Green Dot Corporation


The Green Dot Corporation is an American financial technology and bank holding company headquartered in Pasadena, California. It is the world's largest prepaid debit card company by market capitalization. Green Dot is also a payments platform company and is the technology platform used by Apple Pay Cash, Uber, and Intuit. The company was founded in 1999 by Steve Streit as a prepaid debit card for teenagers to shop online. In 2001, the company pivoted to serving the "unbanked" and "underbanked" communities. In 2010, Green Dot Corporation went public with a valuation of $2 billion. Since its inception, Green Dot has acquired a number of companies in the mobile, financial, and tax industries including Loopt, AccountNow, AchieveCard, UniRush Financial Services, and Santa Barbara Tax Products Group.
Green Dot Corporation is an issuer of prepaid MasterCard and Visa cards in the United States. These products are available at nearly 100,000 retail stores including CVS, Rite Aid, Walgreens, Dollar Tree; as well as discounted offerings at Meijer and Walmart. Green Dot also transfers individuals' direct deposit funds from the US government to personal bank accounts. They also provide co-branded card programs to Walmart, Boost Mobile, AT&T and Citibank. In 2007, Green Dot raised $20M in funding, including Sequoia Capital as an investor. In 2008, Green Dot ceased to offer prepaid Discover cards. On July 30, 2019, Green Dot launched the Unlimited Cash Back Bank Account, offering 3% cash back as well as a savings account offering 3% interest known as the Unlimited cashback account.
The cards are normal debit cards, and not a line of credit. Purchases are deducted from the balance stored on the card. The user can add more money to the card by paying cash at a retail store's point of sale, or in certain cases from their paycheck.

History

The Green Dot corporation was founded in 1999 by Steve Streit. Green Dot was formerly known as Next Estate Communications. The first debit card to be sold was I-GEN in the year 2000. It was geared toward teenagers and Internet users. In 2001 the first I-GEN MasterCard was sold at a Rite Aid in Virginia. In 2002 the first Green Dot debit cards were sold at more Rite Aid stores as well as CVS Pharmacy, and Pantry Convenience stores. In 2003, the I-GEN card was sold in over 18,000 stores nationwide and geared toward adults. In the year 2004, I-GEN officially changed its name to Green Dot and started the first cash-accepting network for reloading the debit cards. By May 2006, Green Dot sold more than two million cards nationwide and opened more retailers to issue more cards internationally.
On July 22, 2010, Green Dot Corporation went public and started trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the stock ticker:
In early 2012, Green Dot acquired the mobile location technology company, Loopt, for $43.4 million. Green Dot retained all of the employees of Loopt, which became the team to design and build Green Dot's mobile checking account brand, GoBank.
In 2013, with the acquisition of Loopt’s technology and workforce, Green Dot developed GoBank, the first bank account designed to be opened and used from a mobile device. In 2016 GoBank, became the platform that was used by Uber, the ride share company, as the principal payment processor of the company’s drivers. Green Dot regards this as their pivot from a prepaid debit card company into a platform company.
In 2014 Green Dot Corporation acquired Santa Barbara Tax Products Group, the largest tax refund processor in America.
Green Dot continued its acquisition of competitive companies in 2015, that offered either a customer base or platform with its acquisition with its purchase of both the Account Now Inc., and Achieve Card.
On September 24, 2014, Walmart announced it would be partnering with Green Dot Bank to begin offering Walmart customers checking accounts. The accounts will be provided through GoBank, Green Dot’s mobile checking service
In 2016, Green Dot Corporation’s brand, GoBank, partnered with Uber to launch the ‘Uber Debit Card’ – a checking account for Uber drivers to cash out their ride fare immediately.
On January 30, 2017, it was reported that UniRush LLC would be sold to Green Dot Corp. in a deal valued around $147 million. The deal, to close at the end of the quarter, was said to add around 750,000 cardholders to Green Dot's network.
In early December 2017, Green Dot Corporation announced that it was powering the Apple's new Apple Pay Cash P2P payment service.

Awards

Steve Streit, CEO, was nominated for Industry Executive of the Year at LendIt.
Green Dot was nominated for Solving Problems Through Payments during the 2018 Benzinga Fintech Awards.

Prepaid Debit Cards

Unlimited Cash Back Bank Account

On July 30th, 2019, Green Dot made its debut of a savings account for customers through a pre-paid debit card, the first in the industry, called the The card features a 3% cash back return on purchases, as well as a 3% APY towards a customer's savings account.

Green Dot Prepaid Card & Cash Back Debit Card

The Cash Back Debit Card is available online and in many stores, including CVS Pharmacy, Kmart, 7-Eleven and Walgreens while the prepaid card is only available in stores. Cards bought online are personalized with the customers name and cards bought in store are only a temporary card which does not have the customer's actual name on it; instead it says "Valued Customer". Temporary cards are not re-loadable However, if the customer opts in to receive a personalized card, which is free of cost, in 7 to 10 business days it will arrive in mail with his or her name on it. Personalized cards are re-loadable in a variety of ways. There is a monthly charge of $9.95, unless the customer makes more than 30 purchases in a month or loads the card with more than $1000 in that month.

Uber Business Debit

Green Dot partnered with Uber on a business debit card for Uber Drivers to be able to get paid weekly or immediately through Green Dot's instant pay service by depositing earnings on to a debit card.

RushCard

RushCard is a personalized prepaid debit card offering early direct deposit, money management, and rewards. The card was founded in 2013, with co-founders such as Russell Simmons under the company UniRush LLC which was sold to Green Dot Corp. in a deal valued around $147 million.

Walmart MoneyCard

in partnership with Green Dot offers MoneyCard a re loadable prepaid debit card both online and in Walmart stores.

Reloading process

Card users can also opt to have their payroll transferred directly to the card through direct deposit and the card acting as their checking account. Additionally, the cards may be re-loaded using ACH transfers online directly from a bank account and even from PayPal. MoneyPak can be used to deposit cash onto card, which is available in the same stores GreenDot prepaid is. Most stores charge $5.95 for reloading.

Reputation

As of December 2017, Green Dot has the following ratings:
Web siteRating Notes
Yelp195% reviews received 1 star
Amazon2.672% of reviews received 1 star
Credit Karma1.295% of reviews received 1 star
Consumer Affairs3.847% of reviews received 5 stars

The majority of unfavorable reviews, listed in the sites above and other review sites, complain of Green Dot limiting access to a positive balance in the card, even though the funds have been added to the card with a cash purchase. The reviews also underscore the unwillingness or incapacity of Green Dot customer service to resolve these issues. The majority of recent positive reviews on Consumer Affairs mention the convenience and speed of automatic direct deposits.

Credit Cards

Green Dot Corporation also issues a secured credit card, the Platinum Visa Secured credit card. This is an actual Visa credit card that is secured by a deposit, and is not a debit card nor is it a prepaid card.

MoneyPak

MoneyPak is used to deposit cash to a Green Dot prepaid cards but it can also be used to deposit cash onto third party prepaid or bank debit cards. MoneyPak is available in the same stores GreenDot prepaid is and most stores charge $5.95 for reloading.

MoneyPak Security Concerns