Very frustrating
I opened the app today to add money to my child’s account and saw that for no apparent reason, the app transferred $16 into my “parents wallet”. I don’t have auto funding turned on, and I don’t use that funding source so I don’t keep money in it. Therefore the charge was declined but now my parents wallet says it’s overdrawn? The last time I transferred money was 6 days prior, and my child spent it, why is a random transfer happening?! This is so frustrating because now if I want to add funds to my child’s account it’s going to automatically eat that $16. I think we will look for another service, since we couldn’t even get the app to work on my child’s phone. It just got stuck in a loop telling them to have the parent set up an account.
Update: I contacted customer service and they basically said “too bad”, and won’t help me. They claim that the extra charge was because if you use your debit card instead of a bank transfer it can take “up to 4 business days”. It had randomly blocked me from using my bank, and prompted me to use my debit card. I used it twice WITHIN 10 MINUTES. One transfer went through, the other didn’t, for reasons they can’t explain. They suggested I just close my account rather than them just refunding the charge (weird). This entire app seems like a giant scam.
I highly recommend not using it and I will be telling everyone I know not to get this for their kids.
Update: I contacted customer service and they basically said “too bad”, and won’t help me. They claim that the extra charge was because if you use your debit card instead of a bank transfer it can take “up to 4 business days”. It had randomly blocked me from using my bank, and prompted me to use my debit card. I used it twice WITHIN 10 MINUTES. One transfer went through, the other didn’t, for reasons they can’t explain. They suggested I just close my account rather than them just refunding the charge (weird). This entire app seems like a giant scam.
I highly recommend not using it and I will be telling everyone I know not to get this for their kids.
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Response from developer
Thank you for sharing this with us. We're sorry about the experience you had with Greenlight and we'd like to look into this for you. Please reach out to us at support@greenlight.com or give us a ring at 888-483-2645 and reference this review.
This app is good and bad at the same time 🤷
So I am one of the kids who uses this app and I feel that it has some flaws. I was asking my mom for money and she didn’t see the not because it doesn’t show unless you manually click on the request. Also, I accidentally added money to my stocks category and I tried to move it back and you can’t move the stock money out even if you haven’t bought a stock with it yet. I feel that otherwise this app would be cool if it didn’t have these errors and I hope the developers read this review. (Also just for clarification I lost $26 on the stock money and when I tried to move it said I couldn’t) so now I’m stuck with this stock money and also just saying the lessons on how to manage your money shouldn’t have lives in order to learn this stuff. You’re already paying 15$ a month to use this app and debit card so I feel like all lessons should be unlimited. One more note is that when my mom tried to change how much of the total chore money went to a place it took away all the money I earned that week and made it so I couldn’t earn the money from chores I did that week. I hope this review helps parents and kids looking to purchase this app.
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Response from developer
We would like to look into this for you, but can’t locate an account connected to your username. Please ask the primary account holder to reach out to us at support@greenlight.com or give us a ring at 888-483-2645 and reference this review.
I love this app
At first, I was a little bit skeptical and annoyed that my mom would put this app on my phone to control where I spend my money and how I spend my money but then I realize that this is actually going to help me in real life because now when I get my first job, I can take the money that I earned and split it in half and automatically put half of my savings and half of my spendings and that’s gonna help me with saving goals. Rest of my life and this is just helping me I had it appropriately spend my money. For example, my mom and I went shopping and I had set myself a budget and I found a top that I really really liked and I wanted to buy it but it would set me over my budget and I wanted to keep all the things that I bought so I had to make a choice and choose either go over my budget and then feel guilty about it or stay under my budget and, still give the things that I really really wanted and if I did that, and I’ll have to choose one item over another item and at the end of the day, I ended up picking to settle with the things that I already had because I didn’t really need the shirt
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Response from developer
Thanks for taking the time to share this with us.
