Overview

What This Integration Does

The Green Dot Referral Partner Integration allows tax preparation platforms to offer their customers a Green Dot account and debit card directly within the tax filing experience - with the customer's tax refund deposited to that account automatically.

When a customer opts in on the partner's platform, the partner calls Green Dot's BaaSReferralGateway API to create a Green Dot account, issue a virtual card, and run identity verification - all in a single synchronous API call. No redirect, no hosted page, no separate KYC step. The partner receives the account and routing number in the response and submits them to the IRS or state as the refund destination. When the partner's business trigger occurs (typically: refund received), the partner makes a second API call to order a physical EMV card mailed to the customer.

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End-to-End User Journey

1. Customer completes tax return on partner platform
        ↓
2. Customer opts in to receive their refund via Green Dot
        ↓
3. Partner collects PII from the return (name, address, SSN, DOB, email, phone)
        ↓
4. Partner calls Enrollment API
   → Green Dot account created
   → Virtual card issued (activated immediately)
   → KYC / OFAC run synchronously
   → Account number + routing number returned
        ↓
5. Partner submits account/routing number to IRS as refund destination
        ↓
6. IRS / state sends ACH deposit to Green Dot account
        ↓
7. Partner's business trigger fires (e.g., refund received)
   → Partner calls Order Card API
   → Physical EMV card mailed to customer's enrollment address
        ↓
8. Customer activates card via Green Dot app or web and uses it

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Key Concepts

Two APIs, Two Moments in Time

The integration is split into two intentionally decoupled API calls:

There is no minimum or maximum time window between the two calls. For tax partners, the Order Card call typically happens days or weeks after enrollment - when the IRS accepts the filing.

Synchronous Enrollment

Enrollment is fully synchronous. A single HTTP POST returns the complete account, virtual card details, and KYC result. There are no webhooks, callbacks, or polling steps for enrollment.

What the Customer Gets

A successful enrollment results in:

• A full Green Dot account (status: normal)
• An active virtual card (status: activated) — usable immediately for online transactions
• A direct deposit account number and routing number for the IRS submission
• A physical EMV card ordered when the partner triggers it

Identity Verification

KYC and OFAC screening run automatically during every enrollment. For tax-season referral partner products, any KYC or OFAC failure is a permanent hard decline - there is no document upload, step-up verification, or cure path available through this API. Green Dot handles any customer-facing communication about declines directly.

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Partner-Specific Configuration

Each partner integration is provisioned by Green Dot and includes a unique set of configuration values. For referral partners, integrations are functionally identical integrations running on the same program - differentiated only by their virtual card product material type:

All other values (programCode, productCode, Azure AD roles) are shared. Green Dot will provide all configuration values during onboarding - see Prerequisites & Onboarding.

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What Green Dot Handles

The following are managed entirely by Green Dot - partners do not need to build or configure these:

• KYC and OFAC screening
• Account creation and virtual card issuance
• Direct deposit routing
• Customer email notifications (welcome, reminder, refund deposit alerts)
• Physical card fulfillment and mailing
• Customer-facing decline communications

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Notifications Green Dot Sends to Customers

Green Dot sends the following emails automatically to customers enrolled through this integration. Partners do not control the content, timing, or opt-out behavior of these notifications.

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Compliance Responsibilities

By integrating, the partner takes on responsibility for presenting the following disclosures to the customer and capturing their acceptance before calling the Enrollment API. Green Dot will confirm the exact required list and flag values during product setup.

Note: The partner is responsible for presenting these terms in their UI and recording the customer's acceptance datetime. The API validates that all required terms are present and that acceptance timestamps are within ±720 hours of the server's current time.

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What This Integration Is Not

• Not self-service. New partner onboarding requires Green Dot Engineering to provision a new program, product, and Azure AD app registration. There is no developer portal sign-up.
• Not multi-brand. This integration is specific to the Green Dot product assigned to your integration.
• Not asynchronous. Enrollment returns a complete result synchronously - no webhook configuration is required for enrollment.
• Not open to all partners. Extending the integration to a new partner requires Green Dot approval and provisioning.

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Next Steps

• Prerequisites & Onboarding - what you need before development begins
• Authentication - how to obtain and use Azure AD tokens
• API Reference - full endpoint specifications, field rules, and error catalogs