Overview
Get a Green Dot Prepaid Visa Card
Requirements
- First and Last Name
- Social Security Number
- Birth Date
- Mailing Address
- Phone Number
Sign Up Options
- Online (free)
- Find a Local Retail Store (~$5.00 + initial load amount)
Features
- No Credit Check
- No Minimum Balance
- Use Card Anywhere Visa is Accepted
- Free Bill Pay
- Reload with Free Direct Deposit (account and routing number will be provided)
- Reload with cash via MoneyPak (~$5.00 + load amount)
- Withdraw Cash Free at MoneyPass ATM Locations (fees apply for non-MoneyPass ATM locations)
- Two Options to Waive Monthly $5.95 Charge
- Post 30 Purchases in a month
- Load at least $1,000 in a month
Email Yourself 30 Separate $0.15 Amazon Gift Cards
Like I mentioned above, you can waive the Green Dot monthly charge if you post 30 purchases in a month. For me, the easiest way to meet that requirement is to purchase 30 separate $0.15 Amazon Gift Cards. $0.15 is the lowest denomination available.
WARNING:
Do not attempt to purchase all 30 separate gift cards in a single day. Doing so will flag your account with suspicious activity, and your account will be frozen.
Instead, spread out the purchases. Every morning, I purchase two $0.15 Amazon Gift Cards from here as 2 separate orders. I do this for about two weeks until I get the 30 posted purchases to waive the monthly Green Dot charge.
Conclusion
I had some issues with ChexSystems that prevented me from opening a Patelco Credit Union Free Checking Account. As an interim solution, using the Green Dot Prepaid Visa Card as my checking account has worked out great.
Although not technically “free”, I still have some purchasing power with the Amazon gift cards instead of wasting funds on the monthly Green Dot maintenance fee.
Here are some things that I’ve used the “free” checking account for.
- Linked my Coinbase account via direct deposit to purchase Bitcoin for use with the bitcointip bot, so I can tip people on Reddit with bitcoin
- Linked Amazon via direct deposit to receive payments from my Mturk (Mechanical Turk) and Associates accounts
- Linked Google Adsense via direct deposit to receive payments generated from my YouTube account
- Paid all my monthly bills via Bill Pay
- Mailed a check to my mom’s house to pay her back via Bill Pay
Related
License
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