Oh gee, a temporary e-card. Thanks.

[edoralive]

I recently completed my PADI AOW and Nitrox courses and was lowkey pumped that I got an e-mail inviting me to activate my e-card, especially since I looked at getting one for my OW and was shocked at the expense of an electronic record of something that they organization already has in its system.

"Wow," I thought. "PADI is joining the 21st century and issuing electronic cards!"

So naive.

The e-card was not an e-card at all, but a trial e-card that is good for just 30 days. Now I have the option to purchase a permanent e-card for the discounted price of just $38, for each card, to continue enjoying the many benefits of a digital record of my accomplishments.

Hard. Pass.

 

[lowwall]

I recently completed my PADI AOW and Nitrox courses and was lowkey pumped that I got an e-mail inviting me to activate my e-card, especially since I looked at getting one for my OW and was shocked at the expense of an electronic record of something that they organization already has in its system.

"Wow," I thought. "PADI is joining the 21st century and issuing electronic cards!"

So naive.

The e-card was not an e-card at all, but a trial e-card that is good for just 30 days. Now I have the option to purchase a permanent e-card for the discounted price of just $38, for each card, to continue enjoying the many benefits of a digital record of my accomplishments.
Hard. Pass.

The cert doesn't expire. Screenshot the e-card. Crop if necessary. Save it to your phone and somewhere in the cloud. If you use Gmail sending it to yourself and downloading will accomplish both of these actions.

Here's the most recent e-card in my family:

 

[JackOfDiamonds]

That's PADI for ya.

 

[Marie13]

Just take photos of the plastic cards when you get them.

 

[Wibble]

I recently completed my PADI AOW and Nitrox courses and was lowkey pumped that I got an e-mail inviting me to activate my e-card, especially since I looked at getting one for my OW and was shocked at the expense of an electronic record of something that they organization already has in its system.

"Wow," I thought. "PADI is joining the 21st century and issuing electronic cards!"

So naive.

The e-card was not an e-card at all, but a trial e-card that is good for just 30 days. Now I have the option to purchase a permanent e-card for the discounted price of just $38, for each card, to continue enjoying the many benefits of a digital record of my accomplishments.

Hard. Pass.

$38 — struth. They’re unbelievably avaricious.

I expect they don’t issue plastic cards any longer because of some Green nonsense.

Once you’ve done your basic courses, change to a better agency. Padi invites people to bash them

 

[Marie13]

$38 — struth. They’re unbelievably avaricious.

I expect they don’t issue plastic cards any longer because of some Green nonsense.

Once you’ve done your basic courses, change to a better agency.

Nope, PADI US still issues plastic cards. Got my “token” PADI cert for ice diving a few weeks back. The rest of my recreational certs are SDI (tech is TDI). They send out plastic cards, but you also get an e-card as well.

 

[lowwall]

The cert doesn't expire. Screenshot the e-card. Crop if necessary. Save it to your phone and somewhere in the cloud. If you use Gmail sending it to yourself and downloading will accomplish both of these actions.

Here's the most recent e-card in my family:
View attachment 648867

After a bit of judicious cropping, it looks even better.

The point is that the cert doesn't expire, whatever text they may put on the e-card. Dive ops can always look it up by the diver number if they want to verify.

 

[fisheater]

Don't be a chump. No need to spend stupid money on a PADI "e-card." Simply scan your physical card(s) and (a) save to your phone and (b) upload to a free cloud account. Mine are all on my free DropBox account. I can access them from anywhere. Total cost? $0.00

 

[Divin'Papaw]

Yup ... classic PADI! Charging a fee on top of a fee to provide a service that should be included in the first fee. SDI/TDI (and probably other agencies as well) have all of your certifications available online as e-cards for free.

 

[johndiver999]

I'm not a fan of PADI, but this really surprises me. A forever electronic card for $38 ?? That has to cost them less than 1/10 of one cent for archival services. They would be smart to offer it for free if you kept your Email and contact information up to date with them.