Greenlight Card Review: Is this Debit Card Worth the Money?

by Fiona Smith
Updated April 4, 2024

Disclosure: This post may receive compensation from partners listed through affiliate partnerships, at no cost to you. This doesn’t influence our ratings, and the opinions are our own. Learn more here.

If you want a Greenlight card review that doesn’t cut back on the details, you’ve come to the right place.

Today, we’ll explore Greenlight from top-to-bottom (and even inside and out!)

First, you’ll learn what Greenlight is, how Greenlight works, and then we’ll dive into more detail, such as:

The pros and cons of the platform
How Greenlight can benefit your kids
And how it can make your life easier, as a parent

Ready to see if Greenlight is the best debit card for your kids?

Let’s get started.

Quick Summary

Greenlight has identified the gap in financial literacy and is one of the pioneer companies to offer a debit card for kids while helping parents teach their children about money.

Overall Rating:

 4.8/5

Monthly Cost

Investment options

Ease of use

Pros	Cons
Live notifications Parental controls No overdraft fees	Digital deposits only Relatively high monthly cost

What is Greenlight?

Greenlight is a prepaid debit card and app that parents can use to teach their kids personal finance. The Greenlight card teaches kids about spending, saving, giving, investing, and taking responsibility for their chores – all while parents monitor and approve each transaction.

How Does Greenlight Work?

Greenlight is a one-stop-shop when it comes to parents teaching their kids about money management:

The finance app helps parents save time and money with the following features:

Spend controls
Balance tracking
Live notifications
Mobile payments
Instant money transfers

Parents can simply start with a prepaid debit card (minimums typically range between $1 to $20).

Pro Tip: You’ll never have to worry about your kids spending more than what they actually have because Greenlight is a prepaid card.

With Greenlight you won’t have to pay:

ATM fees*
Overdraft fees
Over-limit fees

*Some ATM operator fees might apply

It gets better: Depending on the tier that you purchase (Greenlight offers 3 tier packages), you could also start teaching your kids how to invest.

Now, thanks to Greenlight, you as a parent have the ability to teach your kids financial principals from an early age.

Pros and Cons of Greenlight

Let’s take a big-picture look at the Greenlight pros and cons:

Pros	Cons
Teach your kids how to manage money (no minimum age requirement)	Monthly costs may be relatively high (starting at $4.99)
Top-level parental controls	The investing option is available only on the 2 more expensive monthly tier packages
No overdraft fees, ATM fees, etc.	Greenlight cards require parents to pay additional interest
Parents can elect to approve child’s transactions	Monthly maximum loads are capped between $4,000 to $7,500
Live alerts for spending transactions	You cannot deposit physical cash – only digital transfers are permitted
Teach your kids how to invest and the power of compound interest	Common customer complaints concern the difficulty of closing a Greenlight account
Pay your kids for chores and teach them responsibility	Customer service might not be as responsive
Incentivize your kids’ savings strategy by boosting interest payments	You cannot take out loans or lend money to your kids

Greenlight Overall Rating

Before reading further, check out my ratings for each of the following 6 categories:

Overall Rating
Liquidity	⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Security & Safety	⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Usability	⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Investment Options	⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Fees	⭐️⭐️⭐️
Customer Service	⭐️⭐️⭐️

To give a little more detail on the reason for my ratings, take a look at my breakdown below:

Liquidity – Your kids (and you) can use the prepaid Greenlight debit card anytime, anywhere. There is no lock-up period
Security & Safety – Greenlight offers FDIC protection for cash, SIPC protection for investments, phone protection, purchase protection, and identity protection
Usability – Very intuitive website interface, real-time alerts for parents (when kids make transactions), very easy to use
Investment Options – The Greenlight + Invest tier offers mainly ETFs from companies worth $1 billion or more
Fees – While monthly fees are not too expensive, they tend to be on the high side (starting at $4.99)
Customer Service – A common complaint is the lack of speed at which customer service members respond to requests. However, the customer service phone number is available to call for extended hours during the week and even on weekends

So far, I’m pretty impressed with this platform.

About Greenlight Debit Card for Kids

Greenlight comes with a lot of user-friendly features and services.

Here’s a quick breakdown:

About Greenlight
Year Founded	2014
Headquarter Location	Atlanta, Georgia
Number of Downloads	4 million+
Savings on Greenlight Platform	$50 million
Minimum Monthly Cost	$4.99
Minimum Amount to Fund PrePaid Debit Card	$1 to $20
What You Can Teach Your Kids	- Saving - Earning - Investing - Spending - Budgeting - Responsibility - Goal Planning
Safety Features	- FDIC insured - SIPC insured - Overdraft protection - Deactivate card if lost or stolen - Parent approval for transactions - Top level data encryption software - Parent ability to block unsafe spending categories
Availability	- Android - MacBook - Windows PC - Amazon Kindle - Apple iPhone (5S or newer running on iOS 12 or better)
Customer Service	- Phone [888-483-2645] - Email [support@greenlight.com]
Customer Service Hours	- M to F 8am to 11pm EST - Saturday & Sunday 8am to 9pm EST
Debit Card Country Availability	- No international fees - No foreign transaction fees - 150+ countries accept Greenlight - 74 countries do not currently accept Greenlight Card - 83 countries accept Greenlight purchases but not ATM withdrawals

If you’re looking to travel abroad and aren’t sure if your Greenlight Card will work for your international travels, just reach out to support@greenlight.com to confirm you can use your card.

