Update 6/18/20: $50 bonus has now been removed.
Update 6/3/20: Savings rate decreases from 3% to 2%. Cashback rate has decreased from 3% to 2%.
[Update: added details on the $50 bonus.]
So this is interesting. Green Dot released a product duo which is actually worth a review.
- Green Dot unveiled a new bank account and debit card product called the Unlimited Cash Back Bank Account. This account earns 3% cashback at year’s end on purchases made throughout the year online or in-app. There’s no limit to the amount of cashback you can earn. Store purchases don’t earn any cashback. Gift cards and airline tickets are excluded from earning cashback.
- They are also offering a savings account with a 3% APY interest rate on up to $10,000. The Green Dot Bank High-Yield Savings Account is available only in conjunction with the Unlimited Cash Back Bank Account.
- There’s also a $50 signup bonus for the Unlimited Cash Back Bank Account. The $50 bonus will only be available for use after 12 months. (I saw it before, I think it pops up at the top of the screen, but I can’t see it anymore, maybe it needs a fresh IP address.)
There is a monthly fee of $7.95 which is waived if you spend $1,000 the previous month.
The major catch to the 3% cashback offer is that the cashback is only credited at year’s end. I personally wouldn’t trust GreenDot with deciding whether I deserve my cashback at year’s end, I’d prefer to make do with a different everyday card for 2-2.5%. Also, since the GreenDot product is a debit/banking product, it’s less convenient and a bit less secure.
The catch with doing this for the purpose of the savings account alone is the $7.95 monthly fee. If you’re doing the 3% cashback banking option, and you’ll be spending $1,000 per month anyway, then the 3% savings account is a nice little bonus there. The top competing rate currently on a no-qualifications account is 2.57%.
It was a fun 3 years, but with 1) Melio adding a fee to debit card payments and 2) Green Dot adding a fee to “external account funding transactions”–ie: adding money to Cashapp/Venmo/etc from the debit card, this account’s usefulness is now dead to me. Closed it today.
Got a couple of nice bonuses from the 3-and-then-2 percent cash back on online debit card transactions, though. Totaled to over $1000.
Redeemed my second annual cash back bonus today! Was less than half of last year’s bc the rate was reduced from 3% to 2%, plus I didn’t use the card quite as much this year… but it was still free money.
Anybody else still using this account?
Green Dot will NOT pay out the 3% (now 2%) interest after 12 months. Phone support pretends to know nothing. Chat support keeps telling you “the system” will take care of it. Beware of this scam!
Weird. I had no problem collecting mine last July. I’ll report back here in a few weeks when I attempt to collect this year’s bonus.
Anyone else using this with Plastiq, it keeps telling me that the card has been declined. Same deal via PPK too.
FYI, it appears as if you can only open this account now by buying the card in a store. https://www.greendot.com/personal-banking/our-products/debit-cards/cash-back-debit-card
Green Dot’s current checking/debit product that can be opened online is something called “Go2bank” (probably a GoBank successor) and looks nowhere near as good.
William Charles 
Chuck
It’s been some months now, but I wanted to update this post to add that the Cash Back card that I linked above is NOT the same product as the Unlimited account. Main difference is that the monthly fee is $9.95 (as opposed to $7.95) and it doesn’t appear to be waivable by any means (where as on the Unlimited account, it’s waived whenever you put $1000 of spend on the card in a month).
Unlimited is still going strong for existing customers for now, but this new Cash Back card will automatically set you back $119.40 per year, no matter what. Will the cash back you collect at the end of the year be worth that?
07/30/19: Opened account
07/30/19-07/27/20: Used debit card in accordance w/ terms
07/28/20: Redeemed bonus
Redeeming the bonus was a bit confusing at first. Had to go into the app and tap where it shows the bonus amount. At that point, it actually showed my bonus as “$0.00” (!!) but that was actually the reset amount for 2020-21. Tapping the $0.00 revealed the amount available for redemption and a “Redeem” button. Tapping that deposited the bonus into my account.
Would’ve been easier if they’d just automatically deposited the bonus into my account. BUT… no clawbacks, no shutdowns, etc. Got my money.
No more $50 bonus now
William Charles 
Chuck.
Updated, thanks
Any updates on whether rent/cell phone/insurance amounts paid with the debit card count for cash back?
I actually contacted the Email Support Team with the following: “So, just to clarify, if for example, I pay my vehicle loan with my debit card on their website, I’m eligible for the cash back? The reason why I’m double-checking is because on the Green Dot website, it states “Bill payments…using your debit card…”
The reply stated: “If the payment is processed trough the bill pay feature of the card, then it will not be eligible for the cash back bonus.”
So, I’m assuming if you use your debit card to pay bills through a third party site, then you’ll be eligible for the cashback.
“The following purchases/transactions shall not be considered qualifying
purchases for purposes of earning Cash Back:
• airline purchases,
• quasi-cash transactions (i.e. purchase of items that convert to or substitute for cash, such as digital
wallets, person-to-person transactions, casino chips or transactions at online gaming sites,
travelers checks, lottery tickets, etc.),
• the use of your Debit Card to purchase gift cards or for funding another card or account,
• bill payments, either using your Debit Card or using our online bill pay service,
• transferring funds from your Debit Card or bank account to another bank account or credit card
account, and
• transactions conducted at http://www.greendot.com or our mobile application (such as online bill
payments or person-to-person transfers). ”
From their terms and conditions
DP: Greendot website and app updated savings and cash back rates from 3% to 2%
Effective (for existing customers, anyway) on 06/30/20. Might be immediate for new customers. (fyi,
Chuck)
Updated, thanks
Missed that, updated now, thank you
Thank you so much for this review. You saved me a lot of time from researching Green Dot.