Originally Posted by
iahphx
I guess this promo has ended, but I'll post my experience here in case it returns. Bottomline, I bought 2 cards yesterday and got my 5000 bonus points from Giant, but I wouldn't do it again. First of all, you can only have one card per ssn. so I registered one in my name and one in my wife's (you have to register them to activate them). I then immediately paid a $500 online bill with my card. I was going to buy a MO with my wife's today, but realized I'd need a pin. Turns out you can't get a pin until they send you your "permanent" card. So I decided I'd pay another $500 online bill with my wife's card. The transaction was declined. Turned out they charged me a $7.95 monthly fee THE DAY AFTER PURCHASE. Yikes. I adjusted my payment to $492.05 and then drained it. Not sure if I can call Green Dot to complain and get my $7.95 back (they really try to hide their fees from their customers, so I don't know the official rules) . I'll have my wife call them in a couple days to find out.
I then pulled up MY account and saw the balance was negative $7.95 (the monthly fee). I called to close the account. They told me I wouldn't have to pay the $7.95.
As you can probably see, this stuff just isn't worth the hassle. At least I have my 5000 points and I'm (slightly) better off.
The one per SSN must be new. I registered multiple back in 2020, but closing them was a bit of a hassle. Back then. you could set a pin with the temporary cards in the app (and maybe online), but I guess that could have changed.
As for the $7.95 fee, it is stated that the first fee is assessed either on first use or the day after registration right on their website. The only "hiding" they do is that the text is within an image, so it doesn't come up so easily on Google. I don't think you'll get it back, and if you are successful, you'll spend more than $7.95 worth of time on the phone.
I didn't bother this time around. When I did it in 2020 I had a promo on my PayPal business debit that was giving cash back on all purchases, including debit, which made it worthwhile, but nothing like that has come around recently.