOIN Mobile Credit Card Processor, Mango® Prepaid MasterCard, Bonsucesso Meo MasterCard, IPKO Prepaid Visa Card, e.t.c.. All have shady and fraudulent fees, so watch out!
