Green Dot Card Services, Columbus Bank And Trust
P.O. Box 1187
Monrovia, California 91017
U.S.A.
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Green Dot Card Services, Columbus Bank And Trust Green Dot Card Services Direct Deposit Do Not Use This!! Monrovia, California
*Consumer Comment: No issues after 2 years now with the card
1Author
6Consumer
0Employee/Owner
I purchased a Green Dot Visa about two weeks prior to this incident. My friends were giving Green Dot some rave reviews so I opted to purchase one. Upon purchase you are charged and initial fee and you have to put a minimum deposit of $20 on the card. I placed my purchase paid the fee and gave my deposit.
I went home and tried to activate my card by phone and was unsuccessful. I then tried activation through the website this act failed as well. I called the 877-434-3578 customer service line to try and get some answers. It was quite difficult to get to a live person but it was possible. After 6 calls and maneuvering their system I finally got a live person.
By this time I was very angry and was connected with Juan who proceeded to tell me that the SSN I gave them was incorrect. I explained to them that it was correct and that I am now married and they may have to use my maiden name. He proceeded to tell me that name was not working neither. He informed me that I needed to fax them a copy of my Residential Phone Bill and My S.S. Card. and it will take 2 days for verification and another 7 business days to mail my card. For my inconvenience they also gave me and additional $5 on my card. Although frustrated I excepted this and fax the information to them. I received the card a few days later.
After having my card for about 2 weeks I noticed online they had an option to have Direct Deposit made directly to your card. I was quite excited about this option. The form that is on the Green Dot website has the Routing Number and Green Dot Reference Account Number on it as well as the name Columbus Bank and Trust Company. I printed the form signed it, faxed it to my company's payroll dept, and awaited confirmation.
Now here we are 1 week later and its payday and I am expected my deposit on my card. I received my deposit slip from my payroll dept stating that my deposit was made. So I checked my balance on the Green Dot website and noticed my deposit was not there. You can imagine how angry I was.
I called the Green Dot customer service line and again had to maneuver their system just to get a live person. I was finally connected to Julio and he told me that I needed to call my payroll dept and find out why my payroll dept rejected my deposit. This sounded like incorrect information but I did call my payroll dept.
My payroll person faxed me everything that they sent over to Green Dot.
So I called Green Dot back and spoke with Allen this time. He proceeded to tell me that my deposit was rejected because of an incorrect account number and that is all the information he could give me. I asked for a Supervisor and Steve the Supervisor knew no more information than Allen. So I contacted Columbus Bank and Trust customer service representative and she preceded to tell me that she could not help me because all they do is print the cards for Green Dot.
I explained if all you do is print the cards for Green Dot why does the direct deposit form have the name Columbus Bank and Trust on it. Of course she could not answer. She connected me with Crystal at Green Dot customer service and although nice she knew nothing neither. So here I am on Thursday 1/17/08 payday without my check and will not have a resolution until as early as Monday 1/21/2008. Needless to say I called Green Dot back and canceled my service. I strongly advise you to rethink your service with this company.
Upsetatgreendot
Detroit, Michigan
U.S.A.
Click Here to read other Ripoff Reports on Green Dot Card
REBUTTALS & REPLIES:
1Author
6Consumer
0Employee/Owner
Updates & Rebuttals
#1 Consumer Comment
AUTHOR: Chelcbean - Delavan (U.S.A.)
SUBMITTED: Wednesday, October 29, 2008
POSTED: Wednesday, October 29, 2008
I borrowed my friends Green Dot Card to order our Halloween stuff off the internet.At first I gave her money to put on the card for me since I have never used one before. I put $105 on there. I ordered our products and everthing was fine. There was $22 left one the card. I needed to order a few more things so I had her put another 24 on there. She misunderstood me and put $22 on it. I thought no problem, Ill just go the Wal Mart and add the extra $2. To load the money onto the stupid thing it costs$4.97. Fine, I have no problem with that. I didnt know there was a $20 minimum. Ok, so take $40 off the card through the ATM and just put it all back on the card. I tried 4 times to get the money out of the ATM. It kept saying insuficent funds. I know the money is on there. So I drive to the ATM by my bank. I punch everything into the ATM and finally it spit out a $20. Through the ATM you can only take out 20 at a time. So I did it again to get the other $20 off of it and it said insuffucent funds again. Irate, I drove home and checked the balance. There was only $19 on the card. Apparentley they deduct $.50 every time you are denied at an ATM! Whatever, so I go back to Wal Mart and put the money onto the card. the money loaded everything was fine. I ordered my stuff that Sunday night. I get an email the next day which was monday the21 saying that they were out of stock on my order and a full refund had been giving back to my card. Today is Wednesday the 29 and I still dont have my money. Its $2 to talk to a customer service person. ( If when you call the # on the card and hit # like 7 times it will bypass that) They told me MY money was on hold! Its $44! I am NOT happy with this piece of garbage card! Its a HORRIBLE waste of time and money. I emailed they company and asked what was going on and I got no response! That was last week. BEWARE!!!!!!!
#2 Consumer Comment
AUTHOR: K - Chemung (U.S.A.)
SUBMITTED: Wednesday, November 19, 2008
POSTED: Wednesday, November 19, 2008
I'm not a rep of Green Dot, just another consumer. I will say though that I guess I have been very fortunate in using my GD MC considering the complaints I have seen on the net.
