Green Dot Corporation
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| Public | |
| Traded as | : GDOT S&P 600 Component |
| Industry | Financial services |
| Founded | 1999 |
| Headquarters | Pasadena, California |
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Key people
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Steve Streit, CEO |
| Products | Prepaid MasterCard and Visa cards |
| Website | www |
Green Dot Corporation is an issuer of prepaid MasterCard and Visa cards in the United States. These products are available at more than 60,000 retail stores, including CVS, Rite Aid, Walgreens, RadioShack, and Dollar Tree; as well as with discounted offerings at Meijer and Walmart. Green Dot also transfers individuals' direct deposit funds (such as Social Security payments) from the US government to personal bank accounts.
The cards may be used like normal debit or credit cards, but they are not backed by a checking account or line of credit. Purchases are deducted from the balance stored on the card. The user can add more money to the card by paying cash at a retail store's point of sale, or in certain cases from their paycheck.
Green Dot is headquartered in Pasadena, California, and it was formerly known as Next Estate Communications. The company provides co-branded card programs to Walmart, Boost Mobile, AT&T and Citibank. In 2007, Green Dot raised $20M in funding, including Sequoia Capital as an investor. In 2008, Green Dot ceased to offer prepaid Discover cards.
The Green Dot corporation was founded in 1999 by Steve Streit. Green Dot was formerly known as Next Estate Communications. The first debit card to be sold was I-GEN in the year 2000. It was geared toward teenagers and Internet users. In 2001 the first I-GEN MasterCard was sold at a Rite Aid in Virginia. In 2002 the first Green Dot debit cards were sold at more Rite Aid stores as well as CVS Pharmacy, and Pantry Convenience stores. In 2003, the I-GEN card was sold in over 18,000 stores nationwide and geared toward adults. In the year 2004, I-GEN officially changed its name to Green Dot and started the first cash-accepting network for reloading the debit cards. In 2005, Green Dot created additional debit cards for everyone's needs. Finally, by May 2006, Green Dot sold more than two million cards nationwide and opened more retailers to issue more cards internationally.
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Wikipedia