The good news is that 150+ countries accept Greenlight at this point.

Greenlight Card Features

The additional features offered with Greenlight debit card include the following:

Direct Deposits
Customized cards
Instant money transfers
Parental spend controls

Let’s check them out.

1. Direct Deposits

If you’re looking to teach your child accountability and responsibility, then consider using the direct deposit feature.

Greenlight Direct Deposits Explained: The Greenlight debit card direct deposits feature gives your working kids the chance directly deposit their paychecks into their Greenlight account.

With the direct deposits feature, you could:

Help your kids manage the money they earn
Teach your kids to invest a portion of their paycheck
Teach your kids better money management techniques

Once your child has set up the direct deposit, it should typically take between 1 to 2 pay periods before depositing into the Greenlight account (and this depends on your child’s employer).

When the direct deposit hits your child’s account, Greenlight sends a real-life notification to update them that money is available.

2. Customized Cards

One of the cool things about the Greenlight debit card for kids that I really like is the option for parents and kids to create a customized card.

You don’t just have to upload pictures of your kids on these custom cards.

Your kids can add pictures of:

Their pets
Their family
Their friends
Their favorite vacation spots

Just keep in mind that ordering a custom card does cost extra money – $9.99 to be exact.

You can choose literally any image from your photo library and fit that to the custom card builder in Greenlight.

Once you have selected an image and fit it to your custom card, you can click “Next” and place your order.

With the custom card, you can either use standard shipping, which is free, or you can use expedited shipping for $24.99.

3. Instant Money Transfers

In a world where everyone is so busy, having an option to instantly transfer money can be a big plus for parents.

Below is a little more information regarding instant transfers:

Greenlight Instant Transfers
Transfers from your debit card:	Immediate availability
Transfers from your bank account:	2 to 3 business days

If you are in good standing with Greenlight, then your transfers may be immediate.

4. Parental Spend Controls

The parental spend control feature is something most parents will appreciate.

Parental Spend Controls Explanation: Parents can set spending limits for their kids on specific categories or even specific stores.

Some additional parental spend controls that you can use include:

Store-specific
In-app approval
Category-specific
Freezing your kid’s card

Let’s take a closer look at the parental controls you can implement for your child.

Parental Control #1: Store Specific Limits

If you don’t want your child to spend their money at a certain store, you can now set spending limits on specific stores.

Did you know? The Greenlight debit card for kids is the only prepaid debit card that gives parents the ability to set spend limits on individual stores for their kids.

Another neat thing about the Greenlight debit card is that the second your child makes an in-store purchase, you’ll receive a real-life push notification.

If your child does try to purchase something from one of the stores you decided to block, your child’s card will be declined.

Parental Control #2: In-App Approval

The good news is that the Greenlight card offers an open communications system for parents and kids.

For example, if your child shops at a new store and doesn’t have enough money in their “Spend Anywhere” account, then your child can send a real-time request for you to add funds to their “Spend Anywhere” account.

Parental Control #3: Category Specific Limits

Greenlight has determined that the top 5 spending categories for kids and teens include:

ATMs
Restaurants
Gas stations
Online gaming
Grocery stores

You’ll typically see the 5 categories listed on your child’s dashboard like this:

A smart system that Greenlight has put in place takes ATM withdrawals into account.

Greenlight has deactivated the ability for kids to withdraw more than their balance for ATM spending.

For the following categories, you can elect to have any overages pulled from your child’s “Spend Anywhere” account:

Restaurants
Gas stations
Online gaming
Grocery stores

However, if you prefer that your child’s account settings will not pull overages from their “Spend Anywhere” account, you can easily turn off this setting.

As you can see from the screenshot above, you can toggle on or off the ability for overages to come from your child’s “Spend Anywhere” account.

Parental Control #4: Freezing Your Child’s Card

In a worst-case scenario, you can also elect to deactivate and freeze your child’s card.

You’ll typically want to resort to this case if:

Your card was lost
Your card was stolen
You don’t want your child using the card anymore

This can be done from your app (the parent app).

First, you’ll navigate to your child’s dashboard, then click on the “Manage Card” headline to turn the card on or off.

Once you confirm to turn off your child’s card, Greenlight will even send you and prompt to order a replacement card, if you want.

Keep in mind that your first replacement card will be replaced for free and any replacements thereafter will cost $3.50 per card.

