Convenient & User Friendly
My kids LOVE having their own debit card. It is super convenient for me to pay them for chores with the app, instead of cash, because i don’t have to remember to go by the ATM and I can pay them in odd amounts instead of multiples of 20. It is super convenient for them because they can use the app to check their balance anytime, and they don’t have to carry around cash and coins. Compared to a prepaid debit card, which has tons of activation/balance inquiry/transaction fees, this is hands-down the best non-cash option that kids can use anywhere.
Pros:
-kids learn about money management
-parent/child can check balance anytime
-parent can view and control transactions
-cool features like assigning chores and setting allowance
-kids have a means to purchase online products with their own money (instead of me having to take their cash, make the purchase, and give back change, then deposit the money they spent into my own account)
Cons:
-getting their picture on the card is another $10 per card. This is a great way to add safety, so I am surprised it wasn’t included with the standard membership
-there is not a way to turn off the function where kids can request money from the parent (my kids like to request absurd amounts of money often as a practical joke and it’s annoying)
The monthly fee is really reasonable! I wish I had a Green Light card as a child. Very valuable tool for parents who want to teach their children good money habits!
Pros:
-kids learn about money management
-parent/child can check balance anytime
-parent can view and control transactions
-cool features like assigning chores and setting allowance
-kids have a means to purchase online products with their own money (instead of me having to take their cash, make the purchase, and give back change, then deposit the money they spent into my own account)
Cons:
-getting their picture on the card is another $10 per card. This is a great way to add safety, so I am surprised it wasn’t included with the standard membership
-there is not a way to turn off the function where kids can request money from the parent (my kids like to request absurd amounts of money often as a practical joke and it’s annoying)
The monthly fee is really reasonable! I wish I had a Green Light card as a child. Very valuable tool for parents who want to teach their children good money habits!
Show less
Write up needs to change
I have used this card for my three kids for quite a while. For the most part, I like it. There is one area that is NOT true on the write up - as I search for a new card. The write up says “the kid can’t charge if they don’t have the money” - or something like that. NOT true. Just today, the kids account was overdrawn and pulled from the parents account. I don’t care about the $21, the money was there - it’s just teaching the kid it’s ok to spend more than what you have.
I called customer service and they told me that if the spend anywhere is used, it will pull the overdraft from the parents account. If not enough there- it then pulls from the funding account on file. I want my kid to get denied and have to contact me if he needs more money. He needs to learn to budget. This card is not doing this AND the write up is WRONG. Don’t believe it if this is important to you. Customer service said I could set specific limits on different stores for spend anywhere;however, I want him to have the ability to spend his money wherever he wants - but only the amount he has available. Very frustrated and not hacked off that they didn’t keep to what they had stated. Normally I’d give a good star rating. Based on the aspect they don’t do as I thought and just confirmed in their write up, I lowered the rank quite a bit. Hate not being told how things are really handled.
I called customer service and they told me that if the spend anywhere is used, it will pull the overdraft from the parents account. If not enough there- it then pulls from the funding account on file. I want my kid to get denied and have to contact me if he needs more money. He needs to learn to budget. This card is not doing this AND the write up is WRONG. Don’t believe it if this is important to you. Customer service said I could set specific limits on different stores for spend anywhere;however, I want him to have the ability to spend his money wherever he wants - but only the amount he has available. Very frustrated and not hacked off that they didn’t keep to what they had stated. Normally I’d give a good star rating. Based on the aspect they don’t do as I thought and just confirmed in their write up, I lowered the rank quite a bit. Hate not being told how things are really handled.
Show less
Response from developer
We are so sorry to hear about this but are thankful you brought this to our attention. We will make sure to pass this feedback along to the team.
Great so far, but...
This app is just what we’ve been looking for... mostly. My only complaint is that sometimes my children have to pay me back for something where they didn’t have their card or they needed cash on the spot. They can move money out to my Parent Wallet, but I can’t move it from the Parent Wallet back to my bank account. I’ve read other reviews and the response is always to email customer support and they can do that for me. However, I don’t want to have to do that all the time.... especially for a small amount of money. I keep a meticulous budget each month where I account for every dollar, but if I can’t move that money back into my bank account, then my budget is off for the month. Is there a reason we can’t transfer money from the Parent Wallet back into my bank account? It seems silly I can’t access my own money in the Parent Wallet.
