Hip-hop mogul's latest venture is prepaid card

NEW YORK -- It's surprising the folks who are getting into prepaid debit cards these days.

 

Case in point: hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons, founder of Def Jam records and clothing line Phat Farm. Simmons is marketing a pre-paid Visa debit card called UniRush to people who have bad credit or have trouble opening a bank checking account.

"Banking institutions have turned their backs on a lot of people. They are throwaways," Simmons told Newsday. "With this card I hope to empower people."

Like other prepaid cards, UniRush users depsit cash, which is loaded onto the card. Then, the user can withdraw money from an ATM or make purchases at point-of-sale locations where Visa is accepted.

The debit card has a $19.95 activation fee; users pay $1.50 per ATM transaction and $1 per Visa transaction.

The card can also be used instead of checks. "If a person needs to pay a bill, all they have to do is provide the payee's name and address and we process and mail a check to them," said Craig Marshall, chief operating officer of Simmons' Rush Communications in Manhattan.

By year end, UniRush Financial Services hopes to have signed as many as 250,000 customers, Marshall said. Since its quiet debut in January, 11,000 have signed up. Customer service representatives are calling people gleaned from a database. Cincinnati-based finance company Unifund Corp. provides the database and is a partner in the venture.

Simmons hopes to add a financial education component and travel points to the program, according to the Newsday report.

 

Simmons and Marshall said the card saves its holders time and money. Most people who do not have checking accounts rely on check-cashing facilities, which can charge as much as 20 percent of a check's face value to cash it, they said.