Greenlight Plans and Pricing

Let me be upfront about the Greenlight Debit Card fees:

In my opinion, the monthly fees are a bit higher than what I would like to see.

However, the fees are still affordable, and it’s tough to put a price on hands-on financial literacy education for your kids.

Here’s an overview of what you can expect when you open a Greenlight debit card for kids:

Greenlight Card Overview
Minimum Age	None
Minimum Balance	$1 to $20
Maximum Balance	- $7,500 (for kids) - $15,000 (for primary account owners like parents)
Typical Interest Rate (Parent Paid)	1% to 2%
Safety & Security Features	- FDIC protection - SIPC protection - Real-life transaction notifications - Mastercard Zero Liability Protection - Unsafe spending categories are blocked - Turn your card on/off directly from the app
Typical Fees	- Monthly fee (starting at $4.99) - Custom card (1-time fee for $9.99) - Replacement card (1 free replacement card per child. Anything thereafter costs $3.50 per card)
Where is Greenlight Accepted?	Most international countries (150+ countries)
Can kids earn cash back rewards?	Yes, Greenlight Max users can earn 1% cash back on purchases
Does Greenlight work with Google Pay?	Yes
Does Greenlight work with Apple Pay?	Yes

Greenlight has 3 plans:

Greenlight
Greenlight + Invest
Greenlight Max

While the cost of the Greenlight card for kids is not outrageous, it could be less.

Below is a better breakdown of the fees and features for each of the 3 Greenlight debit card tiers:

There is even better news:

You can sign up free for 1 month and experience a Greenlight demo package.

That way, you can figure out whether you like the Greenlight debit card for kids.

Plus, you can cancel your monthly subscription at any time.

Greenlight Usability & Interface

If I could, I would rate the Greenlight app an 11 out of 10.

It’s extremely user-friendly, intuitive, and it does a great job of displaying the information in a neat and organized fashion.

Here’s what I love (and appreciate) about the Greenlight debit card for kids:

No age restrictions
The app is easy to use
Easy to transfer money
You can teach your kids valuable finance skills

Overall, the Greenlight platform itself is a simple design with an interface that’s fairly intuitive and that can help you manage and review your child’s finances.

Greenlight Customer Service Review

I’m drawing from my own personal experience from speaking with a Greenlight personal representative:

Category	Rating (0-5)
Knowledge	⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Friendliness	⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Customer Experience	⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

There are 5 ways you can have your Greenlight questions answered:

By email
By phone call
By text message
By reaching out through Greenlight’s social media platforms via direct message

Greenlight Contact Methods
Email	support@greenlight.com
Phone Call	888-483-2645
Text Message	404-974-3024
Social Media	Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube
Phone Support Center Hours	- M to F 8am to 11pm EST - Saturday & Sunday 8am to 9pm EST

While holiday hours may apply, you can connect with a Greenlight representative virtually any time.

To make sure you get the full picture of Greenlight’s customer service, check out Greenlight’s profile on the BBB (Better Business Bureau) or TrustPilot.com.

While it does not appear that Greenlight is rated by the BBB, the company does have thousands of reviews on TrustPilot.

A solid 88% of respondents rated Greenlight average to excellent.

Note: Most of the “Bad” Greenlight reviews involve the debit cards not syncing to a parent bank account, poor customer service, debit cards arriving months after being ordered, money being erroneously debited from checking accounts.

While Greenlight does appear to have a pretty good overall rating with its customers, I still think it’s important to periodically read the reviews – both good and bad.

Above is an example of a common customer complaint about withdrawing money from a child account to pay the monthly fee if the parent account doesn’t have enough cash.

While Greenlight’s customer service team does respond to each and every one of the customer complaints, the responses (90% of the time) are very generic.

As a customer, I probably wouldn’t be too happy to receive a standard response to my complaint.

Always take these reviews with a grain of salt.

Greenlight Card Balance & Load Limits

In the grand scheme of things, Greenlight is transparent and reasonable with its fees.

First, take a look at the ATM withdrawal costs associated with the Greenlight card:

Greenlight ATM Withdrawal Costs
ATM Withdrawal Fees	$0
Maximum Daily ATM Withdrawal Limit	$100
Maximum Monthly ATM Withdrawal Limit	$500

If you ever lose a Greenlight card (which could happen quite frequently to me!), then check out this information below:

Greenlight Card Replacement Fees
First Card Replacement	$0
Second+ Card Replacement	$3.50
Express Delivery for Card Replacements	$24.99

Some prepaid debit cards may charge you a small fee to reload your cards.

Not with the Greenlight debit card:

Cash Reload Fee – $0

Note: You can only reload your kids’ Greenlight debit card by transferring funds from the parent account to the child’s account.

It might be somewhat of a hassle to first load money into your account and then transfer the funds to your child’s account, but at least you don’t have to pay any fees.

