Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Green Dot Takes On Mobile Banking With GoBank

Monrovia, California-based Green Dot, the prepaid payment card provider, has launched itself into the mobile banking market today, unveiling its new GoBank bank account. The firm said it designed the new, mobile banking account "from scratch", specifically aimed at the new mobile generation. Green Dot said the new accounts would not have any minimum balance requirements, would not include overdraft or penalty fees, no required monthly fees, and will allow users to depot their checks into an FDIC insured bank account. Other features include a network of over 40,000 fee-free ATMs, budgeting tools, savings goals, and more. Green Dot is headed by Steve Streit, and helped to create the entire category of prepaid credit cards, cards which look and act like a typical Visa or Mastercard, but are refilled by consumers on demand. Green Dot's Streit said in a statement that banking is one of the few industries in the world that hasn't yet been reinvented by Silicon Valley--and that the firm is hoping to make mobile banking as "intimate and addictive as checking Facebook or texting friends."