Wealthsimple now lets clients request a physical Visa Platinum prepaid card for a personal chequing account. The new Visa issuance follows Wealthsimple's earlier pause on new and replacement physical prepaid Mastercards. It is a prepaid card that spends money from the linked account, not a credit card, and Wealthsimple says initial physical cards should arrive within 15 business days.
Each personal chequing account receives its own Visa card number. Each owner of a joint account also receives a separate number and can request a physical card.
A discussion in r/Wealthsimple raised concerns about what happens to existing Mastercards and about merchants that accept Mastercard but not Visa. Costco Canada's official payment list includes Mastercard, but not Visa, for its warehouses and gas stations; its online store accepts both networks.
Wealthsimple says it still charges no prepaid-card transaction or foreign-transaction fee, and the Visa retains the Mastercard's $3,000 per-transaction and daily automated teller machine (ATM) limits and $10,000 weekly ATM limit. Wealthsimple's live pages continue to support existing Mastercards, but they do not say when or how those cards will be replaced.