Greenlight Kids & Teen Banking Negative Reviews

Greenlight Kids & Teen Banking App Complaints & User Negative Comments 2023

Greenlight Kids & Teen Banking app received 19 complaints, negative comments and reviews by users. Have you ever had a bad experience using Greenlight Kids & Teen Banking? Can you share your negative thoughts about greenlight kids & teen banking?

Greenlight Kids & Teen Banking for Negative User Reviews

✓ 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..Businessman395Version: 3.20.1

✓ Great idea, shabby executionThe advertised convenience and the concept are great. But the funding functionality does not align with the terms and conditions. For example, the card terms say you can fund the parent account up to $300/month by direct bank transfer (ACH). But I’ve only been able to transfer $200 over the past two months combined, and every further attempt gives me a red box warning that says I’ve exceeded the limit for the month. My email to customer service 8 days ago has gone unanswered (except for the auto-reply confirming they got it). This seems to be a set-up to get you to give a debit card number for another account as a funding source instead. I was so concerned this was a possible fraud that I had to reconfirm that my research recommend this was from reputable sources. The app is also glitchy. When asked to create a PIN, for example, it will freeze multiple times before finally working with the same number. I’ll remain a tentative user hoping they figure things out with the next update..Learned_footVersion: 3.0.3

✓ Great App. Fatal Flaw- no security.I’ve been keeping track of my kids earning and spending with a spreadsheet on my phone, but you can imagine when life gets busy it can be weeks before I update things, and often I would forgot to add items. I was about to open a bunch of child checking accounts for our kids when a friend told me about Greenlight. I downloaded it and set it up and I really like it except for one MAJOR problem. Once you login to the app for the first time there is no password protection. Anyone who might be using your phone can see and move money in and out of you checking account. This is not okay. The chances of someone having my phone with ill intent is small but not zero. Maybe my teenager borrows my phone for something and is tempted to go in and move some money around. This app has direct access to my checking account and debit card, it NEEDS to be password protected. All of my other banking/financial apps use Face ID or a password for security every time I open the app. This app needs that kind of security. A banking app with no security? Otherwise I like everything about it. I hope they can add this feature otherwise I will have to close our account..Erdoc2Version: 3.0.3

✓ Great until you need customer serviceI had this card for my two daughters, and like kids do, they lost their cards, no problem right? Just call and get a replacement right? WRONG! You get someone at some call center who proceeds to ask you about transaction amounts and dates and which bank account and on and on, now I’m all about security, but when you have asked for my name, my Birthday, last 4 of my social, my home address and the phone I’m calling from is attached to the account? This is ridiculous and unnecessarily time consuming. Security is important, but if you can’t find a more efficient way to marry it with convenience, your system needs to change! So, now I want to just cancel an dole out allowances the old fashioned way, get transferred to the black hole of customer service, waited 17 minutes on hold, finally hung up! If your call center can answer in 2 rings, your other “ department “ shouldn’t take 17 minutes +. Of course I conveniently was unable to talk to anyone about closing my account, guess I’ll have to do it from the bank end. You have been warned!.DirtSailor66Version: 1.23.4

✓ Write up needs to changeI 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..MsstegVersion: 4.4.0

✓ Worked in spite of the limitations of COVID-19This 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..Princess Jenny01Version: 3.20.0

✓ Don’t Get Greenlight!I’ve had this for several months. I want to say so many great things about this app, but a HUGE FATAL FLAW that touches on privacy and other issues is that any other adult you invite to contribute money can see your wallet and they can see yours. I invited my ex-wife, but recently when attempting to add funds, it tried to add them from her bank account. She was charged a bank fee that I’m now having to reimburse her for because I didn’t select my account from the wallet. I shouldn’t see any funding sources when I log in except for my own! I’m what other world or app would this be okay?!? I’ve sent a few requests that this be changed in the app. They continue to take my $4.99 a month and it’s a great app if you’re a single parent but not if others are involved. Greenlight should fix this immediately! I’m an app developer and understand what it takes and it really shouldn’t be difficult. If I’m the one adding a funding source under my login, those funding sources are the only options I should have and not the possibility of using my ex-wife’s bank account to fund the wallet. Very frustrating because it’s a great app and service but I’ll have to find a different solution now..OkjediVersion: 3.13.1

