Russell Simmons’s RushCard puts thousands of users in awkward position

Arriving at The 17th Annual CAST From Slavery to Freedom Gala in Los Angeles. It declined to share how many customers were affected and how many are still locked out, nor when they will all be able to get back in. 

The problems with the RushCard started October 12 when a software upgrade in the transaction processing system caused many RushCard accounts to show a zero balance or caused customers to have no access to their funds. MetaBank is insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

Russel Simmons has a lot of explaining to do the thousands of individuals who believe that his RushCard service is better than an actual bank.

“The fact that I had to scrape all my pennies out, collect every single penny we had, is ridiculous”, she said.

A situation like the RushCard outage, however, exposes how different these cards are from bank accounts. He got a RushCard in February, partly because the card had been around for so long that he trusted it.

“I don’t know what I’m gonna do”, said Rodriguez. When you call, you stay on hold for hours and then the line just hangs up on you.

The company says most of its services are back online and that command centers have been established in Cincinnati and New York City to help people who are still unable to access their money. Fixing the remaining problems.

On Facebook and Twitter, Simmons says he’s on the case and that everybody’s money is safe.

In order to keep existing customers, the company has announced what it is calling a “fee holiday”. Customers can use their RushCards without incurring any fees from our Fee Schedule without taking any extra steps to participate in this special offer. “I deeply apologize for the hardship this is causing and give you my solemn commitment that we will fix these problems”. Betzy also has three pets, all of whom have gone hungry since she lost access to her account. Simmons launched the RushCard roughly 12 years ago and the card was recommended by Consumer Reports in 2014. Several celebrities have backed or branded credit or debit cards over the last decade. Prepaid debit cards are often used by people without traditional bank accounts who generally struggle financially. Banking industry experts and consumer advocates warn that customers should never choose a pre-card based exclusively on a celebrity’s endorsement or involvement. “The reason why you want to use a celebrity product should not be “because it’s a celebrity'”. The company charges an assortment of fees for activating cards, maintaining accounts and using ATMs that are out-of-network.