STACK Review – Why Stack Is The Financial App You NEED In Canada

What Is A Neobank?

A neobank is a 100% digital bank. Neobanks are also called fintech firms. They provide almost all the financial services that the brick-and-mortar banks provide, usually for free. A neobank doesn’t have any physical branches.

Cash was the king for a very long time. Then came credit cards. Now, many people pay without even touching their physical cash or cards. They instead pay using online payment methods or mobile wallets.

People are becoming more and more comfortable with online banking and digital payment methods. This trend has paved the way for neobanks.

What Makes Stack Awesome?

Here is everything that makes Stack awesome:

• The user interface of the Stack app is sleek, simple and straightforward.
• Stack comes with a physical and virtual re-loadable Mastercard.
• Stack doesn’t charge a fee for foreign transactions, ATM withdrawals, replacement cards, inactivity or account maintenance.
• Stack provides instant cash-back at over 140 retailers.
• Stack lets you track your spending trends with its Financial IQ feature.
• You can automate your savings using Stack’s Savings feature.
• Stack lets you make free Stack-to-Stack transfers.
• Stack lets you split your bill with family and friends.
• Stack provides top-notch customer service using the in-app chat feature or a normal phone call.
• Stack lets you freeze your physical as well as virtual card from within the app.
• The Stack card works with Apple Pay, Samsung Pay and Fitbit Pay.
• You can add money to your Stack account in many different ways such as Interac e-transfers as well as direct deposit.
• Stack World Stream lets you connect with other Stack members.
• Stack protects you on all transactions with Mastercard zero liability protection.
• Stack does not perform a credit check when signing up.

What You Can Do With Stack

The Stack app is loaded with a lot of useful features. These features help you earn money, save money, and grow financially. There are number of things you can do with the Stack app and the Stack Mastercard.

Bank For Free

Before Stack, people in Canada did not have an option but go to brick-and-mortar banks and pay hefty bank fees. Stack has changed this trend. One of the best features of Stack is that it provides a complete zero-fee banking experience.

Stack lets you withdraw money from any ATM in the world for free. You can also transfer your money to your friends and family for free using the Stack-to-Stack transfer feature.

You receive a physical Stack card after you sign up with Stack. In case you lose your card, you can order a replacement card for free.

Stack doesn’t charge you a monthly account maintenance fee and doesn’t require you to maintain a minimum balance as well.

Pay Using The Stack Card

The physical Stack card is not just a gorgeous looking card, but also an incredibly useful card. The Stack card is just like any other debit or credit card, but with added features.

The Stack card is a super-powered prepaid Mastercard. With this card, you can shop worldwide in-store and online wherever Mastercard is accepted. You can shop anywhere in the world as a local. You never have to pay a foreign transaction fee.

Your purchases are protected by chip-and-PIN security feature. You can even tap your Stack card to pay for your purchases. You can also add your Stack card to digital wallets such as Apple Pay, Samsung Pay and Fitbit pay.

In addition to the Stack card, you also get a virtual card in the app right after you sign up. The virtual card has a different number from your physical card for added security.

Similar to the physical card, you can add your virtual card to your digital wallets and use it to pay for your purchases.

You can freeze your cards from within the app if you do not want to use them.

Conveniently Add Money To Your Stack Account

You need to add money to your Stack account to start using your Stack card to avail its benefits. Adding money to your Stack account is a ridiculously easy process. You can load money to your Stack account using a number of methods.

One of the ways you can load money into your Stack account is by using the e-transfer method. This is fastest and the easiest method to deposit money into your account.

Another way you can load money is by visiting one of the select locations in Canada such as any branch of Canada Post, Hasty Market and Mobil. You can then deposit money into your Stack account in-person using cash or debit card.

You can even set up direct deposit with your employer to deposit your paychecks into your Stack account directly.

Receive Rewards

Stack has partnered with over 140 retailers in Canada such as Adidas, Amazon, Netflix and Spotify. You can receive rewards in the form of cashback from these stores.

Members can avail a number of different offers. Stack updates its offer list often, so you can always find new rewards from your favorite brands.

Stack also has a referral program. You can invite your friends to use Stack. When your friend joins using your link, you and your friend would each receive $5 in your respective Stack accounts.

You can even use Stack’s in-app feature – World Stream, to receive a shot at winning a $100 gift card each month. All you have to do is post as many times as you like (on the World Stream) a picture of how you have been using your Stack card and add the #STACKHacks hash tag to your caption.

Track Your Expenses

Stack has a lot of useful features that can make shopping addicting. However, you should also keep track of your spending habits to avoid going overboard with expenses.

Fortunately, you can keep track of your expenses within the Stack app using the Financial IQ feature. You can view how much money you have spent and what you have spent your money on in any particular week and month.

This feature will let you know where your money is going. Once you know what you are spending your money on, you can alter your spending habits accordingly to save some money.

Automate Your Savings

Saving money is very important to grow financially. Stack lets you save money automatically.

You can set your savings goals in the Stack app. You can choose from a number of categories you would like to save money for, such as travel, gadgets, bills, and more.

Stack automatically rounds up each purchase you make to the nearest $1, $2, $5 or $10 (depending on the round-up amount you choose) and adds it to your savings goal.

Easily Split Your Bills

Lets say you go out with your friends and you pay the entire bill using your new Stack card. You can split the bill right from the Stack app.

In your Stack app, look for the recent transaction for which you would like to split the bill. Tap on it and you will see an option to split the bill. Tap on that option and add your friends by their phone numbers or email addresses.

Next, you can set the amount each of your friend has to pay. By default, the amount will be split equally. You can then submit the request and wait for your friends to pay you the amount. Your friends would have 14 days to pay you.

What You Cannot Do With Stack

As you can see above, you can do a lot of things with Stack in Canada. Big banks do not even offer half of the features that Stack offers. However, there are some things you cannot do with Stack.

Withdraw Money To Your Bank Account

While you can easily and conveniently deposit money to your Stack account, you cannot withdraw your money from your Stack account directly to any other bank account.

The only way to withdraw money is by using an ATM. Stack doesn’t charge you a fee to withdraw money from an ATM but the ATM vendor may charge you a fee to withdraw money.

Set Up Pre-Authorized Debits

You may be looking to set up pre-authorized debits for your gym memberships, phone bills, cable bills, and more using your Stack account.

Keep in mind that you cannot set up pre-authorized debits with Stack. You can only pay for your bills and purchases using your physical and virtual Stack cards.

Interac e-Transfers

Inerac e-transfer is a popular method to transfer money to friends and family in Canada. Stack, however, does not support sending money through Interac e-transfers.

If you would like to transfer money to your family or friends using your Stack account, the only way to do it would be by using the Stack-to-Stack transfer feature.