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The Rush Card and Me

I am a long time Rush Card Customer. Rush Card is, of course, a prepaid debit card that you can purchase and reload as necessary. One day, I noticed that one of the features that compelled me to by the card was not working very well; particularly the implied protection from overdrawing my account. Although I had not been presented the opportunity to spend more money than I had loaded on the card (or even as much), fees associated with this card had caused my account to go into negative territory. 
 I attend school online, and a credit or debit card is necessary for purchasing textbooks from Amazon, or paying my initial application fee. The fact that my Rush Card account seemed to be leaking funds through a virtual hole was unsettling, so I performed a Google search for "Rush Card" without the quotes, because I wanted to review the terms and conditions that I had agreed to. That is when I came across an open letter that Optimum Capitol Management President Ryan Mack had written to Rush Card President and business magnate Russell Simmons in 2010. The letter admonishes Mr. Simmons to stop selling his Rush Card. Mr. Mack makes a very compelling argument, and he accomplishes this with a great deal of tact, respect and sincerity. 
The respect that Ryan Mack shows Russell Simmons is well deserved. Simmons created the Phat Farm clothing line, and co-founded the Def Jam record label. While these are not modest accomplishments, wait until you hear what he does for fun. The man is a vegan, animal rights activist and the recipient of the 2001 PETA Humanitarian Award, and 2011's Person of the Year. I thought that he probably even started the Rush Card with best intentions. This is why another man of renown politely asks Simmons to rethink this particular business venture. Certain, perhaps, that once he sees it from Mack's perspective, he will agree with Mack. Mack says in his letter:

"Making money from ignorance is not the answer...education is the answer and we must provide it. All of our actions must be done for the good of the people and not the good of the pocket. Based on all that you have done for those in our communities, I am certain that you agree."

Several days after I read this letter, I read an article about how Justin Bieber was planning on endorsing his own brand of prepaid debit card. Shortly after that, I was given an assignment in one of my classes that required that I write a story and I wrote mine about prepaid debit cards. The decision was easy for two reason's. The first reason, is that Ryan Mack's open letter is an example of how I want to write as a journalist, or in my everyday life. I want to select my words with a great deal of respect and knowledge for the subject that I am writing about. The second reason, is that I found Mr. Mack's argument against prepaid cards to be a very sound one. More importantly, it served as a miniature wake up call as far as my personal finances are concerned. During the course of researching my story (which you can read here), I was a little bit surprised at what I learned.

My Justin Bieber Prepaid Debit Card Story

Justin Bieber is expected to use social media to spread the word about his new prepaid debit card.

Teen celebrity Justin Bieber has partnered with BillMyParents.com to offer his very own brand of prepaid debit cards, following in the footsteps of other celebrities including Suzie Orman, Russel Simmons and the Kardashians. What is different about Bieber’s card is unclear; according to Kiplinger.com, the card has a monthly fee of $3.95 a reload fee of $2.95, a fee of $.50 for every balance inquiry at an ATM and $1.50 to make a withdraw at an ATM. If you should run out of money and are unable to make transactions with your Justin Bieber card, there is a fee for that as well. A fee of $3 will be charged to your card if you have not used it in 90 days in addition to the $7.95 that you will pay if you are not using your card because it is lost.

Prepaid debit cards have become increasingly popular as the public’s opinion of traditional banking continues to decline. Many of America’s misgivings about banks, their practices, and their accessibility to people with bad credit are justified; but many of them are not. Suze Orman, the Kardashians, Bieber and others, would prefer that potential costumers believe their products to be the only option for anybody who has questionable credit and wishes to enjoy the convenience of managing their funds online, making internet purchases, or receiving direct deposits.   Optimum Capital Management president, and financial literacy advocate, Ryan Mack, could not disagree more. Ryan Mack has publicly blasted the purveyors of these cards. He has condemned them as a guest on FOX News, in The Huffington Post, and he condemned them once again, during an interview on Saturday.

“You have to pay for everything. Water is not free, you have to pay for air, now they are making you pay to spend your own money”, Mack said.
Prepaid debit cards such as Lil Wayne’s “Young Money” card, Russell Simmons “Rush” card and the Kardashians defunct “Kardashian Kard” not only charge too much, but they offer nothing in return, according to Ryan Mack. He says that they do not help you build credit because they do not report to the major credit bureaus. Some cards advertise that they can help you with your bad credit, but the help comes in the form of a credit tracker or a similar service that is available free of charge on the internet. Some of them may even report to a credit bureau, but this is an alternative credit bureau that will not help you establish good credit.

