GreenDot card are great until the one day you go to use it and it's not working. Here's the best way to get our issue fixed as fast as possible.
GreenDot is a prepaid card offered at different retailers to enable smoother transition of funds between customers and sellers. You can even have the card delivered to your doorstep. Using the card has several advantages including an annual cash back program as a percentage of purchases and early reception of payments e.g., tax refunds.
GreenDot really is a new kind of bank. Prepaid cards have become very popular and the fact that GreenDot is a publicly traded company on the NYSE is testament to that. There have been complaints that the GreenDot prepaid card sometimes does not work. The following are the reasons why your card may refuse to function:
Checks Require Pre-Authorization from the App
You may have a check in hand and want to move the funds to your GreenDot account. To use any amount of funds on a check through GreenDot, you need to have verification from the GreenDot application. It is a security measure introduced by GreenDot after severe cases of check fraud. Therefore, if you are trying to use GreenDot to pay for goods using a check, the payment will not go through until you ensure you have authorized the payment in the app first. If that does not work, you can contact GreenDot's customer care through GetHuman.
Unknown Monthly Fees
Your GreenDot prepaid card may also refuse to function if you have late monthly fees. The reason a person may acquire late monthly fees on GreenDot is that if you allow you account balance to fall to zero, GreenDot can charge you up to two monthly fees. Monthly fees may also be charged if you purchase a card but don't activate it within 90 days; you will be charged a one month fee which may lead to your card being ineffective.
Therefore, even if you refund your account, if you forget to pay either monthly fees, your account will show an inadequate balance. You can then either pay the fees or decide to top up your account with enough funds to cover the fees. If you do the above and it still does not work, contact customer care.
Technical Problems
As with every bank and technology used to facilitate its payments, there are bound to be technical difficulties from time to time. Technical difficulties that can affect your GreenDot prepaid card can include a security breach in the system, a glitch in the software or a corruption of the database. Any technical issue that concerns mobile money payments is possible and will affect the smooth functioning of your prepaid card. The technical issues may be limited to a few cards or it may be a systemic issue. It would be wise to contact customer care in such circumstances and they will notify you of the difficulties. They should also tell you how soon they expect the issue to be fixed. The only thing you can do in this scenario is to wait patiently and get other methods to pay for your goods and services.
Contradictory Information
Another reason why your prepaid card may be declined even if you have funds in your account is that the information you provided to the merchant and the information that GreenDot has on file are contradictory. This is often an indicator of fraud which is considered very serious. If there is such a discrepancy, it will be flagged immediately and you will have to resolve the issue with GreenDot and the merchant as soon as possible. Once you have given them the right information or corrected their error, you will be free to use the card again.
GetHuman has been working for over 10 years on sourcing information about big organizations like Green Dot in order to help customers resolve customer service issues faster. We started with contact information and fastest ways to reach a human at big companies. Particularly ones with slow or complicated IVR or phone menu systems. Or companies that have self-serve help forums instead of a customer service department. From there, we realized that consumers still needed more detailed help solving the most common problems, so we expanded to this set of guides, which grows every day. And if you spot any issues with our Why is my GreenDot prepaid card not working? guide, please let us know by sending us feedback. We want to be as helpful as possible. If you appreciated this guide, please share it with your favorite people. Our free information and tools is powered by you, the customer. The more people that use it, the better it gets.