BofA has accumulated so much bad karma with me over the years that I wouldn't waste the piss to put them out if they were on fire.

Disclaimer: I feel really sorry for the folks in the banks who are on the front lines. They don't make policy, but they have to enforce it. A job is a job...

I've used one for years as a way to manage my money better. My bank seemed to refuse to keep an up to date balance in hopes of getting overdraft fees. That and I'm too lazy to keep accurate records of my spending on my own especially when I can see how easy it would be to implement with the system in place. I now use my credit union for savings and bill pay and my green dot for day to day spending.

I don't know why you wouldn't just go to your local CU and get a debit card from them

Prepaid debit cards are for people who are blocked from opening a checking account due to bad data in the Chexsystems. It has a place in the market, even though the fees are high.

/ worked in the prepaid industry

Hmm. replace "bad data" with "negative information" in above. My brain makes strange translations like that before 8am.

at least green dot is up front about being evil.

Scythed: I don't know why you wouldn't just go to your local CU and get a debit card from them

Because 20-25% of the nation's adults can't. Screwed up once in the last decade == Chexsystems. See also: illegal aliens. Green Dot fees and Walmart's 60-cent money orders are a lot less rapey than much of the alternatives-to-banking complex that's sprung up.

NewportBarGuy: Green Dot is to the cash flow of the black market as Tracfone is to the same market.

And here I thought cash was the cash flow of the black market.

Call us when Green Dot starts foreclosing on homes whose mortgage they don't own, are paid up, or never happened in the first place.

Told ya so.

Another thing useful about GreenDot: It's real money (yes, the fee sucks) so you can't spend money you don't have, and when you're done with it and have drained it back down to 3 cents or so, you shred it and throw it away. It's useful for dealing with companies that like to try to stick you with surprise charges and then actually have to work it out with you on the phone.

Barakku: NewportBarGuy: Green Dot is to the cash flow of the black market as Tracfone is to the same market.

And here I thought cash was the cash flow of the black market.

Credit cards, unlike cash, are not consficated by the police if you are arrested*.

Plus, the TSA has been known to consficated cash from people if they think you have too much.


*also jewelry is not consficated, hence why pimps wear lots of gold & diamonds