Anyway, first of all, about adding the money and the insufficient funds. For one thing, if you sign in to manage your account on the internet, they do tell you there that it MAY take up to 15 minutes for a recent transaction to be processed. I think I have had to wait that long only once for a reload to appear. Secondly, unless the ATM is one that's part of their network (and you can search online for locations of these) they will charge you an ATM fee. That's probably what dropped the balance to $19 after you took out the first $20. Also, although I know they only let you take out multiples of $20, I never heard of having to only do $20 at a time.
Lastly, it's pretty common banking practice that it will take a few days for money being credited back to your account to clear. That's not a specific scam by this company.
#3 Consumer Comment
AUTHOR: Muincat - Junction City (U.S.A.)
SUBMITTED: Friday, November 21, 2008
POSTED: Friday, November 21, 2008
I have read a few reports here about how bad Green Dot is. I have been using Green Dot for almost a year and a half now and not had any problems with the card itself. Their customer service staff leaves a lot to be desired and you're usually just better off learning to navigate their website than talk to a live person.
I got stuck using Green Dot because my jerk of an ex-husband ran off on me and left me all the debt. I had to file bankruptcy, so no bank will touch me for now. With the world running on plastic I HAD to have some way of paying bills. Green Dot works for me. Do I wish I didn't have to use it and could have a REAL bank account? Sure, but at least this card allows me to function in the modern financial world. I have had direct deposit set up on it several times and it always works. My biggest problem is trying to explain to employers and my bill collectors what Green Dot is. Usually the direct deposit delay is on the end of the employer and their bank and not Green Dot. A temp service I worked for had it set up IMMEDIATELY and I didn't have any wait time. More "traditional" payroll departments have gotten slogged down in the "what the heck is this thing?" problem and slowed the entire process. The only other problem I can think of that I've had is that some smaller stores and gas stations are unable to accept it. Their machine gives them message "Contact your financial institution" or simply decline it even if you've got plenty of money. I think this is because not all merchant account providers (i.e. the smaller ones) have updated their systems.
So to me, the bottom line is this: If you expect to need to use customer service a lot and aren't too hot on playing detective with the system or you can get a debit card through a regular bank without any problem, this card is not for you. If, on the other hand, you have no other banking choice and/or you're patient enough to figure out how to "work the system" (mainly the website but also their automated phone system), you should be fine with this card.
#4 Consumer Comment
AUTHOR: Karl - Highlands Ranch (USA)
SUBMITTED: Tuesday, October 26, 2010
POSTED: Tuesday, October 26, 2010
at Ripoff Report #529757 along with other poems and songs.
#5 Consumer Comment
AUTHOR: LadyD - North Powder (United States of America)
SUBMITTED: Tuesday, February 07, 2012
POSTED: Tuesday, February 07, 2012
I'm sorry that you have had a bad experience with your Green Dot card. I just wanted to say that I have had a Green Dot Card for four years and have never had a complaint. It has worked very well for me. I hope what happened to you never happens again. I just wanted to let others know, it's not the case with everyone.
#6 Consumer Comment
AUTHOR: alfredheart - NY (United States of America)
SUBMITTED: Friday, February 17, 2012
POSTED: Friday, February 17, 2012
I've been successfully using the card for 2 years now with no issues. If you read the fine print (and you should since most Americans refuse to read) you will see there is a time delay when loading money from a MoneyPak onto a $0 balance card. I would just wait 1 full hour before attempting to use the card and embarrassing myself. Not sure what that person was trying to do at the Walmart (take $40 off the card to put it back on to the card only to get $2 extra to buy something with the card?). I never used my card at an ATM but if I did I would expect to get the obvious ATM fee deducted from the card. So that is not a complaint on the card as it is a display of total lack of common sense by the card user who wrote that they were shocked to see 0.50 cents deducted. Also the card automatically deducts $5.95 from your Green Card account every month if you use the card less than 30 times or have less than $1000 on the card and MoneyPak reloads cost $4.95 in addition to what money you are putting on the card. It is in the card instructions and user agreement and also noted on the Money Pak reload cards, the website and all the paperwork you are supposed to read that comes with the card. So not sure why there is confusion.
Early this year I added my Green Card card to my Direct Deposit to put $350 onto the card from the total balance of my paycheck. Getting the form from the website was convoluted because you have request it and then they email a link to you within 24 hours which sends you back to the original Green Dot website request page for the deposit form and only then do you get an actual link to print out the form. Not sure why the link couldn't have been there from the get go because the run around was tedious and not at all timely since my email link took 23 hours to arrive.
The form uses the little known Synovus Bank to transfer the payroll funds to your card. This transfer process and the identity of Synovus is not explained anywhere for you when you get the deposit form. But common sense says either call the 800 number or use Google Search to find out what Synovus Bank is and to see if they are any nefarious activities or consumer complaints on that bank. I did and couldn't find anything bad. All the bank does is transfer the cash payroll deposit onto your card account to be used as credit/debit card.
That said, this process adds an entire extra day or two to the deposit getting on the card. So say I normally get my pay check directly deposited in my primary bank on the 15th of the month then my Green Card gets the deposit a day or two later. It's happens like that every month so instead of me seeing the money on the day I get paid I only see it a day or two later like on the 16th/17th or the 2nd/3rd. I figured it is because the payroll is being handled by Synovus Bank before arriving to your Green Card.
Either way I figured it out from Google Searching for how the bank was handling my paycheck and calling the 800 number. Like I said, read the fine print, call the numbers, use some basic online detective skills and you should have no issue using this simple credit/debit card.
