How to delete your Koho account

About deleting your Koho account

Koho is a Canadian fintech company that provides a reloadable prepaid Mastercard and an integrated spending and savings app. Unlike traditional big banks, Koho operates primarily through its digital platform, focusing on automated savings tools, real-time spending insights, and credit-building features. Users trust Koho with sensitive financial information, including income details, transaction history, and credit reporting data.

There are several reasons why a user might choose to close their Koho account, ranging from personal financial consolidation to privacy concerns regarding fintech data handling. Common motivations include:

• Switching to a traditional banking institution with more comprehensive lending services.
• Reducing the digital footprint of financial data collected by third-party fintech applications.
• Moving away from the specific credit-building subscription models offered by Koho.
• Simplifying personal finances by closing underutilized secondary accounts.

What happens to your data

When you request account closure, Koho is legally mandated under Canadian financial regulations, such as the Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act, to retain certain records for a specific period. This means that while your account becomes inaccessible to you, your historical data is not immediately scrubbed from their servers.

Data collected and processed by Koho includes:

• Personal identification details such as your full legal name, date of birth, and Social Insurance Number.
• Residential address and contact information.
• Comprehensive transaction history, including purchase locations and merchant categories.
• Credit score information and history used for their credit-building products.
• Device identifiers and IP addresses logged through the mobile app.

Privacy considerations

Using a digital-first financial app like Koho involves sharing significant amounts of metadata with third-party providers, including partners involved in payment processing and credit reporting. Users concerned about their privacy should be aware of how their financial habits are tracked to provide the 'spending insights' features within the app.

• Periodically review the privacy policy to understand which third-party partners receive your transaction data.
• Disable unnecessary push notifications and location tracking within your smartphone settings to limit data leakage.
• Download and save your own statements for tax purposes before finalizing the deletion process, as you will lose access once the account is closed.
• Understand that Koho shares data with credit bureaus to facilitate credit building, which is a process that continues independently of the app usage.

Frequently Asked Questions

Will deleting my Koho app remove my credit history?

No, deleting your account does not erase the credit history Koho reported to bureaus while your account was active. That information remains part of your credit report.

Can I reactivate my Koho account later?

Once an account is formally closed through the support team, it generally cannot be reopened. You would need to apply for a new account from scratch.

Does closing my account cancel my credit building subscription?

Yes, closing your account should terminate any associated subscription services, but you should confirm this explicitly with the support agent during the deletion process.

How long does Koho keep my data after closure?

Koho is required by Canadian law to retain financial transaction records for a minimum of seven years, even after a user closes their account.

Will my Koho card still work after I request deletion?

No, the support team will deactivate your physical and virtual Koho cards as part of the closure process, rendering them unusable immediately.

Is there a fee for closing my Koho account?

There is no fee for closing your Koho account; however, you must ensure your balance is zeroed out before requesting the final closure.