Green Dot - Prepaid Mastercard Review

I've had my Greendot card for over a year, and its worked out fine for what I need. The other day, I went to Office Depot to make a purchase of around $30. The cashier rang me up, and I slid my card in, hit debit, and entered my pin. Declined. But I knew I had a couple hundred dollars on the card. So I tried again. Still Declined. I went home emptyhanded and checked on line. I saw two postings for Office Depot for the same roughly $30 amount listed as "pending" but not declined. I also saw that I had plenty of money to cover the amount, and couldn't understand why it had been declined. So I called customer service, and listening carefully it wasn't to hard to get to a live representative. I asked why the card had been declined. The representative said that Greendot okayed the transaction, but Office Depot "declined" at their end. She apologized for the inconvenience and explained that both "pending" amounts would become available again within 5 days. I was annoyed, but reassured. She also mentioned that pressing "credit" instead of "debit" avoids this problem.

A couple days later, actually today, I check online as see that Office Depot amounts have been updated to "Posted." So I again call customer service. This time I'm told, "Yeah they declined it, but they kept the money. Your gonna have to get a credit from Office Depot." So I go to Office Depot, and they pull the cash register records from two days ago showing me that the transaction was immediately voided. They don't have my money. The office manager, who was great and said he'll do whatever needed to help me get it fixed, said he couldn't give me a credit because the transaction had been voided. He also told me that pressing "credit" helps them get transactions approved that are declined when "debit" is pressed.

So I've decided to dispute the transactions. I wrote the letter and sent it certified mail. We'll see what happens.

But here's the thing. There's a quirk in the system. The merchant's bank declined the transaction. Greendot knew that the transaction had been declined by the merchant's bank, but Greendot still released the money. I don't know if its fraud, but its seems irresponsible at the least. Another example of banks acting carelessly with other people's money. Now I'm thinking back to all the other times I pressed "debit", put my pin in, had the transaction declined, and had the cashier say, "Try pressing credit" and I wonder whether both "transactions" posted later. Its easy to miss. When the voided Office Depot transactions posted, the entries were listed several lines apart (But previously, when they were merely "pending", the entries were listed immediately one after the other). It makes me wonder how may other times I, or others, might have had a transaction "declined" initially but posted later. There's a few times I've thought, "I know I had more money than that." I may have been right. Of course, with they way they update the online records there's no way to tell from our end at this stage. And depending on how my dispute pans out, I may look into a class action suit. Banks aren't too popular these days, they seem to know there are kinks in the system, and I'm an attorney that a little slow on business. The truth is, I really just want my money and an explanation I can trust. So far, I've gotten nothing.

The moral of the story: Always press "Credit"