✓ Don’t get this unless your extremely controllingThis is one of the worst kid cards by far, It may look cute and helpful but it isn’t. The way it’s set up it’s supposed to help the kid get ready to use a real debit card but it’s completely parental dictatorship. The kid can’t really do anything, the parents do EVERYTHING. On the app you have little areas where the money can go, shop anywhere, shop at the store, any atm, and so on. It’s supposed to help you (the kid) manage your money. But instead of the parents just depositing money into the account and the kids decide or at least have an opinion to decide where the money go they can’t. The parents do and there’s no way the kid can transfer 5$ from the spend anywhere area tab to the use at the store tab because the child has no control of there own money. You would be more in luck just keeping your child’s money in a piggy bank than this. Unless you want your child consistently requesting money as they can’t put money into it at a atm or them asking you if you can stop putting money in the shop anywhere tab and to put half of it into any atm slot. And you have no problem controlling the whole car for them and getting a notification for every time they buy a 5$ fortnight card than go a head. Do you.Zeus yumiiVersion: 3.17.2

✓ Card declined 3 times in two days for no reasonThis app is horrible. It takes forever to load and will randomly buffer and then log out meaning if I’m trying to quickly check my balance it ends up taking at least five minutes. That was fine until it became useless as a way to buy things. My parents put $40 on my card (to be spent anywhere), and the card declined on a $12, $5 and $22 charge at 3 separate locations and stores. the first two times, where it said I had the wrong PIN, were fine because I could live without what I was buying, but I’m now stuck at a bus station because I can’t get cash out to pay for fare, as the ATM is saying I have insufficient funds. My dad reset my PIN yesterday, it didn’t work. I reset my PIN yesterday, it didn’t work. We called the number for Greenlight and they “fixed” it; but clearly they didn’t because I have $40 and can’t pull $20 out of an ATM. This kind of malfunction is unacceptable for a service designed for children and minors. It will put minors in danger, with no way to get home or buy food. This service is altogether inconvenient and not dependable and my family cannot keep using it with how many issues we’ve had with it..Gr00000tVersion: 3.14.0

✓ Not super impressedI downloaded this for my grandchildren and great grandchildren, and I think the concept is great but Im not impressed because I began having issues right away with the first two cards I ordered. Of course, its the weekend so no one is around to assist me. The first two cards I received were crossed somehow. I entered the info on the back of the card and it linked the wrong child, then when I tried to put in the next child's info it wouldn’t accept it. The monthly charge was also unexpected since it doesn’t explain it clearly anywhere when openly the accounts. Customer service was kind the one time I reached them but they didn’t fix the issues with the cards that had already been glitching in their system prior to me receiving them. I would look at the app and the childrens names would be switched and then I’d go back in and they would be fixed. I told them I didn’t want any issues with the cards because of this and they assured me it would be okay once we received the cards but it obviously was not. I will continue with this until I find a free service. This is like paying a yearly fee for a credit card the company is already making money from. This is not a good way to start your children off learning about good financial choices..Domimique ScaliaVersion: 3.17.2

✓ Great app!Great idea but I do not like paying $60 a year to use this. Took 1 star away for cost and 1 away because I can’t access the money in the parent wallet or transfer it back to my account. This has been great so far for my 3 boys who make money doing their chores. It’s much better than cash and they are learning how to save for specific things and not just spend money so freely. They feel very proud and excited when using their debit cards! Their ages are 12, 11, and 7! We have an account for my 4 year old daughter just to have a place to save birthday money she has and such. It’s easy on us too. They are more willing to do their chores knowing they will be paid for sure a specific amount each Friday! We had no system before this and kept losing track of how much we owed them or how much they spent on something. The only downfall is the $5 charge monthly. $60 a year and I still have to pay the interest on my children’s savings myself. If I only had 1 child I would not pay $5 a month. I also don’t like that I can’t transfer the parent wallet money back to my bank account. There should be a card like Venmo or PayPal for the parent wallet. If Venmo and PayPal can be free, this should be free as well. As soon as I find a different free version of this elsewhere I will go with that! When I first signed up I wasn’t aware that it was only free for 30 days. I found that out when the cards arrived. I’ve never seen the monthly fee advertised so I felt mislead..Leesh11245Version: 3.18.1

✓ Great app features when they work.This app is very good and easy to navigate and manage. We love the app itself. Unfortunately, it takes literally 50+ minutes to get ahold of customer service. The customer service reps are very nice and helpful once you do get in touch with them. Also, every time I transfer money from my bank account to the parent wallet, I have to verify my account, over and over and over and over. Which causes my child’s debit card to be shut off. I like the safety feature but it’s either a glitch or a problem with their system. It says I successfully verified my bank information but keeps taking me back over and over many times to re verify it. Also the contact tab under the help tab which is suppose to be a direct message to a representative, never seems to get through. I have yet to receive a message back. Fix these issues Greenlight and I will give you 5 stars..CamelshumpVersion: 3.20.1

