Green Dot Reloadable Prepaid Visa Card [details And Review]

The Green Dot card is an FDIC-insured, reoladable prepaid debit card that can be used to make payments and purchases and withdraw cash. Green Dot cards are sold at retailers such as CVS, Rite-Aid and Wal-Mart. This prepaid debit card, the Green Dot Prepaid MasterCard or Visa, has a lower monthly fee than some other Green Dot cards.

This Green Dot card has no free ATM access. If that’s a deal breaker for you, check out our list of best prepaid debit cards for some other options.

These cards are no longer available

Green Dot credit cards carry relatively low interest rates compared with competing secured credit cards, and unlike with most other issuers, applying for one won’t impact your credit. (Green Dot doesn’t do a on your credit report.)

However, all three Green Dot cards come with annual fees, and that’s a big and ongoing drawback. Even potential applicants with poor to average credit can find alternatives in the secured card space that don’t charge annual fees, such as the Discover it® Secured Credit CardCapital One Platinum Secured Credit Card

Those cards do carry higher APRs, though, so if you have poor to average credit and you also plan to carry a balance on the card, you might want to consider the Green Dot credit cards despite those pesky fees.

Here are five things to know about these three Green Dot credit cards:

Many consumers prefer to use prepaid cards, so they don’t have to deal with credit card bills and due dates. If you’re this type of consumer, then Green Dot Bank might have a product for you. In this Green Dot Reloadable Prepaid Visa Card review, I’ll list all of its features, benefits, and requirements so you can decide if it is the right Visa card for you.

The Green Dot Reloadable Prepaid Visa Card allows you to shop online, pay bills, and make purchases anytime you need to. It allows you to monitor your spending 24/7, do free bank transfers, or send money to another Green Dot account for free.

The Green Dot Reloadable Prepaid Visa Card allows you to pay bills, shop online, and basically make purchases anytime you need to. It lets you monitor your spending 24/7, do free bank transfers, or send money to another Green Dot account for free.

This prepaid Visa card is not a gift card and can only be used by consumers aged 18 years old and above. It is easy to apply for one, and it is very convenient to use.

A green dot card works like other prepaid cards.

Green Dot is a financial technology and registered bank holding company that caters to individuals who can’t or don’t want to purchase items on credit. This group includes those who have fair to poor credit scores, as well as those who prefer to stick to a budget. As of 2021, Green Dot has served over 33 million customers and remains the leading retailer of debit cards.

Tip

A Green Dot card works just like every other prepaid card. Individuals load the card with funds and then use the card to make purchases online and at a variety of retail stores.

Setting Up Green Dot Cards

Each of the Green Dot debit cards works just like the debit card you have associated with your checking or savings account. You need to pre-fund the card via a bank transfer, direct deposit of a paycheck or a cash deposit. Once the funds are loaded, you can use that balance to make purchases with the card. There are four debit cards to choose from:

Green Dot Prepaid Visa Card

So what does the Green Dot Visa® Secured Credit Card offer? Let’s take a look at the basics:

The APR is lower than that on many secured cards, but Green Dot Visa® Secured Credit Card does charge an annual fee. Several cards from major issuers — the Discover it® Secured Credit CardCapital One Platinum Secured Credit Card — have no annual fee, although their APRs are 3% to 5% higher. On any credit card, you can avoid paying interest by paying your balance in full every month.

Goodwin says the card offers a free pass on one missed payment and one returned check because Green Dot recognizes that many cardholders will be new to handling credit. “This is an education process,” he says. “We don’t want to punish someone for learning. We need to be able to help them understand that these actions can help or hurt your credit.”

Overview of prepaid debit cards

Unlike checking accounts, prepaid debit cards may lack some services such as free ATM or branch networks, checks, among others. If that doesn’t work for you, see our list of best checking accounts. Or, if you’ve struggled with banks before, check out second chance checking options.

How does FDIC insurance on prepaid cards work?

