Green Dot Prepaid Visa Card: Are the Fees Worth It?

The Green Dot Prepaid Visa Card* allows you to load cash from a number of popular retailers (for a fee), take advantage of initial direct deposit, transfer funds from bank accounts at no additional cost, and transfer money between Green Dot users for free. But there are many costs that you have to face.

If you don’t have a bank account, the Green Dot card can help you manage your funds because you can have up to $10,000 on the card and monitor your account through the mobile app.

It’s not a credit card, so you won’t get anything in return or add credit when you use it. But if you’re looking for a card that you can top up and accept direct deposits on, it’s worth considering. Here’s everything you need to know about the Green Dot Prepaid Visa card.

in this article

Loading funds

You can load funds onto the card for free from your linked bank account or by loading cash into it at a number of popular retailers. You may be charged up to $5.95 when you reload.

You can load cash in:

• 7-Eleven
• CVS
• Rite Help
• Walgreens
• Dollar General
• Family Dollar
• Safe walk
• Walmart
• hook

You can add up to $3,000 to your card each day, but you can’t add more if you already have more than $3,000 on your card. Despite these limitations, there is a maximum card balance of $10,000.

Card fees and withdrawal limits

In addition to the cost of loading cash onto the card, there is a $7.95 monthly usage fee that is waived if you load $1,000 or more per month onto your card. Setting up direct deposit can help you qualify for this fee waiver.

There is a $3.00 ATM withdrawal fee, and you can only withdraw $300 at a time from the ATM (the maximum daily withdrawal limit is $500). Withdrawals from bank tellers at participating banks have a daily limit of $1,500 with a $3.00 fee. You should be able to withdraw cash from any bank that accepts Visa cards, but it’s best to check with your banking institution.

Other card features

You can monitor your account from the Green Dot mobile app. You can also set up initial direct deposit, use mobile check deposit, and transfer funds from your bank or to another Green Dot member.

To qualify for mobile check deposit, you must have two months of four consecutive paycheck direct deposits, plus at least one transaction within the past month.

How to qualify for the Green Dot Prepaid Visa Card

While you don’t need a bank account to qualify, you’ll need to provide some identification to Green Dot to get the card. You must provide Green Dot:

• Name
• Address
• Date of birth
• ID card number
• SIM (in some cases)

Alternative card

Consider these other prepaid debit cards if you’re not interested in the Green Dot Visa Prepaid Card.

PayPal Prepaid Master Card

PayPal Prepaid Mastercard* offers multiple ways to top up your funds and features lower refund fees and monthly fees. Instead of up to $5.95 with a Green Dot card, you’ll pay $3.95 to recharge at more than 130,000 NetSpend Reload Network locations, or via PayPal. It has the same cash top-up limits and costs slightly more to buy a card from the store (up to $4.95 compared to $1.95).

Present American Express Card

An American Express* Serve Card lets you load cash onto your card at many of the same locations as a Green Dot card — but there’s no reload fee. You can still set up direct deposit, manage your account from the mobile app, and you can register your transactions to add an extra level of security against fraud.

FAQs

*All information about Green Dot Prepaid Visa Card, PayPal Prepaid Mastercard and American Express Serve Card have been independently collected by CNET and have not been reviewed by the publisher.

The editorial content on this page is based solely on the objective and independent judgment of our authors and is not influenced by advertising or partnerships. It has not been provided or commissioned by any third party. However, we may receive compensation when you click on links to products or services offered by our partners.