The Titanium Plus Prepaid Visa from Money Mart was recently recommended to me. This post is about my experiences with Money Mart and the Titanium Plus Visa card and the frustrations I faced dealing with Money Mart and their Customer Service department.
The card was easy to get and is easy to load. A trip to my local Money Mart, answer a few security questions, give them some cash, and viola! A card is issued.
Several purchases were made with the card. Then I tried to make a purchase and received a notification that there were insufficient funds. One would think that the remedy for this would be to go back to the local Money Mart store and top up the card. I was wrong.
I did make a trip back to Money Mart where I gave them $75.00 to cover a purchase of $53.00. Back at the computer I was again told there were insufficient funds. I log into my Titanium Plus account and find there are two pending authorizations or holds on the card for the amount I wanted to charge and still not enough money to complete the transaction. This is where the nightmare begins.
The image below is a screen shot of Money Mart Policy as taken directly from the Titanium Plus web site. It clearly states that authorization removals under $100 can be removed over the phone.
Money Mart: Authorization Removals Policy (click to enlarge)
I call the toll-free number on the back of my Titanium Plus card and spend over 30 minutes on hold. Finally I get to speak with a woman I will call Laura. Laura tells me that she is not able to remove authorizations over the phone and that I must have the merchant fax Money Mart a release form. She offers to e-mail me a release form to forward to the merchant. I accept. Laura is the type of person who is all yap and no listen. It took me nearly ten minutes to sort out with her what exactly my concern was.
In frustration, I ask to speak with a supervisor. After more time on hold, I am put in contact with Jennie. Jennie tells me that she is unable to help me beyond the little that Laura has already done. She does provide me a tip in that one of my options is to contact the Better Business Bureau and confirms that Policy as outlined on the web is different than what Customer Service can really do for me.
Thanks to spending over 30 frustrating minutes on hold and another twenty minutes with two people who are unable to to resolve my problem quickly, I have to wait another day. The merchant is now closed.
The next day I talk with the merchant who is very helpful. The fellow I spoke with is fine with me sending him the release form, filling it out, and faxing it to Money Mart. He does this and I wait, checking my Titanium Plus account online every half hour or so for funds to be released.
I receive a telephone call from a client and am out for a few hours. When I get back, I check my Titanium Plus account and funds still have not been released. I call Customer Service and spend another 40 minutes on hold. Finally I am able to speak with Matt. He tells me that the fax was received but is missing the Merchant ID number. The merchant is now closed so this again will have to wait one more day.
[This section will be updated as events unfold.]
Money Mart consistently over promises and under delivers. Customer Service does not understand the urgency of helping clients and/or is understaffed. Later I discover that I am being billed $1.50 for each call I make to Customer Service. This only adds to my frustration.
Over all, Customer Service have been extremely frustrating to deal with and I do not recommend doing business with Money Mart or using their Titanium Plus Visa. I have applied for a BMO Prepaid Travel Mastercard. Once I have had the BMO card for a while and am satisfied, I will be canceling the Money Mart card.
I welcome comments, especially if you have experience with Money Mart and their Titanium Plus Visa.
i agree with you all that this service is a money grap scam it’s worst than any invented scam, taking 2.50 when you put money and taking 7.50 or 15.00 dollars for so call month fee and then taking unknown fees calling what ever they want calling partial so and so fee, I don’t think there is any consumer protection at all cuz if there was a watch dog for this kind of scum either they are with this scam or they are so blind that they don’t see what is going on to consumers which ever it’s there is no reason why banks that follow regulation would have products like this and disassociate there product, i am referring to the MoneyMart and Visa/Mater Card who are the owners of this day robbery scam. I will get ride of this terrible card as soon as i use what ever is left on the card, my story is not ever worth mentioning as it’s clear robber. Sorry guys for ranting but please don’t give this companies any more money not even a penny they don’t deserve it, they got rich on stealing.
They charge you each time u call customer service??!!?!?!?! no wonder customer service people there aren’t trained properly to answer ur questions.. that means u HAVE to call a few times
ya i lost my card in toronto back in june and i ordered a replacemnt because they wont allow u to get anothe one form money mart ands i left the counrty in july in berlin now and they have 1200 of my money on hold which i need!
Money Mart VISA ?????????????
If anyone has a prepaid visa from money mart beware they are not on your side and they will lie and steal from you.
They just stole $1100 dollars plus from me after 3 months of bullshit, police reports, sworn affidavit of fraud from notary public, a bunch of paperwork they say on there contract below they will protect you from fruad well thats just not true they dont
care they just want to charge you money everytime you call them so they can scam us some more
Protection
The Titanium+ Visa® Prepaid Card offers its members the right to dispute unauthorized signature purchases. The Visa Zero Liability policy* generally means that customers are not liable for unauthorized purchases as long as they notify their financial institution as soon as possible. Once fraud is determined, funds will be placed back to your card within 5-10 business days of notification, sometimes even sooner!
All Lies after 90 days they say sorry there is nothing they can do about it worst company ever!!!!!!!
Hi i bought a ticket grey houd 481.64 you took thrmoney from my card and i never had the ticket to goto Edmonton
i had to bye a otherone 533.75 now i want my 481.64 to be put back on my credit card i give you 5 days to reembourse me if you dont im going to call the police and explained that you stole me and i will put that on newspaper my english is not very goog but you dont have peoplewho speak french very much
everytime i call they said to me that my money is t heyre but i ha ve to wait iv been waiting for the last 15 days
That’s nothing! I got charged a money loading fee AND a monthly user fee for a Visa card with an expired date! Did the clerk not notice that this was an expired card? NO. Did it come up on his computer that it was expired? NO. Did the clerk tell me that I could get my money back? NO. They did say, so sorry, you can transfer the money onto another card (for a fee!) and that would take 10 business days.
