Reviews for Greenlight Kids & Teen Banking

I love the concept of this app/card. However, I keep running into issues of transfering money into my wallet and get an error message that it's having trouble connecting to my bank. And yes, I have signed out and back in, I have also uninstalled and reinstalled, and I have used the wifi on and off. If it wasn't for this main reason, I would haven given more stars.

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.

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.

Beware. Concept is great but app is not safe. For the last months, each time I refilled my wallet I got the error "impossible to contact greenlight, try again later". I learned via support that my bank account was mysteriously disconnected. Which was false because I was charged $100 today! I'm glad I didn't try again or I would have been charged twice! Like last time; I wasn't really sure why. Your bank info and money isn't safe with them. Switching to another app if not fixed soon. I'm fed up.

Love the card and how me and my kid are able to manage his money. I DON'T LIKE THE APP. It seems like whenever I have to do something important, it's on it's weird mode. Neither crashing, nor loading. Just gives me a blank screen and gets stuck on that. Another annoying thing is it constantly logs me out somehow even though I had it set to no PW when getting on the app. It also doesn't show, or update the pictures you set for the kids accounts. One works while the other doesn't. 🤷‍♀️🤦‍♀️

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

This app has a lot of potential. Unfortunately, I do not think that it is there yet. I have two kids who get a weekly allowance. Two different times I uploaded money into their accounts, which caused the cards to become locked. I was told two different things within 24 hours by the agents. My monthly membership was also upgraded without my consent. Great potential, just lacking in some areas still.

So far seems pretty straightforward, and I think my kids will enjoy the cards and shopping. My only issue is being 100% app supported can be sort of a pain. For example, when adding one of my kids on the account, autocorrect changed her name by 1 letter and I didn't catch it, and now I am stuck with it? Seems pretty silly. Will update more once we get the cards and they start using it.

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.

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!

I am able to sign in but when my son tries it is glitched and will not let him go further. It ask him to verify his DOB and we did, then to put an email and change password? Why? He already has login credentials and he doesn't need to change that. Even though we changed it, it keeps saying "oops something went wrong" and we can't back out and have to completely delete the app to use my login credentials. Please fix this. I have Screenshots

There's no option to make jobs reoccurring. I'm not sure what the benefit is with the chores - there doesn't seem to be any stats available about how much they complete them or what time. We've tried to upload a simple picture of a banana (my kid's favorite fruit) twice and it keeps getting rejected. There's no stickers or anything. The card fee is a bit high if it's not going to work. The monthly fee seems a bit much for such a simple service which I don't think I'm going to keep.

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!

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.