Show less
Utter flop
I was quite happy with the app for the first couple of months. It was a bit annoying how challenging it was to add money to my son’s account even though I had an account attached. It was a huge headache to figure out how others could transfer money to him for gifts, etc so we gave up that notion entirely. Then in December I was no longer able to transfer money from my account to my son’s. When I contacted a rep after multiple conversations she finally told me there’s an issue between Plaid and my bank and they don’t know when it will be fixed so I received a refund for the user fee for January and February. The issue is still not fixed and I am still not able to add money to my son’s account. I contacted Greenlight again, only to be told I need to do exactly what I did months ago and didn’t work (and yes I told customer service all of this). Let’s see how many more emails it takes before they actually answer the questions in my initial email regarding how to get the money out of my son’s account and close it so I can find a card for him that actually works. Definitely do not recommend this company.
Show less
Best tool for my teen to manage his money!
As the world around us changes, so must we. Gone are the days of weekly tangible allowances and chore boards. My tech savvy son was excited to have a credit card and ready to earn some ‘spending’ money.
The app is very user friendly allowing me to designate chores, as well as chore days and frequency. I like the ability to break up the allowance given between ‘spend, save, and charity’ and the ability to pause the allowance (if needed) or transfer extra money onto his card if he earns it.
Through the app my son can see the amount of money he’s earned and has already put his earnings into a special category, he created, as a way to focus on maintaining his goal. He feels more in control of his allowance money/spending (but you can restrict places they spend money on if it gets out of hand-like video games) and we as a family have an easy way to keep track of his ‘chores’ and financial progress.
The app is very user friendly allowing me to designate chores, as well as chore days and frequency. I like the ability to break up the allowance given between ‘spend, save, and charity’ and the ability to pause the allowance (if needed) or transfer extra money onto his card if he earns it.
Through the app my son can see the amount of money he’s earned and has already put his earnings into a special category, he created, as a way to focus on maintaining his goal. He feels more in control of his allowance money/spending (but you can restrict places they spend money on if it gets out of hand-like video games) and we as a family have an easy way to keep track of his ‘chores’ and financial progress.
Show less
No Regrets. Great card!
In the two weeks my son has been using his Greenlight card for his allowance, I have seen a drastic change in the way he views and appreciates money. I switched all of his video game related expenses over to his Greenlight account. Between me and other family members, he would sometimes ask for $100 in add-ons for games over the course of a week! Now that it’s his own money, he’ll spend it, but not at the rate he was spending mine!
I hesitated doing this for a long time. I didn’t know if he would be responsible with the card, wasn’t sure if he would really understand the purpose, thought it may be a big fight about his new limitations, and didn’t know if I wanted to pay the small monthly fee. But literally none of that has been an issue. I have explained to him with each step of the process how it works and he is stepping up to the responsibility.
I like that I can go in anytime and add or remove the tasks that he gets allowance for. I can also do one time giftings for special tasks or special occasions. We both have the app on our phones, so we can both see how much he earns every day, how much he spends and where the money goes. And I have also set the round-up feature so the change left after purchases automatically moves over to the savings account.
I love this card! If you are considering doing this with your kid, I highly recommend it and recommend it early! It is actually saving me money and teaching him some valuable life lessons.
I hesitated doing this for a long time. I didn’t know if he would be responsible with the card, wasn’t sure if he would really understand the purpose, thought it may be a big fight about his new limitations, and didn’t know if I wanted to pay the small monthly fee. But literally none of that has been an issue. I have explained to him with each step of the process how it works and he is stepping up to the responsibility.
I like that I can go in anytime and add or remove the tasks that he gets allowance for. I can also do one time giftings for special tasks or special occasions. We both have the app on our phones, so we can both see how much he earns every day, how much he spends and where the money goes. And I have also set the round-up feature so the change left after purchases automatically moves over to the savings account.
