How to Open a Green Dot Account: Phone and ID Checks

To create a Green Dot account, you need to be 18 or older, verify a mobile number by text message and pass an identity check that includes your Social Security number. You can open an account online, or buy a Green Dot card in a store and activate it in the app or on the website.

What you need to open a Green Dot account

Green Dot sums it up: “Online access, mobile number verification (via text message) and identity verification (including SSN) are required to open and use your account.” In detail:

How to create a Green Dot account

1. Start at GreenDot.com. Choose Open an account and pick a card. With a card bought in a store, tap Activate card in the Green Dot app or go to GreenDot.com/activate instead.
2. Enter your details: name, address, date of birth, Social Security number and email. A store card also needs its card number, expiration date and security code.
3. Verify your mobile number with the text message Green Dot sends.
4. Pass identity verification. Have your driver’s license or other ID ready in case Green Dot asks for it.
5. Set up your username and password to manage the account. A store card also needs a PIN.

Why you should open it with your own number

Green Dot asks for your mobile number “for identity verification purposes”. Its account agreement goes further: you authorize your wireless operator to share your mobile number, name, address and other subscriber details with Green Dot “solely to verify your identity and prevent fraud.”

So open the account with your own mobile number. A rented number isn’t registered to you, so it can’t confirm who you are, and it’s no way around Green Dot’s identity checks.

If you want Green Dot’s texts on a second number

Green Dot needs a verified number to use the account, not just to open it, so a second number has to stay yours. A 20-minute number is the wrong tool, and a free public number is worse, because anyone can read its texts. Use a long-term US number on auto-renew, or a US All services number.

1. Create a free PVADeals account and add credits: crypto from $3, or a card through Stripe from $5.
2. Choose Green Dot from the list of websites, with the United States. If it isn’t listed, rent an All services number instead, which works on any website.
3. Pick a long-term rental and turn on auto-renew.
4. Change the number in the Green Dot app (see below). Texts appear on your PVADeals dashboard as soon as they arrive.

PVADeals numbers are real mobile lines from carriers, not VoIP, so Green Dot sees an ordinary mobile number, but they receive SMS only and we can’t promise Green Dot accepts every number. If an eligible number receives no SMS during the rental, its cost comes back to your balance automatically as store credit.

How to update your number on Green Dot

You can change your phone number, email or mailing address in the Green Dot app:

• Accounts opened or cards bought on or after 10/14/26: tap Menu in the app footer, or the profile icon at the top right, and select Personal info.
• Before 10/14/26: tap Settings in the app footer and select Personal Info.

Need help? Green Dot’s chat and its phone line, (866) 795-7597, are open 5am to 9pm PT, 7 days a week.

Watch out for card scams

If a scam may have touched your account, Green Dot says: “Lock your card and report the fraud immediately by calling the number on the back of your card.” Never give your card number to someone who contacts you: “Once you load cash to a new retail card, the card is the same as cash.” See Green Dot’s scam guide.

Keep your Green Dot number in your hands

Open with your own number, and keep whatever number is on the account for as long as you have it. See our US phone numbers and the prices below, or read how GO2bank, Chime, Credit Karma and SoFi handle your number.