My Money

Even in Death, the Kardashian Kard Lives On

December 17, 2010 RSS Feed Print

Comment (3)
Tweet

People who loved to hate the recently-discontinued Kardashian Prepaid Card need not dismay; there’s a new celebrity-themed prepaid card in town, and this one includes even more celebrities that can be subject to scorn and derision. Earlier this month, a company called Myplash released its new line of prepaid cards featuring musicians, actors, athletes, cartoon characters, brand logos and even Twilight characters.

[In Pictures: 12 Money Mistakes Almost Everyone Makes]

Unlike the Kardashians, Myplash does not even dispute that their prepaid cards cater to teens. In fact, their product is referred to as the “MYPLA$h Teen Prepaid MasterCard” on the company’s website. So these teen spending vehicles that play upon celebrity appeal rather than pure financial merit have received a negative reaction similar to that of the Kardashian Kard, right?

Wrong. Even though the Kardashian Kard was met with such distaste that it prompted Connecticut Attorney General and Senator-elect Richard Blumenthal to announce that he would launch an investigation into the legality of its fees and was pulled just 19 days after its release, the Myplash Teen Prepaid card has flown under the radar. Perhaps this speaks to the supreme celebrity of Kim, Khloe and Kourtney Kardashian. Maybe there are simply too many different celebrities associated with the Myplash card to effectively target a backlash against it. Or it could just be that these cards are actually just good products.

In truth, the relative lack of attention garnered by Myplash’s youthful prepaid card foray is the result of a combination of all of the aforementioned factors. Most of the celebrity figures featured on these cards lack the star power and visibility of the Kardashians, and there are too many of them to effectively scapegoat. Similarly, the fee structure of the Myplash prepaid card is not nearly as costly as that of the Kardashian Kard.

The Myplash prepaid card has no activation fee, no fees for purchases and no fees for loading the card through direct deposit or ACH—which is great for parents who wish to put money on their teen’s prepaid card via checking account. And while it does have a $4.95 monthly fee, $1.95 monthly inactivity fee, a $1.50 ATM transaction fee, and fees as high as $1.50 for paying bills, its overall cost is still less than that of the Kardashian Kard, which had a $4.95 activation fee, a $7.95 monthly fee, a $1.50 fee for ATM transactions and a $2.00 fee for paying bills.

Still, can the Myplash card go toe to toe with the best prepaid cards on the market? Well, no, considering that the Green Dot Prepaid Card—one of the most popular cards available—has a monthly fee of only $5.95 and no fees for activation, cancelation, inactivity, purchases, direct deposit, customer support, or ATM withdrawal at over 15,000 in-network locations.

Given the Myplash card’s relatively high costs, should you ever even consider getting one for your teen? Probably not since anyone can get any prepaid card they want and it does not have the lowest fee structure available. However, prepaid cards do serve a purpose in teaching children how to effectively manage their finances.

[Visit the U.S. News My Money blog for the best money advice from around the web.]

Parents seeking to instill financial responsibility into their teenagers should approach the process like they are teaching them to ride a bike. In this construct prepaid cards serve as the financial training wheels and provide your child with his or her own method of spending while letting you monitor purchasing and control how much money is available. After getting the hang of a prepaid card, your teen can graduate to a cash allowance. This step is like having one of the training wheels removed; it provides more freedom while testing ability.

Once financial sense is demonstrated with cash you can open a checking account in your child’s name. With a checking account, your teen will be able to write checks and use a debit card and must therefore avoid bouncing checks and overdrawing his or her account. At this point the training wheels have been removed but your hand is still guiding your child. The last thing to do is simply let go, but before you do so, provide your child with a small line of credit (as an authorized user on your credit card) so he or she can learn to spend wisely and pay for purchases in full every month.

Overall, while getting a prepaid card for your teen is a good first step toward financial literacy, the card you choose should probably not be the Myplash celebrity-themed, teen-oriented prepaid card. While it’s clearly a superior product to its Kardashian predecessor, it is still not the best prepaid card on the market.

In reality, the only features of a Myplash card that make it at all noteworthy are the pictures it bears and the fact that it targets teenagers. Ultimately, if kids want it simply because it has a cool picture, they are most likely not mature enough for financial freedom anyway.

Odysseas Papadimitriou is chief executive and founder of CardHub.com, an online marketplace for credit card offers and gift card exchange.

