Mr. Lee Cardholder is about to enter a world of hurt.
by Jeffery Racheff
No one ever said keeping up with the Kardashians was going to be cheap.
Kim Kardashian and her mysteriously famous sisters were the faces of the new Kardashian Prepaid MasterCard, a debit card marketed to parents as a way to teach their teenagers about handling money responsibly. But there’s just one problem — it’s a great way to go broke.
At least, it used to be. The plastic bankruptcy-maker has been discontinued after wide-spread reports that it gouged users with exorbitant fees and ridiculous rates. For example, it costs $59.99 just to use the card for six months. That doesn’t include actual money you have to put on it. From there it only gets worse. It costs $1.50 to withdraw cash from an ATM, $1.50 to talk to a customer representative, $1 to check your balance, $10 to replace a lost card, and up to $500 if it’s not reported. They even charge for adding money to your account.
Not surprisingly, reviews of the card made it an overnight disaster. And after the Connecticut Attorney General announced an investigation into the card’s “predatory” fees, the Kardashian kin cut all ties with the venture.
Famous for being famous, the Kardashian sisters have built an empire around their name that includes endorsements for everything from diet pills and teeth whiteners, to perfume and toilet paper. They buy fast, sell fast, and their fans gobble it up. And when you’re popular for no real reason other than having a large backside, you have to profit from it while you can. So it was with little surprise that the sisters eventually decided to get into the youth-oriented credit card racket. The strange part, however, is that it almost worked.
Anyone who would ever associate Kim Kardashian with fiscal responsibility almost deserves to have their daughters raid their bank accounts. Associating them with shoes and makeup? Yes. Womanly curves, sure. But sound financial advice? That’s like asking Wesley Snipes to do your tax return. Even if you pick up most of your parenting techniques from reality television, it’s hard to believe that you would equate responsible spending habits with a family infamous for over-the-top shopping sprees. Reality stars are synonymous with fame, fashion and frivolousness, so was anyone really surprised to see that a Kardashian credit card would take you for all you’re worth?
But now the card is kaput, and the Kardashians are no doubt looking for something else to slap their brand on. Even so, I can’t help admitting I wanted to hear about the pleaser parents who gave in to their daughter’s demands for a Kim Kardashian credit card, only to discover the next morning that she maxed it out on butt implants for all her friends. Then she would point out how this is, like, totally what Khloe did in that one episode and her dad was totally cool with it.
It’s not the kid’s fault though — If her heroes had been Suze Orman or Alan Greenspan we wouldn’t be in this position. Of course, something tells me a Ben Bernanke credit card wouldn’t be quite as attractive.
