Green Dot - Prepaid Visa Debit Card

Having a GreenDot Prepaid Debit Card might be a good idea. If you sign up online at mygreendot.com they will give you a $10 Bonus on your first Direct deposit. When you join you will be included with their group of over 10 million Green Dot Customers. You do not need a bank account and there is no credit check when joining. You can use the card everywhere MasterCard or Visa is accepted for Debit Cards. The advertise no Penalty fees, no overdraft fees and no minimum balance required. They also have free Online Bill Pay and free direct deposit just like a checking account. You get free withdrawals at over 15,000 ATM machines Nationwide. You can find a GreenDot card at many locations including WalMart. Plus if you are a racing fan you can get a NasCar Re-loadable prepaid VISA Card for the ultimate NASCAR fan.

There are a lot of good Prepaid Debit Cards on the Market that you can get online now. If you are considering a Prepaid Card it might be a good idea to compare several Cards. If your credit is good you might check out other card offers and make sure you get the right one for you. Most Prepaid debit cards are the same but a few stand out and are much better that the rest of them a good site to compare prepaid cards and also check credit card offers is at GetPrePaidCardNow.com This site is good site to compare cards and when you are interested you can get a prepaid card now or even apply for a real credit card.

When you first buy your Green Dot Debit Card you will get a temporary card that you can use to pay for your purchases while you wait for your permanent Debit card in the mail. You can reload your temporary card after you have activated it and should not be given as gift cards. It is very easy to reload your temporary Green Dot card by visiting a partner retailer or by setting up an online reload from your bank. There are fees for re-loading a non-direct deposit reload. You can use your temporary card anywhere that a debit VISA or Debit MasterCard is accepted in the US for non pin transactions. You can use your card as credit or signature purchase at a store just chose credit when you swipe your card. You can no use your card for debit card purchase until you receive your permanent card. Another good thing is you can use your temporary card to do online purchases while you wait for the permanent card. You cannot use your temporary card at ATMs to withdraw case or use your temporary card anywhere a pin number is required. Also a temporary card cannot be used to purchase outside the US including Online, Phone calls or in another country.

Once you have activated your temporary prepaid Visa card Green Dot will send your Personalized card in 7 to 10 business days. The cards are shipped first class mail and once you get your card you will need to activate it and your money from your temp card will be moved to your personalized card. If you are in a hurry you can request rush delivery but you will have to pay a fee of $19.95. Before you can use it you will need to call 1-866-79507605 or go to their website at www.mygreendot.com/activate. Once you have activated your Prepaid Greendot card you can use it.

Now you can use your Green Dot card anywhere except online for gambling or for business use. You can now use it to withdraw money from a ATM Machine and gets some cash, you cannot do that with the temporary card. But remember you will have to pay fees if you do it that way. One way to avoid those fees is get cash back from your purchases at the store. You should not have to worry about going over your limit, like you would with your checking account. But there are some cases that a merchant might except your card even though you do not have enough money to cover the charge. You will be responsible for it and but do not have any fees. A good thing about this card there are no overdraft penalty fees.

If you forget your ATM you can call the 800 number or getting online and change it to a new number. You are also allowed to do automatic monthly payments for your bills but you must make sure you have enough in your account to cover those bills. This could be a problem if you do not because the Company your are paying may cancel your account or suspend it for lack of payment. You can user your card for such things a Car Rental, Hotels or at the gas pump but I would like to warn you that they will hold money yours. Gas pump might charge $100 dollars to your card to make sure you have enough for actual charge. the hotel will hold up to $300 in some cases for a deposit, and the car Renal will also hold up a large amount and even hold it up to 90 days. The best thing to do is check out these charges before getting a room or a car and at the pump just go to the cashier and use your card for what you need. If your card gets stolen or used without your permission you need to immediately report it lost or stolen. Your card will then be cancelled and you will have to wait for a new one from 7 to days and the money will be transferred to the new one. You will also have to pay a fee to replace the card.

GreenDot Company has Several types of Cards you can choose from.

• Prepaid Visa Card - it is a re-loadable VISA prepaid Debit card for everyday use.
• Prepaid Master Card - it is a reloadable MasterCard prepaid debit card for everyday use.
• Prepaid Student Card - this is also a re-loadable MasterCard prepaid debit card that will help students safely manage their money.
• NASCAR Visa Card - this is simply just a reloadale VISA prepaid card for the ultimate NASCAR fan.
• Online Shopping Card - With this card you can shop online safely and securely to make purchases, play games, download music and more but its still a prepaid VISA debit card.
• Express Bill Pay Card - Just another prepaid VISA debit card you can use to pay your phone bill, cable, cell phone or utilities.
• VISA Prepagada - a card targeted for Hispanic users in Spanish, it is also a prepaid VISA Card.

