With each passing year, we’re moving closer and closer to a cashless society. Being in an increasingly cashless society has its benefits – convenience, earning rewards, building your credit score and security. But going cashless isn’t without its drawbacks. Mainly, it’s easier than ever to part with our cash. With our credit card constantly at our fingertips, it’s tougher to show spending restraint, especially on impulse purchases.

But what if there was a way you could have your financial cake and eat it too? What if you could take advantage of the countless benefits of a cashless society and save money, too? Sounds too good to be true? It’s not, thanks to KOHO, a modern alternative to your bank account that sends you real-time insights into your money.

What is KOHO?

Let’s get things straight. KOHO isn’t a bank. It aims to deliver a customer experience that’s simple, transparent and helps you live better. It offers the best of both worlds: many of the same benefits and protections of a bank without the pesky fees. You can pay bills and transfer money just like a regular bank account. (In case you’re wondering, your money is securely held with the federally recognized financial institution Peoples Trust.)

At its heart, KOHO is a reloadable prepaid Visa card, that acts more like a debit card with all the benefits of a credit card and without the interest. It comes with an app with real-time insights (more information on this to follow.) Unlike most debit cards, you actually earn rewards. Instantly receive 0.5% cash-back on each and every purchase. Not bad!

KOHO is ideal for anyone who struggles to save money or would just like to save more money. With about half of Canadians living paycheque to paycheque, a lot of Canadians would benefit from using KOHO.

Signing up for KOHO is digital, so it’s quick and simple. KOHO is available for Apple and Android. Speaking from personal experience, it took me less than five minutes to download the Android app and sign up. (A lot less time than it would take me to sign up at a bank.)

Loading money onto your account is super quick and easy, too. (See a trend?) I was able to instantly fund my account and start making purchases right away using my virtual card (more on that below). If you have any questions along the way, KOHO’s excellent customer support will be there to help you at a moment’s notice.

Making Goal Setting Easier

As you probably know by now, I’m a big fan of goal setting. I wouldn’t have bought a house at age 27 and burned my mortgage papers by age 30, if I didn’t set goals. While setting goals is great, actually following through on them is another thing. I’m guilty of it, too.

A cashless society hasn’t made it any easier. You can set yourself the goal of saving $500 a month towards a down payment, but if you overspend on your credit card, you may only be able to save $300 this month. If you do this once or twice, it might not be a big deal, but if you’re doing this every single month, that’s when it can seriously sidetrack your goals.

KOHO makes saving easier though what I like to call the gamification of saving money. KOHO categorizes your spending to see where your money is going and see where you are relative to other KOHO users. It also sends you spending notifications to help you keep tabs on how much you’re spending in any given week or month.

But that’s not all. With KOHO you can also set automatic saving goals. If you’re a homeowner (or you aspire to be), you can set short-term savings goals like saving up for furniture and dishes and long-term savings goals like saving for a deposit or down payment.

How is this done? The App automatically sets aside the funds for you on a daily, weekly and monthly basis, making savings, dare I say, fun!

Looking to fast track your savings goal? With a nifty feature called Round Up, you can round up each purchase to the nearest $1, $2, $5 or $10 and squirrel away the difference in your savings. You’ll be saving money without even realizing it.

(Speaking of homeownership, in case you’re curious, KOHO won’t affect your credit score, but what it will do is give you all the online buying power of a credit card with the cash-only benefits of a debit card.)

Virtual Card and Offer Portal

They say waiting is the hardest part. When you sign up for your KOHO account, you’re probably like me. You’re excited and want to start using it right away. You used to have to wait for your physical card to arrive in the mail – no more!

KOHO has recently launched virtual cards. This lets you use your KOHO card right away. You can instantly add funds to your KOHO account and start spending at your favourite retailers, such as Amazon, Netflix and Uber Eats, even before your physical card arrives via snail mail. It doesn’t get any more convenient than that!

KOHO is compatible with Google, Apple and Samsung Pay.

KOHO also has a new offers portal. The offer portal will be continually updated with offers specifically targeted towards you. You can save money, earn rewards and use your KOHO card all at the same time!

Early Payroll

When Canadians need access to a loan, oftentimes they rely on payday loans to hold them over until their next paycheque. This is an egregiously expensive way to borrow money. These short-term loans, typically of a few hundred dollars (up to $1500), are repaid in full at your next paycheque either by direct withdrawal from your debit account, or a post-dated cheque.

The rules and regulations vary across provinces, but the mandate is the same: suck clients into a cycle of debt, whereby they borrow more money to pay off the previous debt owed, compounding into a ridiculously high-interest rate over time. KOHO wanted to give Canadians access to money without the worry of interest attached.

KOHO has created its new Early Payroll feature

• This feature was created to help KOHO users tie themselves over until their next
  paycheque – oftentimes the 3 days leading up to payday can be tight
• KOHO users who set up direct deposit are eligible to get $100 of their paycheque up to 3 days early
• No fees, no interest, and no credit checks or applications
• It’s just a little help when KOHO’s users need it most!

Sign Up for KOHO Today

What are you waiting for? You have nothing to lose. Sign up for KOHO today! It’s completely free. Reach goals like homeownership even sooner with KOHO.

Special Offer: Sign up now using my referral code and receive and receive an additional 1% cash back on all your spending for 90 days.

Note: This is a sponsored post by KOHO, but was written and edited by me.

Sean Cooper is the bestselling author of the book, Burn Your Mortgage: The Simple, Powerful Path to Financial Freedom for Canadians, available now on Amazon and at Chapters, Indigo and major bookstores, and as an Audiobook on Amazon, Audible and iTunes.