Greenlight Review 2025
Disclosure
Disclosure: This page may contain affiliate links. This means we earn a small commission (at no additional cost to you) if you purchase a product through our links.In a nutshell: Greenlight is a fintech company that issues debit cards through Community Federal Savings Bank. The company aims to provide a money management solution for parents and kids with features like parental controls, savings rewards, and investing using fractional shares.
The company offers some traditional banking features on their card for kids—such as purchase protection & identity theft protection—but the actual banking experience is quite different from more traditional options.
Could Greenlight be the best banking solution for you and your family? Find out in this comprehensive Greenlight review!
Service Type | Fees | Promotion |
---|---|---|
Money Management App | $4.99 - $14.98/month | 30-day free trial |
Greenlight is best for…
Families who want a streamlined way to teach their kids about money in the modern, digital era. With features like parental controls, savings rewards, and investment options, Greenlight Max helps parents guide their kids’ financial journey and promote healthy money habits.
Greenlight can provide parents with a secure and convenient way to manage their children’s finances, benefiting from various features such as instant transfers, ATM access, savings rewards, parental controls, and other features not offered by traditional prepaid cards.
Beyond basic banking, the service even allows children to purchase fractional shares of stock in a commission-free setting, enabling them to dip their toes into the world of investing with minimal risk.
- Low initial deposit requirement
- Fractional investing feature
- Round-up savings feature
- Monthly fees
- Card replacement fee
- No dedicated ATM network
Table of Contents
What is Greenlight?
Greenlight is a fintech company that offers various money management features for parents and their children. After the parent(s) set up this prepaid debit card for their child(ren), kids will be able to use their Greenlight Debit Card to make debit card purchases.
Of course, the card has many more functions beyond making simple purchases. Greenlight cards can be used to set up allowance payments and set savings goals. Parents will be able to keep track of their children’s money management skills, offering guidance on their spending habits as needed.
To sign up, you’ll only need some basic information. The parents will need to provide their name, SSN, address, date of birth, mobile phone number, email address, as well as their child’s name.
External Greenlight Reviews & Ratings
Site | Rating | |
Google Play | 4.7 from 34,673 reviews | |
Finder | 4.6 | |
The College Investor | 4.5 | |
G2 | 4.5 from 335 reviews | |
Money Crashers | 4.4 |
Features
Greenlight offers a variety of features with their debit cards, although the exact features offered vary by plan level.
In addition to the debit card itself, Greenlight also provides an educational app, basic financial tools, spending controls, competitive savings account interest (with the option to add parent-paid interest), investing features, and cash-back on debit card purchases.
Higher-tier plans grant access to priority customer service, identity theft/purchase/phone protection, location sharing, SOS alerts, and even crash detection via the mobile app!
Greenlight also offers credit cards to parents in the form of the Family Cash Card, a card with up to 3% cashback.
Pricing & Plans
This company offers three different plans, each with different features and price points. Let’s compare!
Greenlight Core
This basic plan costs $4.99 per month. It grants access to all basic features, including up to five debit cards, the educational app, spending/savings tools, and the “Lite” version of the investing feature (for parents only).
Greenlight Max
This plan includes all of the features of Core, while also adding 1% cashback, investing (for kids), and priority customer support, and to the list of available features. Greenlight Max also comes with identity theft, purchase, and cell phone protection (3X protection). The Max plan will set you back $9.98 per month.
Greenlight Infinity
The top tier—Greenlight Infinity—unlocks every feature offered by this company. In addition to the functions listed above, parents will also enjoy increased peace of mind thanks to the location sharing, crash detection, and SOS alert features included with this plan.
Limitations
For the most part, Greenlight offers an excellent service to children and parents alike. However, there are a few drawbacks worth mentioning.
The major drawback of Greenlight is the lack of a dedicated ATM network. While Greenlight itself won’t charge you ATM fees, the network owner of the ATM itself may. Each card may only withdraw a maximum of $105/day at an ATM; the entire family can only withdraw $525/month from an ATM.
It’s also worth noting that you’ll have to pay for each replacement card.
Is Greenlight Right for You?
Let’s get this out of the way: Greenlight isn’t a good choice for families with older children, children in college, or children whose cash needs exceed the monthly withdrawal limits.
However, for families with younger children (or those who have more conservative spending habits), Greenlight provides an excellent way to teach these younger ones about proper money management.
With low monthly fees, a complete lack of trading fees, cash-back credit cards for adults, and a variety of parental control/monitoring features, Greenlight is an excellent option for those trying to establish good financial habits early on.
Click here to enjoy your first month of Greenlight for free!