When Ryan Mack is not on the news, he is speaking to kids, young adults, and the underprivileged about the importance of saving, investing, having a defensive financial strategy, budgeting, and having a 20 year vision to name just a few of the suggestions that he shared on Saturday.. He has publicly asked Def Jam Records co-founder and Fat Farm clothing creator Russell Simmons to discontinue his “Rush Card” due to its high fees and subsequent poor reputation. On Saturday, Ryan Mack revealed a plan that he had hatched for an upcoming interview with theglobalgrind.com.

Mack is confident that he can provide a randomly selected Rush card user with the knowledge necessary to make decisions that will help repair their credit. This is something that they cannot do with a prepaid debit card and chances are that Mr. Simmons knows this, but is hoping that you don’t.

Ryan Mack Story

Personal Finance guru, cable news veteran and advocate for the “hard to employ”, Ryan Mack is never too busy to provide for those who seek knowledge. If you doubt this, try dropping him a line.

“You cut that card up, brother”, Ryan Mack said, in reference to the Rush Prepaid Card that he was asked about during a telephone interview; a telephone interview that was requested through the question/comments section of the Optimum Capital Management LLC website. He would graciously agree to this interview via email from his I phone hours later. The interview was in danger of not occurring due to a failure on the interviewer’s part to take time zones into consideration. A mistake about which Mack commented, “It’s all good, brother”. Mr. Mack’s patience and understanding is as welcome and appreciated as it is unexpected. As a financial adviser working with many famous clients across the US, and the winner of Tom Joyner’s “Hardest Working Financial Adviser Award”, his time comes at a premium. Consider his work with low income housing communities, colleges and universities, inner city organizations, non-profits and his partnership with District Attorneys’ offices to teach financial literacy to previously incarcerated inmates in an attempt to lower recidivism rates, and it sustains the notion that he is a busy man. This work, on the other hand, lends credence to the image of a patient and understanding man.  A graduate of The University of Michigan Business School, he has sought to improve the lives of others by sharing financial tips and strategies with them. Particularly with people that are likely to be unfamiliar with banks, lending, interest and other similar ideas. “It’s not a black thing or a white thing, it’s a money thing”, he said about companies like the prepaid card industry in Saturday’s interview.  He insists that these companies target people who do not have very much money and, subsequently, no reason to seek out financial advice. In a letter to Russell Simmons, published by the Huffington Post he says:

“Those who know the strategies to empower the community have a moral obligation to those, who may not be as knowledgeable, to fully inform them. There are other more efficient means to empower those in our communities than pre-paid debit cards and other financially destructive establishments such as check cashing facilities.”

Russell Simons is the Founder of both Def Jam Records and the Rush Prepaid Card and an activist within the black community. Ryan Mack continues to find Mr. Simmons activism and endorsement of the Rush Card, to be contradictory of one another. “I am going to do an interview on theglobalgrind.com—that’s Russell Simmons website—and I am going to present him with a challenge”, said Mack. “I am going to tell him to give me any person that uses the Rush Card and give me 30 days with him. 30 days, and I will help that person find a comparable card, such as a secured card that does not have the associated fees, but helps to improve his credit. If I can’t do that, I will maintain media silence for a year”. A year of media silence sounds like it would be easy enough to accomplish to most people, but to one of CNN, and Fox News favorite talking heads, it would involve a drastic change from what he is used to. It could prove to be a welcome change to his adversaries who are constantly the subjects of his media offensive; people such as Russell Simmons for what Mack perceives as the hypocrisy of being an African American activist who unfairly targets African American consumers with a product that “charges them to spend their own money”,  or  Suze Orman, another accomplished talking head and personal finance guru, who has released her own pre-paid debit card. In the case of Suze Orman, the charge is also hypocrisy. Ryan Mack issued a challenge to Suze Orman to come on CNN and debate him, or to discuss with him the reason that she would condemn pre-paid debit cards in her book and then suggest that everybody purchase hers. He suggested this on CNN during a media offensive that he had named “Suze Vs. Suze”. Mr. Mack insists that he is not particularly confrontational, but that he feels compelled to challenge things that are untrue, or claims that are made with the assumption that no one knows any better. “They prey on people who don’t have money. More importantly, brother, they prey on the public’s lack of knowledge”, said Mack.

As a person who has the knowledge, Mack feels that it is his duty to share it with anyone and everyone, regardless of their income, status in the community, position in the pecking order or how late they are for an interview.