Prepaid debit cards nearly always have FDIC insurance, which keeps your funds protected in case the issuer goes bankrupt. Only financial institutions can have FDIC insurance, so a prepaid card is either managed by a bank or by a prepaid card company that partners with a bank to offer that insurance. You must register your prepaid debit card with your name and other identification information in order to be eligible for FDIC insurance and other protections.

If you want to make digital purchases instead of carrying around cash that could easily be stolen, but you don’t want to go into debt with a credit card, the Visa Green Dot card is an excellent solution. Once this card is pre-loaded with funds it can be used in the same way you use a traditional bank debit card. Since it carries the Visa logo, it can be used to make in-store and online purchases anywhere Visa is accepted. The best part is you never have to worry about overdrafts or maintaining a minimum balance.

How to Activate My Visa Green Dot Card

Image Credit:
Popartic/iStock/GettyImages

How the Green Dot Card Works

The Visa Green Dot card is free when purchased online and costs $1.95 or less when bought in a store. It doesn’t require any credit checks and comes with the benefit of earning 5 percent cash back. Cardholders can receive as much as a $100 each year simply for doing the shopping they’d normally do anyway. There is a monthly fee of $7.95 to have the Green Dot, but this fee is waived for each month $1,000 or more is loaded onto the card.

How to Activate Your Card

Before heading to the store or placing an order online, you’ll need to load your Visa Green Dot card with some money. There are several ways to do this: Visit one of Green Dot’s financial centers or retail stores and use cash; sign up for direct deposit at no cost and have your paychecks transferred to the card; or you can even choose to have your tax refund deposited to the card. There’s also the option of using your mobile device to deposit a check or make a transfer from one of your bank accounts. Once the funds have successfully been loaded, you can begin using your Visa Green Dot card.

Is the Green Dot Prepaid Card Right for You?

A Prepaid Mastercard or Visa With No Credit Check Required

Updated on November 7, 2021

Photo: gruizza / Getty Images

Green Dot prepaid Mastercard and Visa cards can be a good alternative to credit cards, secured cards, and bank accounts for people who want to avoid a credit check or are unable to open a traditional checking account. Green Dot prepaid is one of the most widely used prepaid cards, and while it won’t help you build a credit history, it will allow you to conduct business in a society increasingly dependent on electronic payments.

Note

Prepaid cards work much like checking account debit cards. You must load money onto the card before you can use it for purchases, and since Green Dot cards are branded with a major credit card processing network—your choice of Mastercard or Visa—you can use it almost everywhere credit cards are accepted.

Because you’re spending money you’ve loaded onto the card rather than accessing a credit line, you don’t have to go through a credit check to get approved for a card.

Fees and Features of Green Dot

You can use a Green Dot prepaid card for online purchases, bill paying, and everyday shopping. No minimum balance is required, and the funds you load onto the card are protected against unauthorized transactions.

Personalized cards ordered online are free, as opposed to generic cards that can be purchased in stores for up to $4.95. To use a card for automatic monthly payments, or to rent a vehicle, or reserve a hotel room, a personalized card likely will be required.

You can load money onto a card for no fee by having your pay direct-deposited or by using the mobile check deposit feature with the Android or iPhone app. Simply use the Green Dot app to take a picture of the front and back of your check, and the funds will be loaded onto your card. There may be a processing delay that keeps you from using your funds for one or more business days, depending on your bank.

For a $5.95 fee, you can reload cash at major retailers including CVS, Dollar General, Family Dollar, Kroger, 7-Eleven, Walgreens, and Walmart, among others.

In addition to the reload fee, Green Dot prepaid cards come with a lot of other fees. Some you can avoid, but you have to navigate the process of doing so. Other fees include:

As long as you stay away from actions that come with fees, the Green Dot prepaid card has the potential to be a solid alternative to a traditional checking account that comes with a debit card.

When considering the Green Dot prepaid card as an alternative to a traditional checking account, keep in mind that it does have its limitations, almost entirely attributed to the many fees that can add up if you are not paying careful attention.

