Greenlight is the program every other kids card gets measured against, and the official record largely backs the reputation. This review sticks to what can be verified: the fee schedule filed with the CFPB, the FDIC certificate behind the deposits, the complaint file, and the dated snapshots of its pricing page — all tracked continuously on our Greenlight fiche.
What Greenlight actually is
Greenlight is a fintech program, not a bank: the card and app come from Greenlight Financial Technology, and the money sits at Community Federal Savings Bank in Woodhaven, NY (FDIC certificate 57129 — active at our latest BankFind verification). The product is really a parental-control system with a debit card attached: spending limits by store category, real-time purchase alerts, instant card lock, and a chores-and-allowance engine that automates the family money loop. That control stack is the deepest of the six kids programs in our kids ranking, and it is the reason Greenlight sits at #1 there.
The fee line, from the filings
The Core plan costs $5.99 per month and covers up to five kids — a flat family price that makes Greenlight the cheapest paid option per child once you pass two children. The schedule is not marketing copy: it is a legal filing, with five prepaid agreements lodged at the CFPB since 2018, and our fiche flags every new version the day the Bureau publishes it. Higher plans (Max at $10.98, Infinity at $15.98, Family Shield at $19.98, per the official plans page snapshot) raise the savings reward from 2% to as much as 6% and unlock investing with parent approval plus cashback.
The record: complaints and custody
Two numbers frame the trust question. First, 37 complaints filed against Greenlight Financial Technology in the CFPB Consumer Complaint Database at our latest pull — a low count for a program of its size (compare the four- and five-digit files of some teen apps in our teen ranking). Second, the pass-through structure: your money is at a partner bank, not a bank you chose. That is normal for fintech kids cards, but it is exactly the line a $0 bank-held account like Chase First Banking removes.
Who should pick Greenlight — and who shouldn’t
Choose Greenlight if the family will actually run on its features: chores feeding allowance, category limits per kid, several children on one plan. Skip it if you only want basic oversight and already bank somewhere with a free kids account — the structural advantage of direct bank custody at $0 beats paying $71.88 a year for features you won’t open. Either way, the fee schedule, FDIC status and complaint count stay tracked on the fiche, so the decision can be re-checked in minutes next year.