Greenlight Card Review

Quick Summary

• What is Greenlight?
• How Does Greenlight Work?
• Key Features of The Greenlight Card
• Additional Features Worth Mentioning
• How Much Does Greenlight Cost?
• Where Can Greenlight Card Be Used?
• The Greenlight App
• How To Customize Greenlight Card
• Is Greenlight Safe and Secure?
• Advantages of Greenlight
• Disadvantages of Greenlight
• Conclusion

What is Greenlight?

Greenlight is a service that helps parents teach kids about the value of money. With the Greenlight card, you can assign tasks to your children, pay them allowances and set spending limits. They can also pay interest on money that’s been saved. If you need more control over your kids’ spending, Greenlight may well be for you – although you will need to pay a monthly fee. Let’s find out more about Greenlight and its pros and cons right now.

How Does Greenlight Work?

Many parents are using Greenlight and similar services to teach children the value of money and importance of saving. You don’t need a credit check to gain access to the card, and the service comes complete with an app. The app sends you notifications about account activity include how much is spent and where.

 

Key features of The Greenlight Card

Money can be split into two categories. You can use one pot for money your child can spend at any time at any location. The other category comes with multiple parental controls. If you put money into the parental control pot, you’ll be alerted whenever your child makes a purchase, when their balance is running low or when a payment has been declined.

You can also incentivize chores with payouts. Use the app to create chores. You can pay for one-off and recurring chores. You can set recurring payments if you wish. The app also lets you encourage children to save. Choose an annual percentage yield rate so you can pay interest on money your kids have saved. Interest is paid out to your child on a monthly basis.

Kids can also request money via the app. For instance, they may be away from home and need more money than they have in their account. If you do agree to send money, the cash will appear in their wallet immediately so they don’t have to wait for it to clear. You can add a maximum of five children to each parent account. You can even add your child’s photograph to their card for $9.99.

Additional Features Worth Mentioning

📖 Educational Saving Tool

With a traditional bank, it can be intimidating to understand what interest is and how it works. With the Greenlight, app children can visually see how their money can grow over time. This is a great way to learn how interest works and the importance of saving money. The interface is simple and visual and explains every aspect of making their money grow over time. As a parent are able to set the rate at which money will grow when saved.

🔔 Activity Notifications

Account notifications keep parents informed about all expenditure. You can set up the accounts in such a way that you have to approve each transaction. This ensures that you remain in full control of spending at all times. This works in the same way weather your child is spending in a store or online.

💰 Custom Spending Limits

Within the Greenlight app you have full control over the stores that your child can use. You can whitelist or blacklist websites and stores within a few clicks. If you blacklist a store, it will auto decline any attempted transactions.

⚠️ Create Your Own Alerts

Every time your child uses their Greenlight debit card, you will be notified via the app. You can create custom alerts that trigger when a balance reaches a certain amount or when the card gets declined. This is useful to ensure your kids aren’t overspending.

👩‍👩‍👧‍👧 Multiple Accounts For Each Child

Each Greenlight account allows 5 sub accounts for multiple children. You can even add grandparents to the app too if you wish!

How Much Does Greenlight Cost?

Greenlight costs $4.99 a month. There are no charges for purchases or withdrawing money as long as they are using a free cash machine. Should the card be lost or stolen, you can get the first replacement for free. However, you will need to pay $3.50 for subsequent replacement cards.

Where Can Greenlight Card Be Used?

As a general rule the Greenlight debit card can be used anywhere that accepts Mastercard. This applies to vendors both online and in traditional shops, cafes and restaurants etc. There are a few restrictions that are in place to safe-guard customers.

• Wires or money orders
• Security brokers or deals
• Dating/escort services
• Massage parlors
• Lotteries
• Online casinos or online gambling
• Horse racing and dog racing
• Non-sport internet gaming
• Cashback at the point of sale

The Greenlight App

The app is available via the Apple and Google Play stores. You can use the app to set spending controls for specific stores and turn the card on and off. Kids can use the app to manage their deposits and can also get their employers to pay into their account. Custom saving goals can be created with the app. The Greenlight Gift function allows them to receive cash from family and friends.

How To Customize Greenlight Card

Greenlight offers the option to create a custom card. Typically, this can be a picture of your child or any other image as long as it meets the community guidelines. This is a fun way to encourage your kids to spend using Greenlight and helps the card stand out! It’s very easy to create a custom Greenlight debit card following the steps below:

1. First sign up to Greenlight here. From the main dashboard, click “Customize Childs Card”.
2. Next, click “Choose a Photo” located at the bottom of the screen. Browse and select the photo you wish to use. Once uploaded, you can adjust the image to make sure it fits the size of the card.
3. There is a one time fee for a custom card currently priced at $9.99. Once you have chosen your payment method and clicked confirm, the card should be with you between 5 to 10 business days.

Is Greenlight Safe and Secure?

The Greenlight card has an EMV chip, and PINs can be controlled by parents. Cashback is unavailable to prevent unmonitored spending. Unsafe spending is prevented by Greenlight’s automated blocked categories. The service also comes with State-of-the-art SSL encryption. Greenlight’s partners comply with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard when processing and storing sensitive information.

Advantages of Greenlight

Greenlight offers many facilities for parents who want to automate the allowance-paying process. It allows you to act as a bank and gain more control over your children’s spending. Greenlights are also FDIC insured, so cash is protected no matter what happens to the service. The service is designed to make kids financially smarter and comes with various useful security features. Many parents love the way they can set up accounts for as many as five children. Allowances can be divided into Spending, Saving and Giving pots, with the Saving feature allowing you to reward kids for keeping hold of their cash. Debit cards can make it easier for kids to keep track of their spending, with Greenlight offering various security features that cash doesn’t. For instance, the consequences are much bigger if physical cash is lost or stolen, and you can get emergency funds to your kids immediately. Kids can also work towards saving goals to make financial responsibility more rewarding.

Disadvantages of Greenlight

The service does cost $4.99 a month, which may seem a lot to some parents in these budget-conscious times. If a card is lost or stolen, the first replacement is free, but you will need to pay if it happens again. One problem with the app is that allowances aren’t automatically withheld should your child fail to complete a chore. You will have to do this manually by turning the allowance off. The card isn’t accepted in some countries, so it may not work whilst you are on vacation. You can’t send money from sources like PayPal to the card.

Conclusion

There are many things to love about Greenlight, but also several areas that could benefit from improvement. The more children you have, the more value for money you get. You can get cards for up to five kids for just $4.99 (1st month is free!), but this may seem like a lot if you only have one child to cater for. Nonetheless, many parents do say the card has helped their children act more responsibly when it comes to money. The app emphasis the benefits of saving and allows kids to see their money grow over time. The ability to restrict purchases at certain online and offline stores is also helpful.

You can be notified about all expenditure as it happens if you wish. It only takes a moment or two to add websites to blacklists and whitelists. Once a store is blacklisted, all transactions there will be blocked and the card will be declined. This means you’ll be notified when your child attempts to spend money in a blacklisted store. Although Greenlight does offer a host of benefits for children and their parents, there are many other prepaid card solutions to choose from if its not quite right for your needs.