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.