Green Dot Reloadable Prepaid Visa Card Benefits

Green Dot Prepaid Visa Card is equipped with the ASAP Direct Deposit technology. It is a feature that allows you to access your funds sooner. An example of this is crediting your pay or benefits two days earlier if your employer gives advance notice. This means you don’t have to wait for payday.

However, the early availability of direct deposits depends on the payment instructions from the payor. It may not be honored, too, due to fraud prevention restrictions.

For the ASAP Direct Deposit feature to work smoothly, the personal details on file with your employer must be the same as the details on file with Green Dot. No matter how small it may be, any inconsistency can reason deposits not to push through.

Shop Anywhere You Want

As long as the merchants are accredited with Visa, you can use your Green Dot Reloadable Prepaid Visa Card for shopping. You can also link it to your mobile wallets such as:

0% Bank Transfer Fees

To keep your Green Dot Reloadable Prepaid Visa Card full and always ready to use, you can transfer funds from another bank. Green Dot doesn’t charge any bank transfer fees.

However, there might still be fees charged to you by the bank where the funds will be coming from. Also, the fund transfer process has limits and qualifications. At the same time, enrollment requirements also apply.

This might give you the impression that transferring funds is very inconvenient, but it’s actually not. What seems to be an inconvenience is, in fact, what makes your funds secure and protected from fraud.

Offers True Mobile Banking Services

Even when you’re on a business trip or vacation, you can track your Green Dot Prepaid Visa Card transactions. You can check your account, pay bills, and do online shopping using your smartphone:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=QCxuENiU_gY%3Ffeature%3Doembed

In this video, the vlogger from The Stuff I Use Channel explains how to load money in your Green Dot Reloadable Prepaid Visa Card.

Managing the card

Green Dot offers online management and bill-paying features so cardholders can track purchases and keep current with payments. Many unbanked and underbanked consumers — those who have no access or limited access to mainstream financial services — may not have computers, but many do have smartphones. According to the 2015 report by the Federal Reserve, 65% of people who are unbanked and 73% of underbanked people have access to smartphones.

When using any secured card to build credit, practice good habits: Charge a few small purchases each month, avoid maxing out the card, and most important, pay your balance in full and on time each month. With time and responsible use, you can boost your credit score, which not only puts you in position to qualify for an unsecured card, but also saves you money down the road in the form of more options and lower interest rates.

Frequently Asked Questions-Green Dot Prepaid Visa Card

The maximum balance limit of the Green Dot Prepaid Card is $10,000. It has a daily spending limit of $3,000 and a daily ATM withdrawal limit of $400. These figures are all on par with other prepaid cards.

Is Green Dot a Prepaid Card?

The Green Dot card is a reloadable prepaid debit card insured with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. It can be used for bills payment, shopping, and cash withdrawals. You can get a Green Dot card at various retailers, including Wal-Mart, Rite-Aid, and CVS.

Can I Use a Green Dot Card Without Registering?

Yes, you can use your Green Dot Reloadable Prepaid Visa Card without registering. However, it will have limited functionality. You can use it to make purchases until the amount loaded is exhausted.

What’s the Minimum I Can Put on a Green Dot Card?

Once you get your own Green Dot Reloadable Prepaid Visa Card, you can place an initial deposit ranging between $20 and $500.

How to Open a Green Dot Prepaid Card Account

You are eligible to get a Green Dot Prepaid Card if you are at least 18 years old and if you have a Social Security number.

For Green Dot Prepaid Card registration, you need to disclose several personal details. You will also be required to send a copy of your government-issued ID card.

What to Do Once I Get My Green Dot Prepaid Card

Once you get your Green Dot Prepaid Card, make sure to maximize all its features.

Here are the things you should do once you get your Green Dot Prepaid Card:

Register Your Green Dot Prepaid Card Online

Once you get your Green Dot Prepaid Card, go to the website of Green Dot to register your card. That way, you will access additional features, which include viewing your account using the mobile app.

Meet the Monthly Fee Waiver Minimum

If you want to avoid paying the monthly fee of $7.95, make sure to deposit $1,000 or more monthly.

Sign up for Direct Deposit

If you’re interested in maximizing the Direct Deposit feature, get your account information immediately from the Green Dot website as soon as you have registered your online account.