✓ Utter flopI 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..Unvarnished Truth ReviewerVersion: 4.0.6

✓ App over withdrawals from your bank accountI just signed up, and from the website I authorized a $10 withdrawal from our account to test out the cards. I then downloaded the app and entered the two small deposits they made to verify my account. Once the verification took place, the app then added $20 to the parent card, when I had only authorized the initial $10. I have a screen shot of the authorization I made and confirmed it was only $10. Support is not quick to respond, I sent a message through the app yesterday morning and the system replied that the message was received and if they needed to reply they would “soon”- day later... and still no response. After a day and a half of no response on their chat line, I finally called them and the customer service rep told me “it didn’t happen” I the customer service person I have a screen shot to prove how much I authorized and there is a glitch in the app that is taking too much money and it was again denied, but they offered to refund the extra money..E_MoVersion: 3.20.1

✓ Complicated to Activate!After 4 emails back and forth and 3 phone calls, we may finally have a working card. The app makes the process sound easy but it doesn’t tell you that if you and your spouse have a joint banking account, their information must be submitted when initially setting up the account or the account gets frozen with no notification to you. Your card arrives in the mail with simple instructions to activate it in the app. When you try to do so, you get an error message that makes no sense and doesn’t tell you that your account is frozen or why. I then had to email a picture of my husband’s ID, add him to the account, and he was to get a text linking him to the account. After 3 tries he still didn’t receive a text. I call customer support again, go through 10 security questions and the agent says she’s activated the account. Then she sees there’s a freeze on my account so I have to talk to a higher level. Ten more security questions and a long hold time with this person and now I MAY have a working card. Way too much hassle and all along I assume I’ve been paying $5 a month and the money I loaded from my bank account to my parent wallet on the app has been inaccessible to me. I hope it gets better from here!!!.Christine BugsterVersion: 3.0.3

✓ No way to see what you’re buying!I am the target customer for this with 4 kids and a structured responsibility/reward system in place. But I can’t see how the app works or what the terms of use are without giving access to my account or putting money in. I ended up researching kids’ accounts along with this service independently and went with a real bank account designed for kids rather than this prepaid debit card. It would be nice to have chore tracking and finances all in one app, but I can’t even see the app to know how the tracking works and if it’ll meet our needs. Capital One has finance tools in place to help kids learn too, and I’ll now be testing standalone chore apps to cover that part. This could be a great product, but I don’t like the less than forthcoming tactics pushing you into a commitment without knowing what you’re committing to or how it works, and it’s too expensive for what it is when I can get more for less elsewhere..Dyan007Version: 4.0.3

✓ Update looks great but less user friendlyWe’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..Ron787Version: 4.0.2

✓ Not good anymoreThis used to be worth getting for your child, even though they charge you five dollars a month in service fees. The app has changed now, where as you used to be able to instantly add money to the parents wallet and move it so the child may spend it, it now takes several days for a transaction to show and be available. Don’t waste your time with it, just open a checking accountWith your bank and you can instantly move funds over for the child and give them a debit card. Post response from developer Thank you for the feedback. The only problem with your response is that we have had this card for over eight months now and already had our debit card attached to the account so we could fund our child’s card, which it used to do seamlessly and without many days delay. You have done something to the process which now causes a multiple day delay in funding the parents wallet to transfer over to the child’s account..All gfffffffVersion: 4.1.0

✓ This app has issues along with customer service.I actually have had this app for four months. The first time I used it was great. The card that I was using for funding was gone and canceled. I was unable to establish a new funding source through the app. Had to contact the company through an email and no help from them even if they created in a new slot for it. Then contacted the company about closureOf the account and I’ll refund theRemaining balance on the card. I was told that they do not do that and I had to go back through my bank to recover the amount owed to me. This app has a good theory of how to distribute and track spin alarm on a child’s account. But would not recommend it to other parents. There are bugs in the system and customer service is horrible. I was online for 10 minutes before answering and huge amount of noise in the background. Will not use again and will not recommend it to friends or family. Huge disappointment to my son who would’ve liked to use it. All I can say is this is a warning to those to read the comments closer and maybe the company should give a free trial before charging the price of the app..Raiderdog20Version: 3.18.1

Greenlight Kids & Teen Banking works most of the time. If it is not working for you, we recommend you excersise some patience and retry later or contact Greenlight Kids & Teen Banking.