Greenlight Debit Card for Kids Review

It’s an unfortunate reality that kids don’t learn about personal finance in school. That means you’ll need to teach your kids about this all-important life skill yourself. If you commit to doing just that, a Greenlight app will provide the necessary tools to do the job. It uses educational resources, real-world experiences, and incentives – all under your watchful eye.

If you’re worried about how your children will learn about money, worry no longer – Greenlight has your back!

Greenlight Features & Benefits

Debit MasterCard

Greenlight provides kids with a debit card of their own. The card can be used for spending and is also a tool to help them learn to manage money. It can be used with mobile payments, like Google Pay and Apple Pay. Parents can send instant transfers into kids’ accounts through the Greenlight app. The card can be issued with a photo of the child’s choice, including selfies.

Cashback on purchases: Kids can earn 1% cash back on debit card purchases if the Greenlight Max or Infinity plans are selected.

Parental controls. Parents can monitor activity on the debit card in real time each time money is spent. It’s also possible to set cash withdrawal limits and restrict where the debit card can be used. Parents can also use the app to help kids set savings goals and budgets and even invest. But that’s not all – the Greenlight app can pay kids an allowance or even for doing chores.

Savings Reward

When enrolled in the Greenlight Core plan, kids can receive a savings reward of 1% per year on their savings. That goes up to 2% for the Max plan and 5% for the Infinity plan. The enhancement is paid on average daily savings of up to $5,000 per family. All savings held within the account are FDIC-insured for up to $250,000.

Educational App

Greenlight offers kids and teens a wealth of financial learning tools. That includes videos, quizzes, and other content designed to engage and teach the whole family more about money. It has partnered with third-party financial education brands to provide even more resources for financial learning. It also offers the Level Up feature, which we’ll cover below.

Level Up

Level Up is a financial literacy game incorporating curriculum, educational challenges, and rewards to keep kids engaged. The content covers everything from budgeting to investing, providing a solid education in personal finance. The game is based on “bite-size challenges” to take advantage of videos, mini-games, and questions designed to empower players with money skills that can be used in the real world.

Investing for Parents

Greenlight doesn’t just work to help your kids learn better money habits for today but also to begin investing for the future. That starts with investment portfolios held in their parent’s names but with investment suggestions that can be provided by the kids themselves.

Investing starts with just $1, which is possible because you can invest in fractional shares of both stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETFs). Kids can research and propose investments while parents approve the final trades. There are no trading fees.

Optional Premium Features

The following additional features are available only with the premium Greenlight Max and/or Infinity plans:

Priority customer service – Your emails go to the front of the support line.
Identity theft protection – Includes identity theft monitoring, alerting, and restoration for the entire family.
Cell phone protection – This policy covers damaged, lost, or stolen phones for up to five kids (unavailable in New York).
Purchase protection – This policy covers repairing or replacing stolen or damaged items purchased with a debit card.
Family location sharing – You can switch this feature to stay connected with your entire family.
SOS alerts – Sends alerts to emergency contacts, 911, or both, with a simple swipe.
Crash detection – The app automatically dispatches 911 when a crash is detected.
Driving reports – Provides parents with personalized reports and weekly snapshots of their teenager’s driving activity.
Real-time trip alerts – Parents will be notified when their kids are on and off the road.

Greenlight Mobile App

The Greenlight mobile app is available on The App Store for iOS and Google Play for Android devices.

The app has ratings of 4.8 out of five stars among 389,000 iOS users on The App Store and 4.7 out of five among nearly 51,000 Android users on Google Play.

Customer Service

Customer service is available by email 24 hours a day, seven days per week. However, there is no phone support or live chat.

Account Security

Greenlight comes with MasterCard’s zero liability program, which protects card users from unauthorized charges. Funds held on deposit are FDIC-insured for up to $250,000 per depositor. Each plan has parental controls, enabling parents to monitor account activity in real time.

Greenlight Max and Infinity plans will now include identity theft protection, cell phone protection, and purchase protection.

Greenlight Pricing

Greenlight provides a choice of three different plans, each with its own set of features and benefits:

Plan / Feature	Greenlight Core	Greenlight Max	Greenlight Infinity
Monthly fee	$4.99	$9.98	$14.98
Debit card	X	X	X
Educational app	X	X	X
Core financial tools	X	X	X
Parental controls	X	X	X
Savings Rewards	1%	2%	5%
Level Up	X	X	X
Investing	Parents Lite	Kids & Parents	Kids & Parents
Cashback on purchases		1%	1%
Priority customer service		X	X
Identity theft protection		X	X
Cell phone protection		X	X
Purchase protection		X	X
Family location sharing			X
SOS alerts			X
Crash detection			X
Driving Reports			X
Real-time trip alerts			X

Each plan covers an entire family of up to two adults and five children. You can cancel your subscription at any time. Each plan subscription is designed to be comprehensive, with no hidden fees. That includes no ATM fees, overdraft fees, or minimum spending requirements. There are also no commissions or trading fees for the investment feature.

