Greenlight Kids & Teen Banking

Frustrating and unintuitive user interface. I'm trying to remove an "older adult" who was accidentally added, and the app isn't easy to navigate. Logging in on a computer continually loops me back to "download the app," even though I've already downloaded the app and used it on my android. Fantastic service idea, terrible design on the user side for setup and editing account. Very frustrating.

I can't edit my previous review. I had left a 3 star review due to app issues. Customer service was amazing and called me right away. We sat on the phone trying to figure out why I wasn't able to sign in. The woman was very kind and helpful. We finally figured it out (an issue with my phone and not the app itself) and she also explained the $30 promo so I'm looking forward to that. It does seem they really try to take care of their customers. I've never had any customer service call me first!

It's a nice app. I love how conveniently it allows us to pay our kids' allowances and teach them budgeting skills. I wish the spending categories could be customized, though. My 7 and 10yos aren't getting money from ATMs or buying groceries. They do buy their own toys and clothes sometimes, though, and being able to create those categories would be so great!

Edit: The monthly cost of their plans do not include taxes, so you'll be paying more. It states this in tiny print at the bottom of some pages. The "one month risk-free" is misleading, you'll be charged after 7 days, but have up to 1 month to cancel with a full refund. Signing up created some difficulties, and I had to call to get it fixed, then re-register. Customer service does respond fairly readily, though. The jury is still out if my experience improves.

The card is great. I love that you can round up the charge and put that into a savings. It is accepted most places but not everywhere. Unfortunately the app is terrible. It freezes up. When clicking on seeing all charges/history it just shows a blank screen and freezes. It doesn't always show all charges either. This hinders the ability to keep track of ones charges. Hopefully the app will improve. It's pointless to have a card if you can't manage the account properly.

Amazing Resource. Kids are always out and doing things. I can't be in four places at once. This allows for us to keep up with the all the kids needs and some of the wants without needing to divide ourselves and our card. Easy to use. Easier to monitor and clarify spending habits and choices! recommend 100%. Wish you could link more cards, especially in a large family like ours.

Every time I try to add money to my son's card I get a message saying, "Unable to connect to Greenlight at the moment..." sometimes it takes hours to try and get money to his card! The app just updated and I thought, "yay! Maybe they fixed it!" However, after it took me 4 tries to reconnect my bank account, and now I'm getting the same old message. It's ridiculous that we're paying monthly fees for this nonsense.

As a finance professional, I strongly encourage you to find a better option. Monthly fees and no free ATM options are only the beginning of the pitfalls for Greenlight. My son was complaining about missing money and I was sure it was him learning about holds and didn't give it much thought. He was convinced that a $100 gas station hold wasn't reversed so I looked into his transactions. Wow, it is nearly impossible to get a full listing of transactions and no running balance.

Couldn't create an account. Every time I tried to create my password it automatically reloaded and made me start over. Also, three times I was sent a confirmation code to my phone via text to confirm my number, it was the same code all 3 times. That sketches me out. Was kind of excited to try this app out but couldn't even get started. (Update) Quick response from the Green Light team to help me get this fixed. I had to create my account on the web based version instead of the app. Amazing app!

I like that it gives my children their allowance and lets me pause. I do wish you could somehow take money away (maybe put in separate 'parent ' account). Also, the "help articles" do not show up on my app. However I am satisfied with the app. Excellent customer service that will email you right away and call you the same day.

The app does make keeping track of chores and allowances very easy and is easy to use, and the kids love having their own card. However the month free trial is actually 5 days, and after the first load even though it has an option to load 5 10 15 or $20 you cannot load less than $20. I wasn't very happy with the surprise ending of the free trial and I'm also confused why it gives me an option to load lower amounts when you're not allowed to.

Good app so far but the Chores section needs work. I think it would be nice to have the ability to add a money amount to each chore to help tally up how much my child has earned. Also a couple of bugs with Chores. One is when typing a description, the keyboard keeps disappearing and you have to keep typing in the text box to make it appear. Another is when deleting a chore, it still shows up in your "Recent chores" list which adds some confusion.