Now let’s take a look at the following:

Transfer limits
Spending limits
Minimum card balances
Maximum card balances

Before you start uploading cash to your child’s Greenlight debit card, it’s important to understand the limits you and your child might encounter.

First, let’s take a look at the minimum card balances:

Minimum Amount to initially load – $10 to $20
Minimum Amount to reload – $1 to $20

There are also different load limits.

Check it out below:

Greenlight Load Limits
Maximum Daily Debit Load Limit	$1,500 (Per Parent)
Maximum ACH Load Limit	$300 to $600 (Every 3 day rolling period for parent accounts)
Maximum ACH Load per month	$1,000 (For tenured accounts using manual verification)
Maximum Monthly Payroll Direct Deposit Loads	$5,000 (Per Family)
Maximum Monthly Total Load from Invest Accounts	$7,500 (Per Family)

Next, let’s take a look at the maximum card balances:

Maximum Card Balance – $15,000 (For parents)
Maximum Card Balance – $7,500 (For kids)

Now let’s take a look at the maximum daily and monthly spending limits for both parents and kids:

Daily Spend Limit – $1,500
Monthly Spend Limit – $7,500

Greenlight + Invest

If you want to teach your kids how to invest, then you should consider the Greenlight + Invest tier.

While the Greenlight + Invest plan costs $7.98 per month, it is a very good feature you can use to teach your kids about investing and compound interest.

For example, if you give your kid $100 and advise your kid to invest $10 every month, from the day they are 10 years old until they are 60, they would have $51,729.17.

As you can see, the future value of your child’s investment over a 50 year time frame increases significantly over time.

Pro Tip: The most important ingredient to investing is time.

And for exactly that reason, it’s important to teach your kids from an early age how to invest.

Below are a few additional features when it comes to the Greenlight + Invest Tier:

Greenlight + Invest
Minimum Age to Invest	None
Do kids actually trade?	No, kids can only request trades
Who places the trades?	Parents actually approve and place the trades
Minimum Investment	$1
Trading Fees	$0
Number of Investments Available	4,000+
Investment Types	- ETFs - Stocks
Fractional Investing Allowed?	Yes

Greenlight typically stays away from the more alternative investment types (such as micro-cap companies or other, more volatile and risky investments).

Greenlight Giving Account

The Greenlight Giving Account is where parents and kids can elect to donate a portion of their cash to a charity of their choice.

You can select to which category you’d like to donate money.

From there, you’ll be rerouted to an outside page, known as charitynavigator.org.

Note: Charity Navigator is a non-profit company that ranks charities to help you make an informed decision as to which charity you should donate to.

Once you’re on the Charity Navigator website, you can check out specific charities in the category you selected.

Once you’ve browsed through each charity, you can make a donation in the amount you want.

Pro Tip: The smallest donation amount is $10.

After you’ve selected your favorite charity, you can confirm your donation and funds will be pulled from your child’s Giving Account.

It’s actually a pretty straightforward process.

How Greenlight Can Teach Your Kids About Money

Here are 7 Greenlight features that teach your kids to be better money managers:

Round Ups
Chore Plans
Savings rewards
Cash back rewards
Allowance automation
Investing in the stock market
Parent paid interest incentives

Let’s take a deep dive into each of these 7 features.

1. Round Ups

Round Ups is a savings feature that helps kids round up spare change from purchases to the next full dollar.

The “rounded up” change is then added to their Greenlight General Savings account.

The reason why I’m a big fan of the Round Ups feature is that you save on an “out of sight, out of mind” basis.

Here’s a quick example:

Round Ups Example
Cost of purchase	$1.25
The Round Up feature increases your purchase to the next dollar	$2.00
Amount rounded up	$0.75
Amount transferred to savings account	$0.75

In other words, the amount of money that is rounded up is automatically transferred to the Greenlight General savings account.

2. Chore Plans

Since every child using Greenlight has their own login, you (the parent) can assign chores to your child (and yes, your child will receive real-time notifications).

This is a great system to teach your children responsibility and take ownership of tasks assigned to them.

You could pay your kids in 3 different ways if they complete their chore plan on time:

Greenlight Allowance Pay Out
Flat Rate	Your kids earn money regardless of completing their chores
Partial Payment	If your kid completes 50% of their chores, then you only pay 50%
All or Nothing	If your kid completes every chore, then you pay 100% of their allowance

And since every family works differently, there are many ways to incentivize your kids to complete their chores.

Pro Tip: Greenlight integrates chore tasks directly with allowance payouts.

For example, parents could connect their child’s allowance payout to the assigned chores.

You can elect to pay your child based on several factors such as:

Partial payments – Your child is paid a percentage of their allowance based on the percent of the completed chore
All or nothing payments – Your child is paid 100% of their allowance if 100% of their chores are completed.

Pro Tip: Greenlight can also automatically sends push notifications to your kids to remind them when assigned chores are due.

In my opinion, Greenlight is a good task and chore management tool on top of being an effective money manager for kids.