Referral bonus: Greenlight currently pays a bonus of $30 when you refer another person or family to the service. You’ll need to provide a referral with your unique referral link, which can be shared by text, email, or social media. You’ll receive the cash reward after the friend signs up for the service and pays the first month’s fee. Kids ages 13 and above can also qualify for the referral bonus. You can earn up to $600 in referral bonuses per calendar year.

Alternatives to Greenlight

GoHenry

GoHenry is an app and debit MasterCard dedicated to helping your children become financially savvy while still under your supervision. The account provides the common benefits of a bank account, complete with FDIC insurance of funds held on deposit. Kids can track their spending, create budgets, and establish savings goals, and parents can track all the actions as they happen.

The GoHenry account can be set up to accommodate parents’ payments for allowances and chores. There’s also a unique feature called Money Missions, where parents can pay their children to learn more about money through predesigned lessons specifically for the child’s age range. GoHenry can even allow family and friends to gift money to your child through the Giftlinks feature.

GoHenry is available for $4.99 per month per child or $9.98 per month for families with up to four children. Either plan comes with a 30-day free trial.

FamZoo

FamZoo is one of the most popular ways to introduce money management to your children. The account comes with debit cards for your kids, but unlike Greenlight, it’s a prepaid card rather than a true debit card. However, it does come with the ability to save money in an FDIC-insured account. You can set up direct deposits for your kids, reload cash, and make instant card-to-card transfers. The account can be accessed from any browser.

Subaccounts can be set up for different spending categories, such as savings, investing, general spending, and even giving. There are also educational resources to help kids learn about proper money management.

FamZoo offers four different payment plans. You can select to pay $5.99 per month, $25.99 for six months, $39.99 for 12 months, or $59.99 for 24 months. Each upfront payment plan offers a progressively larger discount than the monthly one. For example, the 24-month plan is about $2.50 per month, more than 50% lower than the monthly plan.

Capital One MONEY Teen Checking

The Capital One MONEY Teen Checking account is an alternative if you want a less formal way to help your kids learn money management. It’s a fee-free bank account with a debit card available for kids eight and older. Fee-free means no monthly service fees and no balance requirements.

The debit card allows parents to set up alerts, provides a lock-and-unlock capability, and has other features to help them monitor the account and their children’s activities. Both parents and teens can also log into the mobile app, which allows kids to manage the account while parents can monitor and control it simultaneously.

Greenlight Pros & Cons

Pros

1% cash back on debit card purchases on premium plans.
Savings rewards range from 1% to 5% of account balances.
Each plan covers a family of up to two adults and five children.
Investment plan for parents and kids that will help kids learn investing before they are out of high school.
Investment accounts come with a $1 minimum balance and no trading fees.
A $30 bonus is awarded when you refer others to the service.
Three different plans to fit your family budget and include the desired features and benefits.

Cons

Savings do not earn interest.
Savings rewards apply only to the family’s balances up to $5,000.
There is no capacity to make cash deposits into the savings account.
No phone contact or live chat.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

How reliable is Greenlight?

Not only are savings deposits covered by FDIC insurance for up to $250,000, but Greenlight mobile app users give the service high marks. The Better Business Bureau gives Greenlight a rating of B (on a scale of A+ to F), and it has been accredited by the agency for seven years.

What are the disadvantages of Greenlight?

We were only able to identify four disadvantages. Those include no interest paid on savings, savings rewards topping out at a $5,000 balance for the entire family, no ability to make cash deposits into the account, and no phone contact or live chat capability.

Is Greenlight a good idea?

Given that kids won’t learn about personal finance in school and that the best way to learn it is from real-world experience, Greenlight is an excellent tool for parents to use to teach kids how to handle money properly from home.

Does Greenlight have hidden fees?

Greenlight offers three different plans, each with a flat monthly fee. The company specifically advertises no hidden fees. We couldn’t find any, especially since there are no trading fees for investing in stocks and ETFs.

Should You Open an Account with Greenlight?

Greenlight is an excellent resource if you want your kids to be better educated about money—including how to spend, budget, save, and invest it. It packs a lot of education, real-world experience, and benefits into one low monthly fee, and there are no hidden fees to raise the price.

It’s up to you to teach your kids about personal finance – they won’t learn it anywhere else. Greenlight can provide the perfect resources and tools to teach your kids everything they need to know about money.