A Green Dot card is a Visa debit card that can be used to make purchases in-store or online with any retailer that accepts Visa debit cards. Since a Green Dot card is not a credit card, the user must have enough cash in their Green Dot account to cover each transaction. The card is easy to re-load with cash, and there is also an option to allow friends and family to reload a Green Dot card as a gift or for parents to help college students who are away at school.
Your Temporary Card
There are two ways to get a Green Dot card; you can buy one at a participating retailer, or you can order one online from Green Dot. When you buy a card, you get a temporary card that you can load up with cash at the location where you bought it. You can register and start using your temporary card right away. Your permanent card will arrive in the mail within two weeks.
If you buy your Green Dot card online, you will be given an account number that you can use to make purchases online or over the phone. You cannot use your account number only to make in-store purchases. Once your card arrives in the mail, you can go to a participating retailer to add cash to it.
Reloading Your Card
There are three ways that money can be reloaded onto your Green Dot card. The first is to make a transfer from your personal bank account to your Green Dot account. Each transfer costs $2.95 and will take up to one full business day to complete. If you do not have enough money in your personal bank account to make the transfer you have requested, then Green Dot will try the transfer again on the next business day.
There is a network of thousands of retail locations all over the United States that you can use to reload your Green Dot card. All you need to do is go to a participating retail location with your card and ask a cashier to help you load cash into your Green Dot account.
Green Dot has a service called MoneyPak that friends and family members can buy that will allow them to load cash on your Green Dot card. This is great for family members who want to load cash on your Green Dot card as a gift, and it is also a great way for parents to keep an eye on how much their college student spends when they are away at school.
A Green Dot card can be used with any online or in-store retailer that accepts Visa debit cards. A convenient feature of the Green Dot card is that it can also be used in credit transactions as well. As long as you have enough money in your Green Dot account to cover your transaction, then you can use your Green Dot card just like any other major credit card.
Jim Treebold is a North Carolina based writer. He lives by the mantra of “Learn 1 new thing each day”! Jim loves to write, read, pedal around on his electric bike and dream of big things. Drop him a line if you like his writing, he loves hearing from his readers!