Anybody have any experience with a prepaid Visa or Mastercard by Greendot?
 

I bought a GreenDot Visa card for my vacation next month. I'm planning on using it for restaurants, gas and small purchases so my real debit card information isn't floating out there. I had my debit card information stolen a couple of years ago using it at a gas station in my town, they cleaned out my checking account and my overdraft money. That was really scary. Anyway, I just loaded $30.00 on the card to see how that worked and that was pretty painless, but when I try to register the card on the GreenDot website to create an account with it, the website keeps telling me I have an invalid account number. I'm going to wait 24 hours and try again.


Anybody else have any experience with these cards?

hmmm, i've not heard of greendot. i bought an american express gift card at the Post office and thought my granddtr might have trouble using it but she didn't. i had master card or visa gift cards that were given to me and tried to use them at a recent Quilt show but they would not take them, grrrrr. i finally spent them elsewhere.
good luck. does greendot have an 800 number?

Sorry I've never used one.

Yes, I will be calling that tomorrow if I can't get it registered on the website.

I haven't heard of them. Our local new did a story this past Christmas and said that when you buy debit cards to always ask for the ones from behind the register and not pull them from the shelves. Thieves come along and have scanning devices and scan the bar codes and keep checking the #s on line and when they are activated; they take the money from them. I made sure I let my friends who get debit cards for presents all know. There should be a phone # on the back of card to call or take it back to store.

Wouldn't it be easier to open a small account with your bank with a debit/visia card. It's more secure and you can transfer money between accounts as needed. When you come back home you can close the small account. Plus some banks have their own debit cards too.

I have not heard of that one. I do know more and more stores will not take the Visa and Master card gift cards, I don't understand why.

I don't use them or debit cards, just credit cards. They will go to bat for you if there is a problem. I had my CC info stolen on a trip once, when I got home, the CC company called me to ask if I had bought $800 worth of videos at XYZ store - I said I hadn't, they said they would take care of it and don't worry about it.
I had only used that card once, at a gas station in KY, so they probably had an easy time finding the thieves.

I used the greendot to pay a bill, I had no problems at all. With the prepaid Visa and AE I give them as gifts. In all of them make sure you register them. 3 of my children did and had no problems, 1 did not and it kept denying it. I think your idea for using it on a trp is great. Have fun!!

I use the Visa Cards all of the time - for internet purchases and travelling- for the exact reason that you specified,as that is all the money the thieves can get. I think the only reason you need to go on line is to check balances, and as each check costs a dollar here, I don't bother.You can easily keep track yourself. I've not had any problems other than trying to register as you did and getting the same response. Hope you fare better.

I got two so I could send my son some money. I didn't have any trouble using them. The only problem you might have is if you don't use all the money on the card. You can not get any money back on them. You have to use them up. When traveling you need to remember when you use the card at gas stations, if you don't use that particular gas station and they ask for your zip code they are actually asking the card to hold $75 to $100 deposit until your funds come through.