I called VISA directly and the lady there said, and I quote: “The person you talked to at Money Mart is a liar. You can ask for your money back, and they have to give it to you.” When I called MM again, the clerk hmm’d and hahh’d and finally admitted that, yes, she guessed that they could do that too. >:(
I go in and ask for my $60 back and they guy says, you’ll get $48. Why? Because of the “money load” fee and a monthly charge…keeping in mind that the card cannot be used because it is EXPIRED? Hell, no, I fought that, and I did get my $60. I will never deal with them again. They’re a bunch of scammers that fee you up the butt and are not willing to admit to any mistakes, and certainly don’t want to part with your money. Go buy a VISA gift card instead. You pay a flat $4.99 to use it and that’s it.
i was told if i paid a $15 fee of the hop i would only have to pay the $2.50 every time i loaded the card, it worked for the first couple times and then they started taking $7.50 monthly charges. The last time i used the card i transferred money from my bank which cost me a couple $ then they took the $7.50 monthly fee so i could not make the online purchase that i wanted. Insuficient Funds F ing bullshit SCAMERS.
I also have a my titanium visa, and have had similar problems with money being held, $400, for a car rental. and 150$ for a hotel, over and above the actual purchase My experience was much the same with the on phone help. I’ve learned how to avoid this by the procedure below. Mainly have mytitanuim customer service email a merchant release form to you, that you can send to a merchant, they have to fax it, to mytitanium.
Here’s why merchants place a hold on funds. In effect when a purchase is made from gas station, hotel, or rental, the merchant is the one who overcharges the card. The reason is to insure no damage, auto traffic violations, are still pending when you return the item. Gas stations have put $150 hold on funds once, because I used the outside gas pump payment method. The gas station says they have no control over the gas pump payment system. Anyway, Once the merchant is satisfied, they will usually, not release the funds unless you ask them to, since regualar credit card companies do it whitin hours of the transaction being completed
The hold “expires” 30 days later, or in the case of my rentals above 42 days later. Real credit cards due this in a matter of hours, but then again, a real credit cards can be billed for more credit, as opposed to Mytitanium Visas, which only can be billed for the amount of cash on them.
In order to release the funds, not only does the merchant have to send in a merchant release form they also have to specify the amount, This where mytitanium visa got me. After the rental car agency filled out the form and faxed it to mytitanium visa, I still didn’t get the hold lifted. When I called i was told it was a “partial release” and they would only lift the hold for the full amount. After several calls back and forth, the term “partial release” is mytitaniums code words for no amount listed on the merchant release form, evidently this is optional to the merchant.
So now when I check into a hotel, I ask them if they are putting a reserve on my room, which stops some of them from doing it. I also email them a copy of the merchant release form if they do put a hold on funds, and ask them to fax it when they are satisfied I didn’t cause damage to the room, and most important to put the amount of the hold on the release form.
It still takes mytitanium 48 hours or so to release the funds. A couple of times I’ve had to call mytitanium and ask why the funds haven’t been released, and then usually it’s done whithin a matter of hours.
Fuck you Money-Mart and your Titanium + Visa! I had to that authorization bullshit with them. I did the live chat and it okay except it felt it was liking to a bot or the person was just copy/pasting info for the hell of it. The company I ordered from filled out the form and faxed them but still haven’t received the money that was on hold. I have to wait more than fucking 15 days for my money to be unfrozen? Fuck that shit. I’m going to cancel my card and shred it to pieces once I get my funds back. Fuck you Money-Mart and Visa for wasting my time and money. The corruption in these companies are a nightmare.
I have often wondered how many companies use bots to respond to their chat queues. I’d say chances are high.
This card is not bad at all. Yes, the fees are quite expensive but what can you do? I’ve made purchases on Steam, PSN, and AmiAmi without any problems. I bought this card this card because I’m 17 right now and I can’t sign-up for Paypal to make my online purchases so this is a great substitute for now. I recommend that once you reload your card, you purchase your item right away so that you don’t get charged by the monthly fee. I did, however, get an authorization hold once. The reason for that was because I’ve used a different address. It was easily resolved through the live chat and the company I ordered from was helpful to and received the funds back into my account in 10-12 days. You MUST use the information that was on your Titanium Visa +; no typos, correct information, and proper capitals otherwise you’ll get an authorization hold and waiting several days isn’t fun. For those who want to make online purchases and are around the age 16-17 this a great card. I’m going to cancel my card once I get my Paypal account on my 18th this year.
I appreciate the feedback, Saanzan. Likely the BMO card I use requires you to be 18.
I have been paying almost 200 dollars per year as a basic user, only using it a handful of times a month.
Thinking of using this shoddy card to do some US shopping? THINK AGAIN. the foreign transaction fees will kill you.
On top of this, they are INCOMPETANT and havent fixed their website in 2 years.
They are so incompetent, they reset every single clients account hours before the online boxing day sale began and people couldnt use this crap card, and then missed out.
PLEASE DON’T BELIEVE THE BOGUS SELF ENDORSEMENTS they have flooded the internet with. There is NO CHANCE hoards of happy customers would run on line and profess their love for this card. NONE.
A far better choice is a prepaid mastercard from BMO. You can even book hotels and rent cars with it. Not with rip off titanium visa. I have no affiliation with BMO but I cannot offer a better option that’s prepaid. The other Canadian banks should wake up and offer prepaids as well. (no, not give cards that expire)
Just had $1250 withdrawn from an ATM in Africa & I am in Vancouver & they are stating 3 months for an answer. Anything I can do to speed this up Tom