Why is my Parent's Wallet balance negative and how do I fix it?

A negative Parent's Wallet balance is most often caused by one of three reasons:

1. Unpaid monthly fees - Your Parent’s Wallet can be negative if Greenlight is not able to collect the monthly fee.

First, we will attempt to pull the fee from your Parent’s Wallet. If there are no funds available there, we will pull the fee from your connected funding source.

If there are no funds available in the Parent’s Wallet or your funding source, we will deduct the monthly fee from one of your child's balances starting with the following: 

1. The “Spend Anywhere” spend control
2. Other category-spend controls
3. Store-level spend controls
4. Giving
5. General Savings

If none of these steps allow Greenlight to collect the monthly account fee, then the Parent’s Wallet will show a negative balance until the fee is paid. The unpaid fees will be deducted the next time you add money to your account. 

2. Wallet reversals - Wallet reversals can occur when you initiate a load to your Parent’s Wallet with your checking account. Our processor takes 3-5 business days to deduct the funds from your account and send them to Greenlight. To make sure you have quick access to funds, Greenlight fronts the money to your Parent’s Wallet while we settle up with your bank on the back end. Unfortunately when your bank cannot complete the transaction you requested (for example, because there are not enough funds available), Greenlight will remove the fronted funds from your account, which can cause a negative balance.
3. Overages - Overages can occur when a transaction processes for more than is available on the card. Usually, if the amount to charge is more than what is available, the transaction will be declined. In some rare occasions, though, the transaction will go through anyways: when an amount – such as in a restaurant or any tipping service - is pre-approved and the tip exceeds the pre-adjusted / pre-approved amount. In the off chance that a transaction does go through, an overage will occur for the amount that was not covered by the card balance and will be charged to the Parent's Wallet or the funding source on file. Depending on the overage amount, and on the Parent’s Wallet balance, the resulting balance can be negative.

To get back to a positive balance, just load funds to the account as normal to settle the negative balance. For instructions on how to load funds to your Parent’s Wallet please refer to this article: LINK

If you still have further questions please Text us at 404-974-3024