Gobank by Greendot - online banking with debit card
 

Got shut down by GreenDot prepaid. Found some of their (undisclosed) limits in the process of exploring what happened with a supervisor level Cardinal. Thought it would be helpful for others if I documented this.

I had bought 5 temp cards and registered all 5 (all with same name, info, etc) over last couple months to get permanent cards. First 3 perm cards had come, been activated. One loaded with add'l $1k to avoid fee first billing cycle, pd $200 bill online, then loaded with another $1k to avoid fee 2nd month. The other 2 simply loaded with $1k add'l each to avoid their initial billing cycle fee.
The last 2 perm cards arrived week ago, and I was unable to activate online or on automated phone system as message said there was security block on them. Finally got through to supervisor Fang, who explained that I had reloaded my cards too much! Said allowed to have 10 cards, but max balance across ALL cards was $2500. (The T&C say max balance on any 1 card is $2500, which of course I had never breached). Fang said "my pattern of reloads across my cards was not in keeping with the intended use of the cards" (which we FTers all know is screwing the under-banked with lots of fees!). Said he was unfreezing my cards so I could spend down my existing balances, but I would be unable to load more funds on any and unable to get any future GreenDot prepaids, and my existing cards would be closed.
I just tried to zero out balance via online bill pay but that is shut down as well.

Don't know which is worse, this or the NetSpend shutdowns!
At least with NetSpend you could load up, do a huge bill pay and get shutdown in a blaze of glory! Here you get shutdown before you even get a chance to use the darn things.

Well, if we don't keep the peasants down and penniless while tossing them free bread (and believe me Congress has really been baking their little hearts out) why the peasants might rise up and declare a Bastille Day. That would be me working the crowd selling tickets for the show.:D

Max load of $2,500 in what timeframe? Per day? Month? Total balance?

Fang said max balance across all cards. OP edited for clarity.

Thanks!

Did you buy the greendot cards with credit cards? Every place I've been to refuses credit cards as a form of payment for greendot even though they allow VR and PayPal Cash cards to be bought with credit cards.

I bought over $45,000 in MoneyPaks back in December when they had the $0 fee promotion. Was a nice way to cash out the AMEX Gift Cards I bought that same month.

However, what I did learn is that GD is one hell of a m*t#3r f&ck!ng pr!ck of a company to deal with.

If it's not the ridiculous 'security blocks' they put on moneypaks if you buy more than $2K at a time, it's other asinine jump-through-hoops bs to get access to your money.

I had 2 prepaid cards, and was going to load them to their stated monthly max, and used their online bill pay function (to pay down credit card bill obviously).

I didn't even get 1/2 of the way on each card and they put a 'compliance block' on my two cards.

Called in, and same bs explanation as OP. I was not using GD product as intended. Which I agree with OP means, 'allowing myself to be screwed like the under-banked and pay lots of fees!'

After much argument with supervisors supervisor it was agreed they would refund my remaining moneypaks. As I had to explain to them 'since you won't allow me to use your product, you should refund what I've already purchased'.

At any rate, at the end of the conversation they say 'ok, refund is processing, you can call back in a day to get it's status'.

I call back and informed 'yup, refund has been approved, and you will receive your checks in 9-12 business days'.

Fast forward 12 business days, and no check.

Call, and told 'oh, they should have reached you by now. Check is definitely in the mail'

Wait a few more days, call back. Same answer 'check in the mail. Refund was approved'.

Call back again, same deal.

After about a week and a half of this, I push harder for answers, and then I'm told 'oh, yeah, the check writing department put a stop on the check because they want you to fax in your ID, as well as the moneypaks and receipt'.

If I could have reached through the phone and strangled the guy I would have. With my best effort to remain calm I asked 'how come in the numerous calls I placed I was told the check was in the mail, now you tell me the check was in fact never in the mail'

All I get is 'I'm sorry sir, but, if you want the refund you have to send this in...'

I ultimately escalated this to corporate office, and lodged a BBB complaint. Finally I got call from someone in the western hemisphere to work with me on resolving this.

I agreed I would 'photograph' and email the cards and receipts, as well as my drivers id (with number redacted), but, not with out me having to ask this guy how I was expected to 'fax' 70 moneypaks along with receipts that are 5 feet long (they get rather long when you have 10 moneypaks per receipt and pay with 5 AMEX gift cards).

Thankfully... although not paid, I have been promised by someone far more senior that the moneypaks and receipts were accepted and the check is coming...

At any rate, there is a lesson here. If you're going to play this game big, be prepared to have your money tied up at times and ready to do battle with folks who will try to tire you, mostly by behaving like dim-wits (whether they are truly dim-wits or just feigning as such I am uncertain). So, be sure you have the means to float this cash for a while in the interim.

In the end, once I get refunded... I guess I can argue it was a reliable means to cash out those gift cards, and cheap too -- if you do not value your time very highly.

But, dealing with people who have an IQ slightly above room temperature (or trained to behave this way) is very tiring... So, if you want to play the greendot game, go for it. I'm going to stick with Incomm (granted, it's unlikely GD will be as 'prompt' in issuing me a refund again if I buy more).

Just wanted to add in another data point. I have been playing GD-MP game for about 2 months now too just like thehawk75. I have been doing about $2K to $4K of MP at a time. 50% of the time I have to call in and open a ticket number to remove the temporary hold from the MP, which has been removed in about 12 hours 90% of the time. I was shut off from GD cards after loading about $15K for the same reasons described by the OP. I closed my accounts and got a check in mail for the balance which were less than $100 each.

GD - Moneypak Loss Prevention: 866.871.2415

LP can remove blocks and get things moving along much faster than the front line CSR.

@thehawk75 the CFPB might be interested to hear about your experiences, along with banking regulators in your state, the district attorney's office where they're incorporated in the US, etc.

it may sound like an over-entitled and selfish move at first and i am not a lawyer, but i think it's even more important to do things like sue these companies in small claims court to the extent allowable precisely because they all operate under the assumption that people who don't have real bank accounts are not going to know the terms of agreements they make, their legal rights, the regulatory environment in which these companies operate, etc. and as a result, companies probably assume they won't be held to account if they violate the applicable terms/laws/regulations of their dealings with customers.

Sure, many of the people here may be taking advantage of promotions within the terms these companies have agreed to do business with us. But the other side of 'allowing myself to be screwed like the under-banked and pay lots of fees!' is that the same customer base is not likely to protect itself when lines are crossed.

To the extent that these companies violate the terms of agreements or maybe even applicable laws and regulations in some cases, I think it's even more important to go after them to deter their willingness to further punish their already-getting-screwed customer base.

Sigh. $45K in MP in one month and you are surprised at the reception you rec'd? You were surely orders of magnitude out of the ordinary usage. Red flags likely went up at a tiny fraction of that amount...

Goldrush mentality at its finest.

+1 why should they be surprised... 45k is a normal amount of spending in a month.

Can someone PLEASE explain what Cardinal Fang means?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Spa..._(Monty_Python)

LMAO! That is hilarious!

Anyone have any info on www.gobank.com which looks like a BB competitor and funded through greendot?