GoBank Reappears?

For a while, GoBank wasn’t taking new members, but they recently did some revamping and it seems to be reappearing.

GoBank Background

GoBank is a pre-paid card simlar to Bluebird/Serve. You can load the card at Walmart with cash/debit, and it thus can be loaded with a Visa gift card. Many pre-paid cards can be loaded at Walmart, but Bluebird/Serve/GoBank are unique in that they have no monthly fee, and – more importantly – they have a Bill Pay feature, which lets you simply pay off credit card bills and thus complete the MS cycle.

The reason why people don’t talk much about GoBank is because they’re notorious about shutting down accounts of those who engage in “abusive practices” (read: all of us), and thus most of us got shut down. But my understanding is that many of those who use the card moderately were not shut down, despite using the card exclusively for loading in Walmart and unloading via BillPay.

For the past few months, if you tried to sign up for the GoBank card, the system said that it’s currently unavailable for new sign-ups, and that you should wait for a new, better GoBank soon. It appears that the time may be coming.

Is GoBank Accepting New Members?

It appears that they are beginning to accept new members. One caveat: you first need to purchase an elusive starter-card (with a $2.95 fee). When you click the “Open Your Account” tab, the system asks you for your starter-card number, and indicates that you can’t open an account without a starter-card. As of a few week ago, it appears that this starter-kit  is available in 20 Walmart stores in Texas, but presumably they’ll be rolling it out more extensively in the near future.

There may be one other method of getting a GoBank account without purchasing a starter-card, which is to have someone send you money from their GoBank account (minimum of $1), and the system should prompt the recepient to either transfer the money to a Paypal account or open a GoBank account. This definitely used to work, but it’s possible that they stopped this when the new starter-card system came into effect.

One big drawback about the newly-revamped GoBank card is that it has an $8.95 monthly fee, unless you receive Direct Deposit of at least $500 per month. It’s likely that an ACH transfer from a different bank account will also count as a direct deposit, but we don’t know that for sure. This fee is only for new members. As of now, any member from before July 23, 2014 is grandfathered in with no monthly fee.

Could it be that people who were shut down will now be able to re-apply for this “new product” and get approved? Doubtful, but hard to say for sure.

New Limits

There are also new limits which GoBank rolled out. These limits are for new members and old members.

  • In-store loads are limited to $3000 per rolling 30 days.
  • BillPay can only be made up to $5000 a day.

Obviously, the important one here is the limit of $3000 per rolling 30 days, which makes this card inferior to Bluebird/Serve even for Walmart loads. Previously, there was no official limit to how much could be loaded per month, which led many to do excessive loads and get shut down. (As an aside, I hate rolling-30-day limits. They confuse me. I wish it were a calendar month limit, the way Bluebird/Serve is.)

Interesing Facts and Figures

Green Dot Corporation released some interesting data on GoBank in its Earnings Call report (sign-in required).

  • The most  popular method of depositing money into GoBank  is direct deposit. Next is cellphone check deposit, then ACH transfer, then cash deposit.
  • “Nearly 60% of active account holders say that GoBank is their primary checking account.”
  • “GoBank active customers deposit an average of $1,000 per month to their account.”
  • “23% of these customers use GoBank to electronically pay bills.”
  • “GoBank customers are heavy users of the GoBank debit card racking up approximately 19 transactions per month and around $600 of monthly debit card spend.”

I find these figures very interesting. Apparently, we MSers are a marginal demographic in the GoBank system. I’d love to see figures of this sort on Bluebird/Serve.

Our Verdict

New limits always sound constricting, but I wonder if the new limits will make the card more sustainable and will stop the shutdown-syndrom that GoBank had. I’ve had the GoBank card for almost a year and I’ve used it moderately as a backup to my Serve card. I’m very careful not to do weird things, like doing five loads of $100 in one day. I try finding a cashier who knows how to do split-tender, then I do one load of three Visa gift cards (this shows up as one load on GoBank’s end), and then I shelve the card for a few days. I’ve unloaded exclusively using the BillPay feature, but – I guess – since I use it moderately they haven’t shut me down. I love having a backup to my Serve card for the months when I have lots of gift cards to unload. I don’t think I’ve ever done more than $3000 in one month, so the new limit isn’t so terrible for me.