How this app is so good
I like this app because it’s for kids and grown-ups or teenagers and it shows how much money you have. It’s really cool because you can choose your savings and what you want to save up to and I think it’s just really cool because you should get the app. It is really cool. You can save up to gas stations and even grocery stores and it comes with a card if you set up your greenlight account it’s a really cool app so if you want to have a really cool card, you should allows you to put in your savings like do you want an iPhone you can get an iPhone if you want to TV you can get anything you want when you save up to I think you should get this app because it is really really really really really really cool and it works out good with kids, teenagers and even grown-ups if you are a kid, your parent can manage your account It should be so cool if you’re a kid you’re a parent can manage your account and it’s really fun because it can automatically add money. You should get the app if you don’t already have it. It is one of the best apps you should get it by it for free and the kids can also request you for money. Have fun and enjoy getting money. And don’t forget. Stay tuned for my other reviews.
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Response from developer
Thank you for sharing this with us!
How this app is so good
I like this app because it’s for kids and grown-ups or teenagers and it shows how much money you have. It’s really cool because you can choose your savings and what you want to save up to and I think it’s just really cool because you should get the app. It is really cool. You can save up to gas stations and even grocery stores and it comes with a card if you set up your greenlight account it’s a really cool app so if you want to have a really cool card, you should allows you to put in your savings like do you want an iPhone you can get an iPhone if you want to TV you can get anything you want when you save up to I think you should get this app because it is really really really really really really cool and it works out good with kids, teenagers and even grown-ups if you are a kid, your parent can manage your account It should be so cool if you’re a kid you’re a parent can manage your account and it’s really fun because it can automatically add money. You should get the app if you don’t already have it. It is one of the best apps you should get it by it for free and the kids can also request you for money. Have fun and enjoy getting money. And don’t forget. Stay tuned for my other reviews.
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Response from developer
Thank you for taking the time to share this with us!
Greenlight
This app is so amazing for kids or anyone! You can add money take away money and you can also make chores for your kids to do! Your kids can make a saving chart they can learn how to invest also! You and your kid can see where they spent their money and how much they spent you can also see how much money you added and how much you took away! Your kids can not add money they can only request! You can decline or except it! If you have more than one kid that has a Greenlight don’t worry you can make more than one account! You can change your kids profile picture and your kid can too. It’s literally exactly like a debit card but with all of the features I told you! Also, in order for your kid to have a Greenlight card the parent has to pay $4.99 a month! Your kid can buy anything with this card! But… you can add money to how much they can spend on video games or at a restaurant and more but you don’t have to! They can also use it for online shopping but I would be careful with that because if they get scammed they can’t get their money back because it’s not a bank account only cards that have money from a bank can get their money back so I would just buy it as a parent yourself and then have them pay you back! One last thing, you can design their card, you can put a picture on it or just have a plain greenish tealish color! That’s it, this card is amazing and hope you get your kid one!
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Response from developer
Thank you for taking the time to share this with us! Safety is our top priority which is why all Greenlight accounts are FDIC-insured through our partner bank. Please reach out to us at support@greenlight.com or give us a ring at 888-483-2645 and reference this review. We'll be happy to answer your questions!
Wanna love it 100%… but don’t
The concept of these cards are amazing. My kids love having their own debit cards. They customized their cards, and love being able to spend their own money without needing cash. However, a constant reoccurring problem is that Greenlight will not take money out right away. You can’t see pending transactions, and if it takes a few days to update, the days in between you can still spend the same amount of money. For example, my daughter had $10 on her card, she spent $5 one day, a couple days later she checks her account and has $10, so she buys something for $6. Now she’s overdrawn, but it doesn’t take that money out. You can keep “spending” that remaining $5 until it updates. These accounts won’t ever technically allow your child to go negative, which is great until your kid spends money they thought they had then suddenly the parent owes. Very frustrating to deal with.
I’ve also had to deal with my son adding money from my bank account to his own card, there are no passwords, no codes, nothing to keep my children, or anyone else for that matter, from moving money. It’s also not a simple return and put it back on my bank card unless you call. All in all, great idea, there’s great features, I just wish it was closer to an actual bank card.
