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Hi and Welcome to the Forum,
Did you pay the annual fee?, it may have posted to your account, and you have a balance of $39
and the minimum payment is due? .. I suggest is if you owe the annual fee of $39 ..pay it in full.
Green Dot secured (and every other secured card) is going to expect to be treated like a credit card. They will have a minimum payment each month, they will charge you interest (on your own money! I know! ) if you carry a balance, and so forth. It's not like a refillable debit card, though it sounds like you're going to be wise and treat it like that—spend, pay to the card, spend, pay to the card—lather, rinse, repeat.
I had a Green Dot Platinum secured and I always paid it in full each month and never paid any fees (other than the annual fee) or interest. I paid via debit card online and the payment usually hit the card (thus freeing up some of the credit limit) in a day or two. For the platinum secured, I used this link to pay: https://platinum.greendot.com/ I would never, never, ever try to pay via checking account because I have heard they are glacially slow to post the payment. Debit card payment is the way to go. (They used to even let me pay with my Discover IT credit card, but no more, I don't think! )
Edit: You mention paying at convenience stores: I think you can do that, but I only did it once (to give my initial $200 secured deposit). I paid in cash to Walmart and paid a fee. You can avoid paying fees in the future if you pay online with your debit card.
Hope this helps! I really liked Green Dot and they helped me with my credit rebuild.
Yes I just learned that the initial deposit is the credit limit I established for myself. I know can use the card within that limit and pay monthly payments on that. Is that right? I thought it was more like a pre-paid card where i load it and spend it monthly.
@Anonymous wrote:Yes I just learned that the initial deposit is the credit limit I established for myself. I know can use the card within that limit and pay monthly payments on that. Is that right? I thought it was more like a pre-paid card where i load it and spend it monthly.
the BLUE part is correct!
@Anonymous wrote:Yes I just learned that the initial deposit is the credit limit I established for myself. I know can use the card within that limit and pay monthly payments on that. Is that right? I thought it was more like a pre-paid card where i load it and spend it monthly.
Yes, and it would be good to pay often if you are planning on doing a lot of spending on the card, so you don't max out the limit (show a balance of $355 on a card with a $355 limit). This looks bad on your credit report (but it doesn't do any lasting damage and as soon as your credit balance is paid down, your credit report reflects that positive change).
I had a $200 limit and I would obsessively send payments in soon after I charged something. When Adobe charged me $10 for my subscription, I'd wait a few days and use my debit card to pay $10 to Green Dot. And so forth and so on. I sent payments to Green Dot probably every week (depending on how much I was spending). So my Green Dot credit card never really had a chance to accumulate a higher balance. This is a good habit to get into, IMHO.
@M_Smart007 wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:Yes I just learned that the initial deposit is the credit limit I established for myself. I know can use the card within that limit and pay monthly payments on that. Is that right? I thought it was more like a pre-paid card where i load it and spend it monthly.
the BLUE part is correct!
Yes, it is just like a credit card (in fact it IS a credit card!) It's just that it is secured, so that if you don't pay, the issuer can take your initial deposit as payment. Otherwise, all normal credit rules of min pay, due date and interest apply.
You may feel that you are borrowing against your own money, but a more positive way is that you are getting the chance to build a good credit history, and the price you pay is locking up the initial deposit for as long as you need the card