I’m just hoping that they won’t start pushing the monthly fee onto old members. Admittedly, with the monthly fee, I hear a serious question of whether it would be worth keeping the card. For someone who will really use it at a full $3000 a month it may be worth it, but since I just use it as a backup it may not be. I’m nervous to load too much on my GoBank card in one shot because I’ve had problems in the past with their BillPay system being down (though there’s always money orders), and I don’t want too much money tied up there.

What do you think about GoBank? Have you been shut down?

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Adriana Sian
Adriana Sian (@guest_977203)
May 11, 2020 05:29

I just bought a GoBank Visa card $200.00 dollars from my local CVS store in San Mateo ca, the problem is that every time I tried to register my card! I get a return message saying that the card number is not valid. Any ideas what’s going on? Can yu please help me out?

Iks
Iks (@guest_1034777)
August 11, 2020 23:00

i can’t really help much, but i think you’re supposed to get the mastercard version, not the visa version as supposedly the visa charges you a fee to load money.

Uber Driver
Uber Driver (@guest_663907)
October 27, 2018 11:51

I use GoBank through Uber. It’s free that way and has some cool cash back benefits.

Felix
Felix (@guest_481921)
September 23, 2017 18:26

Does loading GoBank with a MoneyPak waive the monthly fee (assuming you load $500 or more)?

Mike
Mike (@guest_263124)
May 27, 2016 21:58

Is anyone able to load Gobank card with visa gift card at walmart or any groceries stores?

AL
AL (@guest_263134)
May 27, 2016 22:47

I have been loading VGCs at walmart for the past couple months, so does my boyfriend

Chad Neiswonger
Chad Neiswonger (@guest_403800)
May 9, 2017 03:11

You can load GB cards with any tender, GC, cash, debit card, credit card, etc. Walmart and GB don’t care, they get paid either way LOL

Felix
Felix (@guest_481920)
September 23, 2017 18:26

Chad, you’ve been able to load Gobank directly with a credit card?

Packetslinger
Packetslinger (@guest_238766)
March 29, 2016 05:36

Tried to load my Gobank with US Bank issued pin enabled MasterCard at WalMart and received “invalid tender” message from register. Is this something new?

Chad Neiswonger
Chad Neiswonger (@guest_403799)
May 9, 2017 03:10

Try it as credit. But if Walmart is the company giving the “invalid tender” it usually means not enough funds or you entered PIN wrong.

LaRasha Washington
LaRasha Washington (@guest_224355)
February 10, 2016 14:02

I have a bank account with GoBank and my tax return was deposited in my account on 2/3/16 and I started making transaction paying bills they then placed a hold on my account because they felt it was my activity was unusual I had to call the number on the back of my debit card to verify my transaction which I did and they removed the hold on my account so I went back to using my debit card. Later that night they placed another hold on my card without notice and I was not able to use my card at all and then next morning I received a email saying ….We’ve identified some unusual activity on your GoBank account. To protect your funds, we’ve temporarily blocked access to your account until we’re able to verify your identity. What you need to do to turn your card back on: Using your mobile phone or computer, submit a photo of your Driver’s License, State ID or Passport at the website listed below. (We’ll give you instructions on how to do this on the website.) When you submit the photo successfully, you’ll receive a confirmation, but we’ll still need up to 2 days to review it.
I did what they asked that same day which was 2/4/16. As of today which is 2/10/16 the hold is still on my account and I have sent them email after email asking them why my account is still locked after the 2 business days. There is no way to contact the bank by phone and the last reply I received today was We apologize for the inconvenience. Your account is currently under review. We will call you as soon as we have an update. This has been such a horrible experience and I’m a single mother of 4 and I have no other money available on top of that I have a disconnection notice for my utility company if my payment is not submitted by 2/10/16 where I had to borrow money to pay it. I have contacted the Federal Reserve and I have a appointment with a lawyer I will be filling a law suit against this bank I hope anyone else that has had problems do the same.