I’ve also had to deal with my son adding money from my bank account to his own card, there are no passwords, no codes, nothing to keep my children, or anyone else for that matter, from moving money. It’s also not a simple return and put it back on my bank card unless you call. All in all, great idea, there’s great features, I just wish it was closer to an actual bank card.
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Incompetent
UPDATE: Was on the phone with them for almost 2 hours. Their call center finally transferred me to somebody in the states. They looked into our problem and found that there was some glitch in their system that was stopping my child’s card from being printed. They were able to fix the glitch and waived the $35 expedited shipping fee to get the card to us in two days. I’m glad we got it figured out.
I’ll change my review if this ever gets resolved BUT this company is completely incompetent. I love the idea of this service and it has worked for one of my children BUT, I signed two of my kids up and over a month later have yet to receive a card for my second child. I received a card right away for one of them and over a month later and 4+ phone calls later have yet to receive a card for my other child. The first few times I called about it they said wait 7-10 business days for it to arrive. Nothing. Called again and demanded expedited shipping which they waived the fee for. Still NOTHING! How can you use a service if they make it impossible for you to use it? I either get this child’s card this week or I’m taking my business to a more competent competitor… :/
I’ll change my review if this ever gets resolved BUT this company is completely incompetent. I love the idea of this service and it has worked for one of my children BUT, I signed two of my kids up and over a month later have yet to receive a card for my second child. I received a card right away for one of them and over a month later and 4+ phone calls later have yet to receive a card for my other child. The first few times I called about it they said wait 7-10 business days for it to arrive. Nothing. Called again and demanded expedited shipping which they waived the fee for. Still NOTHING! How can you use a service if they make it impossible for you to use it? I either get this child’s card this week or I’m taking my business to a more competent competitor… :/
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Response from developer
Thank you for sharing this with us. We're sorry about the experience you had with Greenlight. We would like to look into this for you, but can’t locate an account connected to your username. Please reach out to us at support@greenlight.com or give us a ring at 888-483-2645 and reference this review.
Rude
Hi me and my mom and sister Trying to get this app and like we installed it right and so then him he told us to sign and we were signing in and then it says verification that you live there. That means that I am legal because I am Mexican and he they said that I couldn’t do it because I’m not illegally from here so they can’t give me money and then I was like super sad because I didn’t even get to try the app and so I said I was like this is so rude. Why would it not let how do they not know that people immigrants live near USA and they don’t have papers? I’m about to get my papers, but still like can you be a little fair to you know Hispanic people cause it’s funny people would love to give their money you know that Sunday is that when you give your child money but these days it’s mostly debit card you know not in credit not money or cash. Nothing of that so they should definitely add some thing about Hispanics you know to like let them be in this, even though they’re not from here because they still try to do their best with their family please update it. I will change my review once you fixed it because I really would’ve loved to try this app. Thank you for reading and I hope y’all answer me. Can y’all still like change it
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Response from developer
Thank you for sharing this with us, Jenna. We're sorry about the experience you had with Greenlight. We would like to look into this for you, but can’t locate an account connected to your username. Please reach out to us at support@greenlight.com or give us a ring at 888-483-2645 and reference this review.
Best App for kids
GreenLight is a perfect example for getting kids ready for when they mature and get older now through their life there are gonna be times when they want to spend there money on something they don’t need so GreenLight helps with that if you were to add and allowance for your kids you can make them do chores for their weekly allowance so let’s say you give you child or your children a weekly allowance of $15 then $3 will go towards saving and they can save what up for whatever they want for example I'm saving up for a gaming chair I will save up till I get that chair and ask a parent to use there general savings account money for what they want, another account that there is is a giving account which once you click on the giving account it will give you a list of websites for you to donate or give to for examples don’t to Dog shelters or other things but if your weekly allowance was $15 then $2 would go towards giving and after a few months you will have what you want in no time! So GreenLight is definitely the best option and if you go on there site and do the following you will one ☝️ month FREE!
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Response from developer
Thanks for taking the time to share this with us!