Tags:: personal finance

« Previous Post Next Post »

Reader Comments Read all comments (3)

Add Your Thoughts Comment Name State Email

Please enter the two words below into the text field underneath the image.

Your comment will be posted immediately, unless it is spam or contains profanity. For more information, please see our Comments FAQ.

My eldest daughter was 12 years and herr cousin was 11 when I purchased a card for each of them at the cost of $12.95 per card. I loaded each of them with $20 each. I additionally purchased two reloads for them at $4.95 each with $20 on each of them as a surprise after they wasted away the first $20.
The purchases were made at our local national chain grocery store. Upon purchase you discover that they do not do refunds on pre-paid cards and you will have to deal directly with the vendor. No problem. I've used prepaid cards in the past and have had no issues.
When I got home, eager to activate them and present them with their gift for such great grades they had gotten (straight As, a big feat for her cousin because she had received primarily Bs & Cs), I discovered they had to be 13 years of age. I read the entire package when I purchased them. There is nothing on the package's requirements and disclosure statement that stated they had to be 13 years of age to use it. THAT disclosure is on the inside of the package.
So, I contacted the company to find out if I could get a refund so I could apply the funds to something they could use. I was told I could get a refund by activating the card and withdrawing the funds. They keep the $35.80 that I paid for the cards AND the $3.00 for withdrawing the funds. Out of the $115.80 I spent for them I would get back $77.00.
The representative suggested I wait until my daughter turned 13 to activate them. I took this advise and instead of giving the girls the cards I took them shopping.
Today my daughter is 13. I wanted to present her with her very first personal credit card. My first phone call to the telephone number on the card was transferred to another company because the gentleman I spoke to stated they no longer work with the Myplash cards.
The number he sent me to asked me for my card number. After putting in one of the two card numbers, the automated voice stated that they were unable to complete my request and hung up on me.
I called back the original number AGAIN and this time they gave me the telephone number. I called, letting it go through to a representative this time by not pressing anything. I was told by this representative that they do not work with the Myplash cards (even though while I was waiting, their holding service advertised the Myplash card and suggested for faster service to go to the website).
I called the original company again. I was told the same thing AGAIN but given a different number. OH WHAT CUSTOMER SERVICE WE HAVE!
I called the new telephone number to be told that they do not work with the Myplash cards, either. When I finally suggested I just report them to the BBB he found my card number and said they had applied the monthly fee, which brought the balance to 0.
I asked about the refills. She stated those would have had a monthly fee, as well. I said, "Thank you for your time. My next call will be to the BBB and my attorney."

Amy Reynolds of IL 1:36AM January 12, 2011

Disclosure: my company manages the UPside Visa prepaid cards, including a version for teens available at www.UPsideVisa.com where parents have the choice of getting a card with no activation fee, no monthly fee and no load fee from their own checking accounts.
If the very parents who take up our teen cards have checking accounts, why would they not open one of their kids instead of signing them up for a prepaid card?
The answer is simple: except for Wells Fargo and maybe a couple of other banks which have dedicated teen checking accounts, all other banks will force parents to share with their teens the username and password for the management of the account.
This is because regular checking accounts offer a single online access.
So if parents want to start transferring financial responsibility over to their teens, good luck.
By contrast, teen prepaid cards like the one we distribute have a dual access:
- one of the parent, with their own website and privileges (including that of suspending card privileges)
- one for the teen, through a separate website, with less privileges than the parent.
At most a handful of banks offer that feature on checking accounts. That's a handful out of 6,000+ banks in the US. So I have my maths wrong: 99.992% of banks do not offer suitable checking accounts for teens.
No matter what the price.

Patrice Peyret of NY 3:08PM December 18, 2010

OK great idea instead of paying 4.95 per month for a debit card let's all get our teens bank accounts for 8.95 per month. Now there's a lesson in financial responsibility-how to spend more on something just because the ignorant experts that write these columns think banks are superior. I think I would rather my kids card be declined for 1.00 rather than a overdraft fee of 35.00. Adults can't get the hang of how the banking world works and this guy thinks because the training wheels are off the kids will get it right away!!
Another not so well written article by another 'IGNORANT EXPERT"!!
Congratulations keep up the good work-this country is sliding downhill anyway and you are certainly helping with the push!

Judy Jensen of IA 9:32PM December 17, 2010