GreenDot was founded in 1999 and is a leading provider of Prepaid Debit Cards and is also the owner of one this Nations largest retail Cash Reload and payment Networks. They have millions of customers and are growing everyday. So you should be able to count on them being there for you. If you get a card online or find their card at over 10 thousand major retail locations in the US you can be sure this company will be around. Their headquarters is located in California and money will be managed by Columbus Bank & Trust Company.

One of the benefits of getting a Green Dot Prepaid card is you can setup Online Bill pay. This means you can pay your bills online without having to write checks or send payments in the mail using stamps. It is easy to setup monthly payments and pay your bills automatically. This will allow you to track and control your spending. To enroll in the program you will need to go to the Green Dot website and select Online Bill pay from their navigation bar. Click on the Sign up now button and fill in the blanks. Once you sign up they will ask you to verify your email and you will be ready to use Green Dot Cart to pay your bills. You cannot setup your Bill pay til you have your Personalize Card temporary cards are not allowed. There are no fees for bill payment transactions.

You will now be able to pay almost any bill at thousands of companies who except electronic payments. Companies including utility, cell phone and others. If your Payee excepts these type of payments the payment can often be made as early as the next business day as long as it was done before 1 pm eastern time. You will also be able to send paper checks to companies or individuals, this way you can pay rent to a landlord or just send a gift to a loved one. The paper checks are sent via USPS so the time frames of delivery may very. The usually time is about 5 business day so set these type payments up early from there due dates. These must be in the US and not to any countries. There is a maximum limit of what you can pay someone and that magic amount is $1000 dollars and counts against your daily limit of $2500.

Every time you submit a bill payment, you can see both the debit date and the date the funds will be removed from your Green Dot Balance and the earliest date that person will see their payment or money. If they are on Green dots list of Payee's they will probably get the money the next day if you schedule before 1pm. You also have the ability to schedule payments up to one year in advance of payments due to the payee.

If you do not have the funds to cover your payment you will get a message that the payment was declined. If you do not have sufficient funds you can load more money onto your card and resubmit the payment. If you have it setup for future dates also they will still attempt to do it again. You will have to check your email to make sure they have sent out the payments at future dates they send a failure notification if you sell do not have enough funds. It is your responsibility to make sure you have enough money in your account to avoid getting in trouble with the person you are paying.

GreenDot has a Simple Fee Plan

There are no hidden fees but they do have a monthly charge of 5.95 but if you purchase at least 30 times or you load $1000 dollars on you card the fees are waived. The Cash Withdrawal Fees are $2.50 per ATM transactions outside of their network but they have thousands of participating locations nationwide and the only charge $0.50 if you get a Balance inquire from a non-network ATM. So if you say in the network no ATM fees that very good. Other fees you have to look out for are $6 dollars for a Replacement Card or it the card is lost or Stolen. There is no fee if you use Direct Deposit to load your card but they do have a $4.95 dollar fee to reload the card at a retailers location. If you use your card outside of the US you will see a 3% fee on the transaction amount used. The fees are not bad overall but could be smaller.

The best way and cheapest way to add money to your Green Dot Personalized Debit card is Direct Deposit. Once you get paid your money will be available immediately. Green Dot does not charge any fees for direct deposit. You can also go to one of their participation retailers to add money or setup a online reload from your bank. But unlike a direct deposit you will have to pay fees for non-direct deposit reloads.

If you reload your card at a participating retailer you will need to purchase a MoneyPak. The MoneyPak is usually found where ever you purchased your Green Dot card. I know that WalMart sells the MoneyPak cheaper than most places. If you buy your card from one store it does not matter what store you get the MoneyPak form its all the same. A MoneyPak usually sells for about $4.95. One you buy the MoneyPak you can call Green dots 800 number (1-800-GREENDOT) or go online to mygreendot.com to load it on your card. Once you have done this the money is available immediately.

You cannot wire funds from your bank to Green Dot but they do have other ways to add money to your card. You will have to either buy a Moneypak or setup a online reload from your bank. Temporary cards cannot be reloaded just like most prepaid debit cards. There is a daily per card reload limit of $2500 when buying it but you can go higher with your direct deposit but you would have to get it approved by Green Dot. That is also the max you can have your card buy with approval from your direct deposit you may get a higher balance.