Greenlight Review 2026: Core, Max, Infinity and Family Shield Costs

Greenlight is a debit card and app for kids and teens, run by parents, with one monthly fee that covers up to five kids. Parents load money, set chores and allowances, approve where kids can spend, and pay a savings reward on what the family keeps in the app.

The higher plans add investing for kids, location and driving alerts, and identity protection for the parents.

This review is for parents who want the cost in dollars, not adjectives: what each plan costs over a year, how large a savings balance has to be before an upgrade pays for itself, and which fees sit outside the subscription.

Toolradar data: among the 18 personal finance tools in Toolradar's personal finance ranking as of October 2026, 8 have a free plan, and Greenlight is not among the tools ranked there; every kids' card in this review except Chase's charges a fee, so the question is which fee buys the most.

We compare Greenlight with Acorns Early, FamZoo, BusyKid and Chase First Banking. Every price below was read on the provider's own page on 21 October 2026.

The Greenlight card is a prepaid Mastercard issued by Community Federal Savings Bank, member FDIC, and the investing side is run by Greenlight Investment Advisors, an SEC registered investment adviser. Investments are not FDIC insured and can lose value.

Greenlight's plans cover up to five kids and two adults on one fee, and a family can hold up to $50,000 across its accounts under the card's limits.

The product has four layers that stack by plan. Every plan has the kids' debit cards, chores, allowance and direct deposit, the Level Up money game and a savings reward. Max adds 1% cash back, investing for kids and cell phone protection.

Infinity adds family location sharing, SOS and crash alerts and driving reports. Family Shield adds financial account monitoring, three-bureau credit protection and insurance against identity theft and deceptive transfer fraud.

For the parents' own investing, our investing apps ranking covers accounts built for adults.

A parent signs up in the app, picks a plan and links a funding account. Greenlight bills the first monthly fee seven days after registration, and a new customer who closes the account before the first monthly billing date gets that first fee back. Annual subscribers have 30 days for a full refund, per Greenlight's terms.

Kids then get their own cards and app logins. Parents send allowance on a schedule, pay for chores, set where a card can be used and see each purchase as it happens. The savings reward and the 1% cash back on Max and above require the account to be in good standing with a verified ACH funding account.

If you want a family budget alongside, Monarch Money's Toolradar profile and our Monarch Money review cover the parents' side, and EveryDollar vs YNAB compares two zero-based budgeting apps.

Greenlight prints four monthly prices, from Core to Family Shield, on its plans page. Over twelve months that is $71.88, $131.76, $191.76 and $239.76, our arithmetic.

Greenlight does not print an annual price on the plans page; its fee disclosures say annual pricing, where offered, is set at or below twelve times the monthly fee and shown in the app.

The savings reward decides whether an upgrade pays. Infinity costs $119.88 a year more than Core and earns 3 points more on savings, which covers the difference once the family keeps about $3,996 in Greenlight savings; at the cap it earns $150 more than Core.

Max costs $59.88 a year more than Core, and its extra point at the cap is worth $50, so it needs about $988 a year of card spending at 1% cash back to break even. Family Shield costs $48 a year more than Infinity and its extra point is worth $50 at the cap. A family with $500 saved earns $10 a year on Core against a $71.88 fee.

A few charges sit outside the subscription, per the fee disclosures: a custom card costs $9.99, the first replacement card per family each calendar year is free and later ones carry a fee, and express delivery costs up to $24.99.

ATM withdrawals carry no Greenlight fee, but ATM operators can still charge. Prices may include local taxes, per the plans page.

Methodology: prices and fees were read on Greenlight's plans page, fee disclosures and terms of service on 21 October 2026, and on each alternative's own page the same day: FamZoo, BusyKid, Acorns pricing, Acorns Early and Chase First Banking.

Break-even figures assume the reward rate and cap hold for a full year and leave out taxes. Nothing here comes from a hands-on test.

Greenlight fits two kinds of family. The first keeps a real balance in the app, $4,000 or more, so the savings reward on Infinity or Family Shield pays back most or all of the fee. The second has teen drivers or wants identity protection for the parents, and values location sharing, driving reports or credit monitoring on the same bill as the kids' cards.

It fits poorly for a family that wants only a card and an allowance. FamZoo charges $59.90 prepaid for a year with no limit on cards, BusyKid charges $4 a month billed annually, and Chase First Banking has no monthly service fee for families that already hold a qualifying Chase checking account.

A family that mainly wants to invest for a child may get more from Acorns Gold, which includes Acorns Early and a kids' investment account with a 1% match. Parents building their own portfolio can start with Fidelity's Toolradar profile or our robo-advisor ranking.