Please tell me you don’t have the Kim Kardashian card. Please.
There is a new card out that is being marketed as the Kim Kardashian Kard. Without question it’s the worst credit card that I’ve ever seen. Here are the details:
Kardashian Prepaid MasterCard
Card Purchase (Includes monthly fees for 6 months) $59.95
Card Purchase (Includes monthly fees for 12 months) $99.95
Monthly Fee (Applies after initial purchase period) $7.95
Card Replacement – Primary or Companion $9.95
ATM Withdrawal – Domestic $1.50
ATM Inquiry or Decline – Domestic $1.00
ATM Withdrawal – International $2.50
ATM Inquiry or Decline – International $2.00
Point of Sale – Decline -Domestic $1.00
Point of Sale – Decline – International $1.00
External Checking or Savings Transfer (To/From) $1.00
Account to Account Transfer * $1.00
Retail Load Fee (MoneyGram) $1.00
Load Account by Debit/Credit Card ** $1.00
Cancel Account – Request Balance Mailed by Check $6.00
Service Center Care-Live operator $1.50
Bill Pay – Per Item $2.00
Replacement Card Expedite Fee (Overnight) $25.00
* Fee for transferring money from external accounts and to other cardholder accounts
** 2.5% surcharge of transaction amount applies
This is a PREPAID CREDIT CARD. Check out the monthly fee to have your own money on this card. Can you believe it? And on the pricing page they actually exclaim that you can SAVE money by going with the 12 month payment option. There are so many better options out there. Go to a credit union and talk to them about options for credit cards and prepaid cards. I promise you that their fees will be far less. I checked Bank of America and they also have a prepaid “Fully Secured Card†for far less, although you’d only want this type of card if you are trying to rebuild your credit.
I really struggle to understand how, in a competitive market, there are any fees on a credit card at all. Out here in HK, for my HSBC Visa I pay:
1. fee for cash advance (which I have never used, so zero)
2. interest on outstanding balance (which is always zero)
I will also get a lousy rate for FX conversions.
That’s it. Nothing else.
In fact, this card may make sense (just don’t think about it as a credit card). Imagine, I want to send $500 a month to a person in another country. If I’ll go to a bank, to make a wire transfer, it will cost me around $30 a pop. If I will be sending out $1,000 every other month, I will pay $180 in wire transfer fees a year. Using this KKKard I would save $44 during initial 12 month period, and then almost $50 next year.
Well, I am not surprised about the charges, I more surprised about the idea of making such credit card. Who cares about Kardashians? I think young teenagers who are not allowed to have credit cards. But I might be wrong.