3. Savings Rewards

As of August 1, 2021, family accounts can earn annual savings rewards, based on:

Accomplishing savings goals
The amount of money in a child’s general savings account

Note: The savings rewards are only available for accounts that are in good standing and have a verified ACH funding account (not just a debit card).

Your family could earn 1% annually in savings rewards (if a Greenlight and Greenlight + Invest member) and 2% annually (if a Greenlight Max member).

You’ll then see the savings rewards paid at the beginning of each month.

Here’s how savings rewards are calculated:

Every month, Greenlight estimates your child’s average daily savings rate
The average daily savings rate is multiplied by how much your child earns annually

Keep in mind that Greenlight and Greenlight + Invest families can earn 1% in rewards while Greenlight Max families can earn up to 2% in rewards.

If you’re curious to see how much your child has earned in savings rewards, you can:

Click on your child’s dashboard
Click the “Savings” headline
Click on “History”

Incentivizing families and kids to save more money is a fantastic way to build wealth and lifelong money management skills.

4. Cash Back Rewards

As of August 1, 2021, if you’re signed up to the premium Greenlight Max tier (starting at $9.98 per month), your child can also earn up to 1% in cash back on any Greenlight purchases.

Pro Tip: Your 1% cash back is deposited into your General Savings automatically, every month.

In order to qualify for the 1% cash back, aside from being a Greenlight Max member, families must also:

Be in good standing with Greenlight
Add a funding account (instead of a debit card)

Similar to how you can see your child’s savings rewards, you can also review your child’s cash back rewards by accessing:

Your child’s dashboard
Clicking on the “Spending” Headline
Clicking on “History” in the top, right corner
Clicking on the “>” at the top, right of the screen (next to the cash back description)

Once you click the “>” you’ll see a summary overview of the total amount of cash back rewards earned per month.

While there are better cash back apps, Greenlight still does a good job with this incentive.

5. Allowance Automation

As a parent, you can use Greenlight to set up allowances to pay out either:

Weekly
Monthly
Bi-weekly

You can make changes to your child’s allowance by updating the:

Amount
Frequency
Location of where the allowance is to be deposited

You can elect to deposit the allowance in the following accounts:

Giving Account
General Savings Account
Spend Anywhere Account

I’ve provided a little more detail about each account type below:

Account Type	Description
Giving Account	Donate to your favorite charity for a minimum of $10
General Savings Account	Your child can earn interest based on their average savings rate
Spend Anywhere Account	Your child can use this money for spending purposes and you (the parent) can set spending limits on this account

Keep in mind, if you decided to upgrade to the Greenlight + Invest or the Greenlight Max tier, you can also have the ability to transfer money to your child’s investing account.

Pro Tip: You can also elect to split the allowance distribution between the 3 main accounts, mentioned above.

For example, you can elect to split your child’s allowance as 70/20/10 (so 70% of your allowance could go to the Spend Anywhere account, 20% to the General Savings Account, and 10% to the Giving Account).

The allowance is transferred from your wallet to your child’s account.

Pro Tip: You can elect to “autofund” the allowance by connecting your funding source (like a bank) to ensure the allowance is paid out on time.

Generally speaking, allowances are paid by 6 am EST on the day your child is to receive the allowance.

And, if your child happens to be grounded and you wish to temporarily suspend their allowance, Greenlight offers a “Pause Allowance” feature.

To pause your child’s allowance, simply:

Access your child’s dashboard
Click on the “Allowance” heading
Click on the toggle to turn off the allowance

And, as mentioned earlier, the allowance tab can also be connected with your child’s weekly chores.

So, if your child completes their chores, they could receive an allowance payout.

6. Investing in the Stock Market

Coming from the corporate investment management world myself, I think the Greenlight investing platform is an awesome feature for kids to learn how to invest.

You can teach your child how to invest if you’re a member of the following tier levels:

Greenlight Max
Greenlight + Invest

The Invest feature actually gives parents 2 options to start investing:

Investing Options
Investing for Parents	Parents invest for their kids’ futures
Investing for Kids	Kids can monitor, research, trade real stocks and ETFs

The following stocks and ETFs are offered on Greenlight:

A few leveraged ETFs
Market capitalizations > $1 billion
Stocks typically listed on the NYSE and the NASDAQ
Exchange-listed sponsored American Depository Receipts (aka ADRs)

Although kids technically can request to trade stocks, since most children who are Greenlight card users are minors, the trading responsibility actually goes to the parent.

Caution: Parents will also be responsible for all tax liabilities associated with any transactions for either parent or child Greenlight investing accounts.

Once the parents have executed a trade for their kids, kids can then track the performance of those investments using the “Investing for Kids” section on their Greenlight app.

When your child is setting up their own Investor Portfolio, Greenlight takes the time to ask a Risk Tolerance Questionnaire.