Update 2: For those reading my review and are having issues with Greenlight (and other recent reviews appear there are still problems) I would suggest GoHenry. We love it! Never had a any issue and well worth the small monthly fee we pay. UPDATE: I called Greenlight, talked with their technical support who had to reconcile my daughter's account. But in the process 30 cents was lost out of her savings. The support had to give it to "coding", but told me I would get a call "within the hour." Twelve hours later my phone rang, but I was unable to take the call due to my remote location. When I called back after the weekend expecting to hear the status of the missing change, I was surprised to find out the call was about me "wanting to update my Google Play review." I told them that since the issue hasn't been resolved I am not updating my review. At that point I cancelled my daughter's account and moved to a different program. I encourage Greenlight to keep working out their bugs. I hope soon they will have a good product. We are not a good fit for it. (End update) My daughter and I love the idea, but have found it to be very frustrating. We never know from one store to the next (ie from one Target to another) if the card will be accepted. Trying to move money is cumbersome and confusing. I tried to move some funds from one account to another and got an error stating she didn't have the funds to transfer. I was trying to move about half the money in her account! Am thinking of looking for a different program.

At first I was very unhappy with the app on my android (Samsung S7) it loaded slow and ran slow. However! I registered my complaint and the next thing I know I'm talking to some of their folks and damned if they didn't trace my problem, find the cause, and release an update to the play store that fixed my problem, all withing 48 hours! Very impressed with their ability to figure it out and correct it. App runs great now and so far I'm pleased with how the whole system works. This was the first time I've ever encountered a software issue that was actually acknowledged and fixed by a company.

I'd give it 5 stars if it had a recurring jobs function and even minimal sorting (alphabetical etc) of the jobs so you don't have to scroll through the entire list every time you're trying to find one. As it stands, you have to manually reenter a job every time one is completed. This is a popular request on the feedback site for the app and greenlight claims it is in progress, but it's been over a year with nothing to show for it.

Looks good so far... very frustrated that the pic for the custom image won't load though. I've tried multiple images, uninstalling and reinstalling the app, and rebooting my phone. Clicking Next does nothing, it just stays on the same page. I just got a fast response. : check to make sure that the photo is sized just outside of the blue box's edges,so you may have to "zoom in" on the picture just a little bit more. Once this is done, you should be able to hit that "Next" button to continue.

I do not recommend this service, as you can not cancel online (though they are more than happy to sign you up online). They will also take the monthly fee from your bank account via ACH, so if your balance is low, you will overdraft, even if you have your debit card locked (that wouldn't normally be a concern but a lot of people aren't carrying large, stable bank balances during this pandemic). Last but not least, when attempting to reset my password, the recovery email never arrived (yes, I checked my spam folder, and tried more than once). I will now be going to my bank to have them block any further payments to this company and their non-existent online customer service. It's a great idea, but service is severely lacking - especially considering you have to pay to use it. You are FAR better off just opening a regular account through your existing bank for your child, and transfering funds to it through the banking app you already use, or just get them a reloadable Visa gift card.

It takes 5-7 days for the money to transfer from my acct to Greenlight!! in that time any thing can happen. Your acct can go negative, below, the amount you intend to transfer etc. So for me, its constant stressing waiting for the money to finally post a week Later, because one cent less than the amount in your bank acct,then you have to wait alllll over again for the amount to clear. That's just my personal experience anyway.

Overall it's a good application. However, there are some frustrating quirks. Tapping an alert opens the app but doesn't take you to the appropriate place. Adding extra money beyond the allowance is not intuitive. The first set of cards they sent us never arrived, so we had to get a second set. Great potential but requires a few workarounds to get stuff done.

I love almost everything about this card! :) we were using the gohenry card before, and there was just nothing but issues. They were taking money right and left I was always having to call to have them corrected. We love the Greenlight card though!❤️ it has all kinds of extra features and it helps my son to save money. I only rated it 4 stars because the monthly fee is a bit excessive....$15 bucks is steep:( like my bank doesn't even charge that for its monthly checking fee, it's like $4 bucks.