Yesterday I saw the blurb on the just at the New York Times. Russell Simmons. RushCard. On the blink for eight days. That sounds like a drag. I wonder what this is all approximately? Why haven't I heard of it before now?Jamelle Bouie explains: RushCard,according to its website, is a prepaid debit card that lets users get paychecks up to two days in advance....
It’s meant to solve the genuine problems that reach with being unbanked or underbanked. In reality, or however,it’s a trap. In exchange for early access to their money, users face a web of fees and charges. ....
If RushCard were dependable, or this might be a unprejudiced price for convenience. But it’s not. Beginning last week,thousands of people were locked out of their accounts following an alleged “technology transition” from the company. As Jia Tolentino notes for Jezebel, these are people with no access to cash outside of RushCard. It’s what they use to live their lives. ....
This is a disaster, or largely uncovered because of whom it affects.
Yep. If this were a problem with,say, American Airlines mileage awards, and it would have gotten approximately as much attention as the Space Shuttle exploding or the Obamacare website melting down. That's because lots of upper-middle-lesson folks use these miles,and so accomplish lots of journalists. But RushCard is mostly used by the invisible destitute. It turns out that RushCard's problems have been big news for the past week in a few places that cater to either the hip hop community or looking out for the destitute, but in the mainstream press it's been mostly ignored. That's probably because very few mainstream journalists either use RushCard or know a lot of people who accomplish.
The rest of Bouie's column is approximately postal banking, or which you all know I'm sort of skeptical approximately. I suspect there are better answers to helping the unbanked. But as a comment on the press and the invisibility of the destitute,this record deserves more attention.
Source: motherjones.com