Contact the Customer Service Team

While that’s not unusual among secured cards aimed at people with poor credit, it can also be frustrating for consumers eager to use credit cards to earn cash back or rewards points.

When you’re just starting out with credit cards, rewards aren’t the most important thing — but you can still find some secured and alternative options that earn them. The Discover it® Secured Credit Card, for instance, earns 2% cash back at gas stations and restaurants on up to $1,000 in combined purchases every quarter, automatically (1% cash back on all other purchases). You’ll have to put down a $200 minimum deposit, but unlike these Green Dot cards, the annual fee is INTRO OFFER: Unlimited Cashback Match – only from Discover. Discover will automatically match all the cash back you’ve earned at the end of your first year! There’s no minimum spending or maximum rewards. Just a dollar-for-dollar match.

You’ll also owe fees

While there are no processing or application fees, you’ll face other charges. First, you’ll owe an annual fee, regardless of which card you choose:

Green Dot primor® Visa® Gold Secured Credit Card has a lower potential ongoing APR. More on that later.)

The cards also charge a foreign transaction fee of 3%, meaning none of them is ideal for use internationally.

Consumers with thin or no credit might want to instead consider alternative credit cards that don’t charge such fees, such as the Petal® 2 “Cash Back, No Fees” Visa® Credit Card, issued by . It’s an unsecured card, meaning it doesn’t require a security deposit, and it offers rewards. Its annual fee is

Getting the card

To apply for the Green Dot Visa® Secured Credit Card, you fill out a profile on the Green Dot website, noting your employment status, monthly income and monthly housing expense. Green Dot decides whether you’re eligible for the card and determines the maximum credit line you qualify for. It then mails you your card, but you can’t use it until you activate it by making your security deposit.

You can choose how much to deposit — from a minimum of $200 up to your maximum approved credit line. Whatever you deposit will become your limit on the card. So, for example, Green Dot could approve you for a maximum of $5,000, but you might choose to deposit only $500, and that would be your credit limit.

Activation is similar to using a prepaid card. There are two ways to make your deposit:

Currently, you cannot make the deposit by an electronic transfer from a bank account. Green Dot vice president of communications Michelle Blaya says the bank is exploring other ways to make the security deposit. She points out that the activation process mirrors what Green Dot’s prepaid customers are accustomed to.

“A lot of people in this segment have been used to putting money on a card and transacting,” Goodwin says. “Now we’re re-educating them to use a credit card, and this will help them build credit.”

Despite having the word “platinum” appear prominently on the card, the Green Dot Visa® Secured Credit Card doesn’t offer extra perks befitting its fancier appearance.

In fact, compared with the other two Green Dot options, its interest rate is significantly higher. The ongoing APR is 19.99%

Green Dot primor® Visa® Classic Secured Credit Card, for example, charges the same annual fee but offers a lower interest rate. The ongoing APR is 13.99%

Green Dot primor® Visa® Gold Secured Credit Card charges the highest annual fee but features the lowest interest rate of the three. The ongoing APR is 9.99%. An APR in the single digits is unusual among cards aimed at people with poor credit. That’s a reason it’s featured on our roundup of best secured cards. Depending on how large of a credit card balance you need to carry, the slightly larger annual fee may be worth it.

Best for

Getting a Green Dot Prepaid Visa Card will cost you $1.95. Once you have it, you will be subject to a monthly fee of $7.95. But if you load $1,000 or more, your monthly fee for the next period will be waived. Also, there’s cash reload fee every time you reload funds in your Green Dot account. This cash reload fee varies but, most of the time, it costs $5.95.

If you are withdrawing cash via the ATM or a teller, there’s a withdrawal fee of $3. For check deposits, there’s a fee of $5.95 for every 12 checks. As for international transactions, you will be charged 3% of the U.S. dollar amount for each transaction. Also, if you want to know your balance, each ATM balance inquiry will cost you $0.50.

In case your card gets lost, you can have it replaced. For regular delivery of card replacement, the fee is $5. At the same time, expedited delivery costs $15.