Sara thompson
Sara thompson (@guest_225070)
February 11, 2016 21:52

Please, I want to file a law suit as well as they rejected my refund after telling me over the phone, and through message that I would be OK, I’m facing eviction. With kids nowhere to go. Now the middle man bank has my funds under review as well, so who knows now when I’ll get my return. I’m not the only person wanting to sue that go bank has screwed over. But if we get enough people we can file a class action suit

Chad Neiswonger
Chad Neiswonger (@guest_403798)
May 9, 2017 03:08

It is not GB rejecting your tax return. This happened to me in 2009 with NetSpend, it is the IRS flagging your return money when sending it to the bank for further identity verification. All I had to do with NetSpend was send a copy of my tax return showing the refund amount, photo ID and a copy of my social sec card to verify I am who I say I am. Within 2 hours my funds dropped into my account. So don’t blame GB it is not them, it is the IRS fighting fraud. You had something on your return that raised some sort of small red flag and they released your funds because it was ACH DD to a credible bank.

Jonathan Coward
Jonathan Coward (@guest_240776)
April 2, 2016 00:19

The same thing just happen to me too day I ask them where and who was using the card when I had it with no internet transactions.
I was plan on going to Feds myself on Monday

Miles
Miles (@guest_222146)
February 3, 2016 14:11

So is there any suggestion that how can we unload money except BP? Transfer to PP or ACH is safe? Or just swipe many times:(

PK
PK (@guest_736638)
March 18, 2019 15:00

 Chuck do you still use Go Bank prepaid ? I recently started and looking for tips for avoiding shutdown ? any pointers would be appreciated !!

Dheen
Dheen (@guest_216335)
January 11, 2016 13:37

Has any one tied to send ACH to go bank and are they counting that as Direct deposit?

Dheen
Dheen (@guest_225788)
February 15, 2016 09:34

I linked my Chase and deposit from Chase ACH they are coding as DD. I am going to setup recurring $500 deposit from chase.

AL
AL (@guest_235947)
March 22, 2016 23:12

When I enter GoBank routing number in Chase, it says “We are unable to process your request” – did this happen to you?

chrly
chrly (@guest_520655)
November 21, 2017 07:58

After your account has been closed. By
GB,

Can u Use up remaining. available
Swipe or online still??

AL
AL (@guest_236323)
March 23, 2016 14:55

How did you link your Chase? Adding external account?

mord1
mord1 (@guest_241982)
April 4, 2016 23:34

does the $500 deposit count toward the rolling $3000 a month?
I assume yes, but can you confirm?

Chad Neiswonger
Chad Neiswonger (@guest_403795)
May 9, 2017 03:02

DD is only counted as a payment TO your acct FROM a DD source. You cannot send ACH from YOU to YOU and expect it to post as a DD on GB towards your $500.00. I have had a GB acct for going on 3 years and have not experienced one negative issues. The only small issue is they do “fraud flag” your card when using it online too much and you have to call and go through your transactions with the auto system then it unlocks. Happened to me trying to buy a $325.00 vacation package online, after I verified, went through. It does every once in a while decline when you have funds, but that seems to be a glitch in the communication between the merchant, the processor and GB. But wait about 20 minutes and it clears up. When it does happen just get money from an ATM to pay for what you were paying for, then call GB and most of the times they will refund a one-time fee for the issue. I have used my card hard with ACH DD, loads, bill pay and have NEVER been shutdown. But of course maybe it is because I had a WMMC for over 10 years before going with GB and built credibility in their system under my name and social.

Mr oppenheimer
Mr oppenheimer (@guest_215799)
January 9, 2016 15:44

What type of VGCs you can load into GB? Any VGCs? you know how lately OV didn’t work in WM when loading to serve. Do you load VGC at the cash counter or in moneycenter? how many VGCs at a time?

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