Risk Tolerance Questionnaire Definition: A risk tolerance questionnaire (aka RTQ) is a set of questions aimed at better understanding an individual investor’s risk profile.

In other words, how much risk can someone stomach?

Obviously, if someone doesn’t care if the stock market goes down by 50% tomorrow, those people typically can stomach more risk (and thus have the potential for more return).

Once the investor profile is completed, it’s time to start researching which stocks and ETFs work based on your child’s portfolio.

And keep in mind that Greenlight offers more than 4,000 stocks and ETFs to choose from!

To explore the types of investment options offered by Greenlight, simply:

Click on the “Investing” icon
Scroll to the “Investing Options” section
Click on “Company Stocks” or “Exchange Traded Funds” to explore individual stocks and/or ETFs

Once you’ve accessed either the “Company Stocks” section or the “ETF” section, you can also use the search bar to check out a specific stock or ETF.

Before you can actually make a trade, you’ll need to transfer cash to invest.

You can do this by:

Clicking on the “Investing” icon
Clicking on the “Cash to Invest” headline
Clicking on “Move $ In” headline
Electing how much cash you want to transfer
Selecting from where you want to transfer your cash
Clicking “Move Money”

For the screenshot above, since you’re looking to invest cash, you’ll want to click on “Move $ In” and proceed to the next screen.

Here, you can select the amount of cash you want to transfer, and from where it should be transferred.

The last step is to click the “Move Money” button.

Pro Tip: Keep in mind that kids can only view and request trades, parents are the ones who actually make the trade on behalf of the kids.

This way, the parents really maintain control and an overview of their children’s investing ventures.

7. Parent Paid Interest Incentives

If you’ve ever put cash in a savings account, you’ll know that the bank will pay you a certain interest rate.

Sadly, in the modern economy, interest rates are pretty low and the highest interest rate you could obtain is typically from a high-yield savings account.

However, Greenlight offers the parent-paid interest incentive.

Parent Paid Interest Definition: Greenlight offers parents to pay an annual percentage rate for their kids’ general savings account. This interest rate is paid from the Parent’s Wallet to the Child’s General Savings account.

How much of your parent-paid interest is transferred to your child’s account depends on the average daily balance of your child’s Total Savings for last month.

Using the parent-paid interest plan, you could pay an interest rate between 1% to 100%.

If you are a Greenlight Max tier member, then you could even earn 2% annually in interest (which is paid by Greenlight).

Here’s how you can set up your parent paid interest plan:

Access your child’s dashboard
Click on the “Savings” headline
Click on “Parent-Paid Interest,” located in the “Savings Boosts” section
Specify the interest rate percent you want your child to earn
Click “Save”

If you don’t have enough money in your parent-paid wallet to cover your parent-paid interest incentive, then Greenlight will send you an alert to add funds to your account.

Greenlight’s Identity Theft Protection

Is Greenlight safe?

The answer is yes.

In fact, Greenlight uses state-of-the-art technology to protect you and your child’s personal data from leaking into the wrong hands.

Let’s take a look below.

Protection Type	What it Means
Zero Liability Protection	You won’t have to pay for “unauthorized transactions”
FDIC Insurance	Your money is protected (up to $250,000 in most cases) if the bank fails
Turn Cards On/Off	Immediately deactivate cards if lost or stolen
Spend Controls	Set a maximum amount of money your child can spend per category (like video games, clothing, etc.)

Now, if safety and security is your No. 1 concern, then you’ll probably want to consider the Greenlight Max tier, which costs $9.98 per month.

That’s because the Greenlight Max plan offers 3 additional features that the other plans do not:

Phone protection
Identity protection
Purchase protection

I went into a little more detail regarding the 3 protection types:

Greenlight Max Protection Types
Phone Protection	Get reimbursed for the cost to replace or repair your kid’s phone for up to $600 per claim (up to a maximum of $1,000 per year). You’ll pay a deductible of $25. If you live in New York, this feature is not available
Identity Protection	- Dark web monitoring - Automatic security alerts - Protection is provided by Experian - ID restoration service for the family
Purchase Protection	If you bought something in full with a Greenlight debit card, and that item was damaged or stolen, Greenlight will reimburse you within 120 days of the date of purchase/delivery up to $100 per item (up to a maximum of $1,000 per year)

Keep in mind that if you do have a claim (and you are using the Purchase Protection plan), then you need to file no later than 60 days after the trigger event.

To file a claim, you can:

Click on the “Settings” page
Click on “Cell phone & purchase protection”
Navigate to the Claim Center and click “File a claim”

You can also always call 866-599-1386 to file a claim.

Greenlight Education & Resources

The reason why I’m such a fan of Greenlight is that it offers 2 things for your kids:

Hands-on money management experience
Interactive financial and educational resources

Not only do your kids learn how to budget, spend, and even invest, but with the Greenlight card, your child can also learn about personal finance basics.