All Green Dot Reloadable Prepaid Visa Cardholders are eligible for a VIP upgrade too. This comes with a fee amounting to $4.95.

Summary of Green Dot Reloadable Prepaid Visa Card Fees

Here’s a table of Green Dot Reloadable Prepaid Visa Card Fees for easy reference:

Again, what does the Green Dot Reloadable Prepared Visa Card offer? The Green Dot Reloadable Prepaid Visa Card allows you to do lots of things, including shop online, pay bills, make purchases anytime, monitor how much you spend 24/7, transfer money to banks for free, and lastly, to freely send money to another Green Dot account.

» This page is out of date

The Green Dot secured credit card described in this article is no longer available. See our best credit cards for bad credit for other options.

Green Dot Bank, one of the largest issuers of prepaid debit cards, is getting into the credit card business, expanding the options available to those looking for credit cards for bad credit

Green Dot Visa® Secured Credit Card is a secured credit card, meaning that cardholders have to put down a refundable security deposit. Because the deposit reduces the risk to the lender, secured cards are available to many people who couldn’t qualify for a regular credit card, including those with a thin credit file or bad credit.

Most major issuers offer , although they don’t promote them very widely.

“We at Green Dot feel like this is great opportunity,” says Lewis Goodwin, president of Green Dot Bank. “Secured cards are kind of a sleepy product, and the right company hasn’t gone out there and marketed it to the consumer base that really needs it. This is the segment we already serve with our prepaid cards.”

The key difference between a secured credit card and a prepaid debit card: With a prepaid card, the money you put on the card is used to pay for your purchases; with a secured card, your security deposit is there only as collateral, in case you don’t pay your bill. You’re responsible for paying for your purchases every month. That’s why a secured card can help you build credit, while a prepaid card does not.

Green Dot Card Pros

Just as with many regular credit cards, Green Dot reports credit card behavior to the three main credit bureaus, allowing you build your credit history. And as you do so, you can become eligible for better cards, meaning regular unsecured products that do not require a deposit. These cards may also have no annual fee and/or earn rewards.

However, you won’t be able to “graduate” to such a product with Green Dot, as the company doesn’t offer any such unsecured cards. You can, of course, apply for one with another issuer, but if you want your Green Dot deposit back — and stop paying the annual fee — you’ll have to close your Green Dot account. (And closing an account can have implications for your credit scores

Other issuers of secured cards (Discover and Capital One, for example) offer clear “upgrade paths,” potentially allowing you to move up to a better product within that issuer’s “family” of cards without having to close your account first.

To determine whether any of these options may be right for you, check out NerdWallet’s list of the best credit cards

Green Dot Prepaid Visa Card Pros and Cons

Here are the advantages of having a Green Dot Prepaid Visa Card:

I want to explain further the second item mentioned under the disadvantages of using this card.

If you have bad credit and want to improve your credit score, your Green Dot Reloadable Prepaid Visa Card won’t help you. This card is not a credit card, and your Green Dot transactions are not reported to credit bureaus. If you aim to build credit, it’s best to get a credit card instead.

Conclusion – Green Dot Reloadable Prepaid Visa Card

If you’re not fond of using credit cards, then the Green Dot Reloadable Prepaid Visa Card is perfect for you. Since it’s a Visa Card, you’ll be able to use it in most, if not all, retail stores and restaurants.

However, if you aim to build or improve your credit score, this prepaid card might not be able to help you do that. You can only establish your credit history by getting a credit card and using it responsibly.

Green Dot Card Cons

SoFi Checking and Savings

Bask Interest Savings Account

CIT Bank Platinum Savings

Min. balance for APY

The cards require a refundable security deposit

A secured card functions like a regular credit card — you can use it to make purchases and then pay off the balance, or a portion of it, each month — but you must first put down a refundable security deposit.

Generally, your credit limit will be equal to that deposit. For all of these Green Dot cards, the deposit can vary between $200 and $5,000; you can put down a security deposit up to your approved credit limit.