GoHenry vs Greenlight Prepaid Debit Cards
Is GoHenry or Greenlight better? Greenlight debit card has more advanced features like investing or cashback so it might be a better educational tool for a kid. Also, Greenlight seems to be a better value for money, if you have two and more kids. But all in all, GoHenry and Greenlight have similar core features so you can consider both as good providers of prepaid debit cards for kids
Now, let’s get into a detailed comparison of GoHenry vs Greenlight.
Teaching kids and teens how to use money wisely is not an easy task. But today there are many companies that offer you a helping hand. Among such companies are GoHenry and Greenlight, two leaders in this industry that offer a prepaid debit card for kids in combination with an educational app. In this article, I’ll analyze what’s the differences between the companies and provide you with my recommendations on what is better.
This article may contain affiliate links but this doesn’t affect my analysis of these products.
Let’s start with the differences between these cards for kids and then move to pros & cons, pricing, and finally, similarities.
More saving options (like savings rewards)
More specific spending controls are available (like limits for specific shops)
Mobile payments available
No ATM fees
Cheaper than GoHenry if you have more than one kid
More educational content within the app
Available in the US only
GoHenry is available in the US and UK (compared to Greenlight available in the US only)
No mobile payments (with Google Pay or Apple Pay)
ATM fees
10 main differences between GoHenry and Greenlight
Now let’s see the detailed breakdown of the differences which will help you decide which prepaid debit card is better for your family.
Price and additional fees
- With Greenlight, you pay a monthly fee (starting from $4.99) per family; so up to five kids can have their own debit card for this price. With GoHenry you pay per child ($3.99) which means it gets more expensive than Greenlight if you have more than one kid.
- Greenlight prepaid debit card doesn’t have an ATM fee and GoHenry has a $1.5 fee for domestic ATMs and $2 for international ones.
Payment
3. Unlike GoHenry debit card, Greenlight allows you to use mobile payments (Apple Pay, Google Pay).
Spending control
4. Greenlight has five spending categories and you can set spending limits for each. Moreover, you can even add a specific store to add spending limits. GoHenry doesn’t offer such settings to limit spending–they have inbuilt limitations like alcohol or tobacco stores.
Saving and earning features
5.GoHenry doesn’t have a savings reward, whereas Greenlight debit card has 1-2% depending on the membership plan. The rewards are based on the average daily savings and are paid at the beginning of each month.
6. Greenlight has a unique Parent-Paid Interest feature. It allows parents to set and pay an interest rate from 1-100% that would be loaded into the kid’s General Savings.
7. Greenlight has the Round Ups feature meaning that during each transaction, extra change from purchases (roundup to the next dollar) is added to the savings account. GoHenry doesn’t have such a feature.
8. After reaching saving goals, GoHenry has only an option to transfer money back to the spending account (or keep them temporarily on the saving goal). Meanwhile, Greenlight has more options: except for basic options, you can edit the Savings Goal and increase the goal amount or leave money on the savings goal account and earn Parent-Paid Interest.
9. Greenlight has a cashback option available within its Greenlight Max plan whereas GoHenry doesn’t.
Investing
10. Greenlight allows kids to invest with trade approval from parents for an extra monthly fee, and GoHenry doesn’t have such an option. With Greenlight, a kid will have their own investment portfolio and can purchase fractional shares of over 4,000 real stocks and ETFs starting with just $1. To do this, parents need to approve the trading request made by a kid.
Quick overview of the differences
Let’s start with the detailed breakdown of the two cards for kids. This table will help to highlight the main differences between the companies in a simple way.
| GoHenry | Greenlight | |
| Age | 6-18 | 9-18 |
| Price | $4.99/month per kid | $4.99 – $14.98/month per family (up to 5 kids) |
| Location | US & UK | US only |
| Issued by | Visa | MasterCard |
| ATM fee | Yes, $1.5-2 | No |
| Custom cards | $9.99 each | $4.99 each |
| Allowance | Yes (weekly or monthly) | Yes (weekly, biweekly, or monthly) |
| Chores | Yes | Yes (you can also connect allowance with chores) |
| Savings | Yes (saving goals) | Yes (saving goals + Parent-Paid Interest, Savings Reward and Round Ups features) |
| Investing | No | Yes, under parental control |
| Cashback | No | Yes |
Read the full Greenlight review to learn more about the company and its features. Or read the in-depth GoHenry review to learn more about the company and its features. Additionally, check out our list of GoHenry alternatives that includes Greenlight as one of the most popular prepaid debit cards for kids.
Pricing comparison
GoHenry has quite a simple pricing model where you have to pay $4.99 per month per child for the membership. Moreover, the company has a fee of $1.5-2 for using an ATM. A GoHenry card with a custom design is $4.99.
Greenlight’s pricing is more complicated as it offers three plans, from $4.99/month to $14.98/month. Each option includes basic features, return on savings, while more expensive options allow kids to invest and provide cash back. A custom card by the company is $9.99. On the plus side, there’s no ATM fee.
In a nutshell, Greenlight’s basic plan is cheaper if you have more than one kid. With GoHenry, you pay for each child’s card separately so it might be more expensive than Greenlight’s basic plan if you have two kids and more.
10 main similarities
The companies have core similarities when it comes to their main features and usage. And here I’ve come up with ten similarities between the companies.
- Both Greenlight and GoHenry offer a prepaid debit card and an app for kids and their parents.
- Both companies have parental spending control and real-time notifications.
- Both have a feature to pay for tasks completed (recurring or one-time chores)
- Greenlight as well as GoHenry allows to pay allowance automatically (e.g. once a week or once a month). Greenlight also allows connecting chores to allowance, unlike GoHenry.
- Both apps allow to set savings goals, save money on this goal and track their progress.
- Both allow to make online or offline purchases or use ATM
- Greenlight as well as GoHenry allows parents to lock kids’ spending
- Family members can load money into the kid’s account
- Both companies have a donation option (donates go to Charity Navigator with Greenlight and Boys & Girls Clubs of America with GoHenry)
- GoHenry as well as Greenlight allows custom card design
So, I hope this review is useful and you’ll be able to easily make the decision on which prepaid debit card, GoHenry or Greenlight, to choose for your kids and teens.
FAQ
What is the difference between GoHenry and Greenlight? Greenlight offers more features like cashback and investing and it’s more affordable if you have two kids and more.
Is GoHenry cheaper than Greenlight? Their basic plan is actually the same but if you have more than one kid, a Greenlight card will be more affordable.
What are other alternatives to Greenlight and GoHenry? There are a lot of similar prepaid debit cards for kids with Famzoo, Current, and Busykid probably being the most popular ones.
GoHenry Review
David is an advocate of financial literacy. Having previously worked as a financial advisor and being a father of two daughters, he wants to show solutions to improve financial behavior.