I love this card! If you are considering doing this with your kid, I highly recommend it and recommend it early! It is actually saving me money and teaching him some valuable life lessons.
Show less
Great app! I’m a kid who has the app and I have one request
I got this app a while ago because my mom wanted me and my siblings to have a money/chores system (I’m 11). We got the cards and it has worked amazingly. I love the feature where you can check off your chores on the list, it really helps with the organization. I just have one request. I think it would be nice if you could transfer money between the siblings. One time I wanted to give my sister money, but to do that I had to transfer the money to my mom, who transferred it to my sister. I think it would be a lot simpler if you could request to transfer money straight to the siblings (or whoever else is on the same account. If anyone is thinking of getting the app, I think you should. It helps with organizing your money (just so you know, I am not a bot and I was not paid to write this review). If the developers read this, thank you and would you please consider my request.
Show less
Update looks great but less user friendly
We’ve been Greenlight customers for about a year. We feel the fee is worth the value and convenience it provides us with 3 kids. My frustration is with the app update. It absolutely looks gorgeous, honestly my compliments to the designers, but I think this is a case where design lost sight of what’s important to customers. Before, I could easily see all information I wanted on the dashboard (the balance of each bucket of money for each kid). I’m now having to click 2 or 3 screens deep to see that information. It took me some effort to even find where the “giving” bucket went which is hidden at the bottom of the kids screen. What frustrates me is the lack of customization. Each kid is different. For example, we use “savings” as college savings (and transfer out to 529s every year, a process that has to involve customer service because transfer OUT is conveniently not a feature that was prioritized to build) and “spend” is our kids money. They have goals they want to save their “spend” money for but you can only set a goal in the “savings” bucket. I feel bad saying it because I can tell they must have spent a lot of time and effort on this redesign, but this update is pushing me away as a customer wondering if I can figure out how to do this on my own again.
Show less
Response from developer
Thank you for sharing this with us. We appreciate your feedback and will be passing it along to the team. If there is anything we can do to assist you, please contact us at support@greenlightcard.com.
Good, but could be better.
I do not want to draw this review out very long so I will get straight to the point. I do enjoy using the app and setting up each child account so they can spend money using a card but also practice on saving and giving money to local charities that they are familiar with too. The number one thing I DO NOT like is the cost. This app will cost you $60 a year to operate. I do understand it is unique and offer you some flexibility but I can see within a matter of a year another app will come out for free. But at the same time this is not a dealbreaker just know I will not hesitate to go with another business that offer the same thing for free or low cost. Secondly which is fairly a big deal to me is notifications. Yes you do receive notifications on when your child has spent money on something or their card has been declined because of insufficient funds. Once you view the notifications you are UNABLE to view them again. Vanish forever never to be seen again. I wish there was a way to review notifications similar to how you can review their account transaction history. Once again not a dealbreaker but, it seem like this was a no-brainer when it comes to practical uses for an app, especially when dealing with children spending money using a "real" debt card for the 1st time.
Show less
Response from developer
Hi there! Thanks for providing your valuable feedback. The monthly fee does come from Greenlight being a subscription-based company that comes with a suite of tools for parents to oversee spending, manage chores, automate allowances and more. We are always looking for ways to improve our app, so hopefully we can improve the notifications feature.
Worked in spite of the limitations of COVID-19
This app allowed my son to get a debit card since banks and the dmv have been closed and wait times are months. Direct deposit has proven to work. We have had this set up for 2 months. There is a limit of $500 a day but if the source account is a bank account there will be complications that will turn off your child’s card and if able to turn on will freeze the funds for weeks. Only transferring large amounts via debit card will bypass all this time consuming frustration. They will void the transactions to turn on however it will not reset the daily limit which means you have to wait 24 hours to do so. At least that’s a plus that it’s not days or weeks or further hassles. They also do not warm transfer the calls which means you will need to reverify yourself every time you get transferred. In a pinch during these times this will work but these disclosures should take place but at least reviews give a good picture.
Show less
