Baby Phat Rush Card Review

Summary - The Baby Phat Prepaid Visa® RushCard is issued by Russell Simmons UniRush Financial Services. Russell Simmons is the founder of Phat Farm and Baby Phat Fashions and the co-founder of Def Jam Recordings. Like most prepaid cards, this card is targeted at those without any bank of checking accounts due to having a bad overdraft history with the chexsystem. UniRush claims that using the Rush Card will result in lower fees than a typical low balance checking account. But is this really true? And even if it is, are there other prepaid cards with lower cost than this one? We'll soon find out.

Different One Time Application Fees?! - The first thing that we look out for in any prepaid card is obviously the fees. The Rush card has the dubious honor of having different one time application fees based on their different card design. They range from $3.95 to $14.95. Why is this the case? I really do not know. The lowest fee is for the "original Rush Card", the one with the black design. The highest application fee of $14.95 is the "pink" and "KLS" designs. The rest of the other designs have a $9.95 application fee.

Monthly Fee and Others - Another key feature that we look out for is the monthly fee. Actually, the fees differ depending on the type of plan you choose. There are two different plans, the "monthly plan" and the "pay as you go plan".

Monthly Plan - Under the monthly plan, the monthly fee is $9.95. There is no transaction fee for a signature based transaction. This applies to both domestic and international transactions. But PIN based transaction incurs a $1.00 per transaction fee. You also get two free ATM withdrawals a month.

Pay As You Go Plan - Under the pay as you go plan, there is no fixed monthly fee. But there is a $1 per transaction fee that is capped at a total of $10 a month. The transaction fee for international purchases is $2 per transaction with no cap on the monthly amount. Also, instead of getting 2 free ATM withdrawals a month (like in the monthly plan), the fee is $1.95 per withdrawal.

Direct Deposit - There are also no fees for direct deposit.

No credit or employment checks - As this is a prepaid debit card, the Impact Visa Card does not conduct any credit or employment checks. Hence, one is almost certain to get approval after application.

Rush Cards Versus Other Prepaid Cards

As we mentioned earlier, the Rush Card has the dubious distinction of the only card having different application fees based on which design you choose. But despite having a low fee of $3.95 for a couple of cards, there are cards that have totally done away with any application fees. An example would be the Upside Visa.

Furthermore, quite a few cards these days have totally waived their transaction fees (both signature and PIN based). Cards like the Walmart Money Card and Mango Card simply do not charge any transaction fee. The one advantage that Rush has is that for the monthly plan version, international purchases incur no fee. However, I doubt if the vast majority of their cardholders actually make any international purchases.

There are also a few cards like the Walmart Money Card, Upside Visa, Mango that will waive your monthly fee if you load a certain amount into your card a month.

Rush Card - Backed By A Celebrity, But Not Worth Getting

Conclusions - The Rush Card can be considered a "celebrity card". Launched by Russell Simmons, it will no doubt have it's fans. But when you compare this card to others in the market, the fees and plans for this card do not match up or come close to the better cards. The really good cards have no application fees, no transaction fees and even waive your monthly fee if you load certain amounts to your card a month. Hence, we would suggest you consider some of the other cards mentioned in this review and compare the fees for yourself. Perhaps you are a loyal Russell Simmons fan and don't mind the fees in this card. But if you really did the proper comparison, you will give this card a miss.