Video For JRN315

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.