Here’s a more comprehensive list of the educational resources Greenlight offers for both parents and kids:

Resource	Descripton
Financial Videos	Access financial videos by clicking on the “Investing” icon and clicking on the “Become a better Investor” section
Personal Finance Quizzes	Learn more about money by answering an assorted number of personal finance questions with answers
Greenlight Blog	Learn about personal finance tips and tricks on the Greenlight blog
Greenlight Help Center	Search for virtually any Greenlight-related question, from investing to giving, to saving, to spending
Million Bazillion	Million Bazillion is a podcast made for kids to learn more about money (it is now in its second season)
FAQs	The typical questions you, as a parent, may ask about Greenlight are listed here in the FAQ section
Greenlight Kahoot!	Teach your kids personal finance basics using the Kahoot! platform’s game-based educational programs

As you can see, Greenlight does not keep you or your child in the dark.

One of my favorite educational resources for kids is Kahoot! (which is free).

With Kahoot! kids can play interactive and hands-on financial literacy games to improve their financial concepts.

The Million Bazillion (I love that name!) podcast is another cool place for your kids to learn about personal finance.

The podcast is now in its second season and talks about personal finance concepts in simple terms.

Each of the Million Bazillion podcast episodes bring finance fun facts and finance trivia to your kids, and it’s another great way to learn about money.

Why You Should Get a Debit Card for Your Kids

Do you want to teach your kids about financial literacy?

Then why not start with a hands-on approach.

Most financial institutions, due to the law, don’t allow minors (typically, anyone under age 18) to open their own bank account, credit card, etc.

Not anymore.

Enter the Greenlight debit card for kids.

With the Greenlight debit card, parents can open savings, spending, and investment accounts for their kids – and age doesn’t matter.

How?

Parents are the true account owners (the child accounts are merely subaccounts, which are “owned” by parents).

Why should you let your kids manage money from an early age?

Children who manage money from an early age learn:

Responsibility
Accountability
Independence

And that’s where the Greenlight debit card for kids really makes a difference.

Parents and kids can manage money on a side-by-side basis.

Parents can:

Send money to kids
Manage chore plans
Block in-store purchases
Manage allowance money
Customize spending controls
Approve and execute trade requests

Kids can:

Gift money
Save money
Spend money
Place trade requests

The neat thing with Greenlight is that you can teach your kids real-life lessons in a safe environment with parental controls in place.

How to Open a Greenlight Account

Are you ready to open an account with Greenlight?

First, head over to the Greenlight website.

Next, you’ll want to click on the big, yellow button on the left that says, “Get Started.”

You’ll have to enter a valid US phone number.

After you’ve entered your phone number, you’ll have to answer a series of questions, such as the one above.

Greenlight will also send you a confirmation code text message, which you’ll need to input.

Next, you’ll have to answer a series of questions about yourself and, of course, your kids as well.

You’ll also have to set up your child’s Greenlight account.

You can add up to 5 children on your Greenlight account application.

Once you’ve included your personal information, it’s time to set up the parent wallet.

In this case, it looks like the minimum initial funding amount is $5.

Once you’ve selected your funding amount, you can connect either:

Your debit card
Your bank account manually
Your bank account automatically (using Plaid)

Once you’ve set up and linked your bank account information, you’ll have access to your parent dashboard.

From there, you can move money to your child’s account through a simple process.

First, from your parent dashboard, click on “Send $” next to your child’s name.

Then, you can select how much and to which account you would like to send your money:

Giving
General Savings
Spend Anywhere

You can also elect to create Spend Controls so that you limit your child’s purchases, depending on stores or even categories.

Pro Tip: If you’re sending your child money because they completed a chore, you can even write a thank you note!

When I found out about this unique, custom feature, I thought that was pretty neat.

Once you’ve completed these steps, you can click the “Move Money” button and transfer the cash to your child’s account.

Now, if you want to add money to your child’s investing portfolio, you can do so from your parent dashboard.

First, click on the “Investing” icon.

Then, you’ll want to click on “Cash to Invest,” which will prompt you to either move money in or out of the investing account.

Once you select the amount of money you wish to move in or out of your child’s account, you should be all set.

Greenlight Alternatives

Not sure if Greenlight is the right fit for you and your family?

Here are other alternatives to the Greenlight debit card:

FamZoo

FamZoo provides prepaid cards and a financial education for kids and teens. All in one award-winning app.

Learn more

FamZoo does offer some options that are not available to Greenlight users such as:

Lending money to your kids
You can use either a prepaid card or an “IOU” card
You don’t have to connect your checking account with FamZoo
You can financially penalize your kids for not completing their chores

However, FamZoo’s basic tier is actually a little more expensive than Greenlight’s basic monthly tier.

FAQs

What is the minimum age to use Greenlight?

There is no age limit for the Greenlight card or for investing with Greenlight. It’s typically most effective to offer the Greenlight debit card when your kids are ready to learn about money. Generally speaking, that means your kids are somewhere between ages 10 to 18.

