PADI E-Cards

[RossDC]

I'm PADI certified and although aware of the bashing they take for making money etc, I'm happy with everything I've spent and where that money has gone in my rather short diving career thus far.

However, having just discovered their app for my phone, it seems you can get an e-card for it, like a PIC card for your phone. What a great idea I think. No more carrying round the PIC cards, just flash your phone and there you are.

Except the e-cards aren't free to existing certified members. To have an e-card for each of my PADI certifications would run me over £300 (and I don't even have very many). This is pretty disgusting for something that costs PADI so little to maintain.

£28 for an electronic confirmation of something you've already paid to do? What crackpot at PADI thought that up!

Surely there can't be many people who actually use the e-cards. Have I finally seen the Pay Another Dollar In light?

 

[tursiops]

MODS: please post this in the "PADI Bashing" thread. Thanks.

 

[outofofficebrb]

If I can carry a phone to flash my certifications, I can carry the weight of the cards. Also, most shops (those with an internet connection) can look up your certifications. I use this as a backup in case I lose them. I also make a photo copy of them and take a picture of them with my phone just in case. I haven't found a need for the e-cards.

 

[FishgutsB]

Had to buy the ecard a few weeks ago as did not know if a replacement was going to arrive in time...... yea when I saw the $45 price tag I thought yep this is why I like other agency's. Not to mention navigation on the site was "challenging " to say the least. Don't mind spending money but 45bucks to link to something that I already paid several hundred for .

 

[Marie13]

That's why taking pictures of the physical card seems to be the best workaround in place of a e-card.

 

[BoltSnap]

Why not make high quality digital scan of the cards you have (front and back) and save them as JPEGs or PDFs in your computer/telephone/USB card, etc. so that you are all covered and don't have to pay these incredibly expensive/overpriced fees? At the end, most dive centers/resorts can look you up on PADI's website and verify your certifications, can't they?

 

[FishgutsB]

Copys of cert cards are a great idea ......... but what would you do if your spouse had been certified in the 90's ........ had not dove for a long while and miss placed( lost) the C card. They were now in the process of completing a recert/ advanced course and was leaving for trip in couple days with out a card in hand???????? Yep you guessed it . You may Log on to a "challenging" web site , not knowing what an E cert card cost( really never saw a price until during the check out process, and then poney up the 45 bucks..... the best part is we really never figured out how to even retrieve the Ecard (was not emailed either) and just gave up on the site. Yep you would prob have a real good laugh like we did ........... Good news was the physical cert card came a week early and all is wonderful now lol.

 

[HantsDiver]

Copys of cert cards are a great idea ......... but what would you do if your spouse had been certified in the 90's ........ had not dove for a long while and miss placed( lost) the C card. They were now in the process of completing a recert/ advanced course and was leaving for trip in couple days with out a card in hand???????? Yep you guessed it . You may Log on to a "challenging" web site , not knowing what an E cert card cost( really never saw a price until during the check out process, and then poney up the 45 bucks..... the best part is we really never figured out how to even retrieve the Ecard (was not emailed either) and just gave up on the site. Yep you would prob have a real good laugh like we did ........... Good news was the physical cert card came a week early and all is wonderful now lol.

Well if that happened in the future to a member of the site they could email whichever dive centre they were thinking of diving with and ask. If they were a padi centre it would be easy. If they were not - then you could post on a site like this and I'm sure a padi dm/instructor would have been willing to look up your wife and then emailed/messaged you with a copy of her certifications from the padi pro site.

 

[FishgutsB]

Thanks for the heads up . When our local PADI dive center tried to bring it up they ran into issues due to it being a cert from the early 90's . They offered to call PADI (after the weekend) for us but we figured to save them the issue we would just log on and get the digital. Did not anticipate the fine adventure lol

 

[tursiops]

Thanks for the heads up . When our local PADI dive center tried to bring it up they ran into issues due to it being a cert from the early 90's . They offered to call PADI (after the weekend) for us but we figured to save them the issue we would just log on and get the digital. Did not anticipate the fine adventure lol

It would seem your dive center does not know how to get at the PADI cert records. I just looked up a 1989 cert with no problem.