Where is Greenlight accepted?

As long as Mastercard is accepted, your Greenlight card will be accepted, both online and in stores. Additionally, Greenlight is accepted in over 150 countries and counting.

Is Greenlight Safe?

Greenlight is a legit and safe finance app. Not only does Greenlight offer FDIC insurance to protect your cash deposits, but it also offers SIPC protection for your investments. Additionally, Greenlight has state-of-the-art data encryption software, PIN codes and EMV chips to keep your data safe.

Does Greenlight collect personal data?

While Greenlight does collect personal data, your information is securely stored and encrypted using top-notch software. Greenlight collects personal data in 3 ways: 1) Any information you provide; 2) Any information that’s collected automatically through Greenlight’s digital platform (like from cookies); 3) Any information Greenlight receives from third parties (your phone number, address, email, etc.).

How can I fund my Greenlight Card?

You can fund your Greenlight card in 2 main ways: 1) You can connect your bank account to your Greenlight account and make an instant transfer; 2) You can connect your debit card to your Greenlight account and make an instant transfer. Any cash transfers are first deposited into the Parent’s Wallet and can then be moved to your kid’s bank accounts.

Do I need a mobile number to apply with Greenlight?

No, you don’t need a mobile phone number to apply with Greenlight. While the Greenlight website will require you to input your mobile number to start with the app, you can download the Greenlight App from any app store (for free). The app can be downloaded on devices such as a cell phone, iPad, tablet, etc.

How long has Greenlight been in business?

Greenlight was founded back in 2014. The company is based in Atlanta, Georgia and has had over 3 million users and 4 million+ downloads.

Who can open an Account with Greenlight?

Typically speaking, you’ll need a parent or guardian to actually create a Greenlight card account for you. If you are 13 years or older, you can register for a Greenlight account on your own.

Is Greenlight debit card legit?

The Greenlight debit card for kids is legit and safe. Greenlight offers security features like top-notch data encryption, FDIC insurance, and EMV chips (which protect personal data when making a purchase). On top of that, parents also receive real-life notifications if their kids spend money (and parents can approve each transaction, too!).

How does the Greenlight card work?

The Greenlight debit card for kids is a prepaid debit card that gives parents tighter control over their kids’ financial behavior. Parents can set spending controls, manage chores, transfer allowances, approve or block spending requests, and teach their kids money and investment management using a hands-on approach.

How much money can you put on a Greenlight card?

The maximum amount of money you can load on a debit card per day is $1,500 per parent account. The minimum initial load amount varies between $1 (if done via ACH) to $20 (if done via debit card).

What bank does Greenlight use?

Since every Greenlight customer’s savings account is FDIC insured, Greenlight uses a bank, the Community Federal Savings Bank, to protect your money. In addition to the FDIC insurance protection, you will also have SIPC protection (for investing), top-notch encryption, firewalls, PINs, VPNs, etc.

Do Greenlight cards work at ATMS?

Yes they do! As long as the ATM accepts Mastercard, Visa Interlink or Maestro, then the Greenlight card should also be accepted. Note that Greenlight will not charge for ATM services (individual ATM operators may charge fees). The maximum daily amount you can withdraw from the ATM is $100, while the maximum monthly withdrawal limit is $500.

Does Greenlight card build credit?

Since the Greenlight debit card for kids is prepaid, it does not allow kids to build credit history, because Greenlight is not a credit card. This is one of the major cons when it comes to the Greenlight card. However, the pros of the Greenlight card can outweigh the cons.

Greenlight Card Review: The Bottom Line

If your goal is to teach your kids about money management using a hands-on approach, then you should consider the Greenlight card for kids.

Here’s why the Greenlight cards rocks:

You can teach your kid how to invest
You have spend controls for your kids
You can approve your child’s purchases
You can manage your child’s chore plans
You can manage your allowance distributions
You can incentivize your kids to save more through parent paid interest

Personally speaking, I think one of the coolest features is that parents can invest side-by-side with their kids.

Your kids can check out different companies, research their stocks, etc., and then kids can place a trade request, which has to be verified by you (the parent).

However, Greenlight might not be the best option if you’re not a big fan of the monthly fees.

Pro Tip: While the Greenlight card monthly fees are affordable, they can cut into your budget, and there are other ways to teach your kids about money.

So, is Greenlight worth it?

In my opinion, yes.

You can’t really put a price on a child’s financial education – especially if you can teach your kid from an early age using a hands-on approach.

Your children will thank you later.

What are your thoughts on the Greenlight card? Let me know in the comments below.

Join 30,000+ People That Get My Weekly Tips via Email

Every Saturday morning, you’ll get 1 actionable tip to help you save more money, increase your income, and multiply your wealth 👇

No spam. Just the highest quality tips on the web.

Join over 30,000+ others who receive my weekly newsletter, where I share the secrets to creating modern wealth 👇