Marketing at its finest.
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Yes, you’ve read the title correctly. Kim Kardashian, and her sisters now have their own pre-paid debit card. Just in case pop culture hasn’t overrun your life enough yet, now your kids can now beg and plead for you to load more money on their cards.
In case you don’t know who the Kardashians are, you’re not missing out on much. Just think of a tanner, brunette Paris Hilton times 3, and you’ve got a good idea of the usefulness.
The whole idea behind this, making money off of exorbitant fees aside, is to teach your kids financial responsibility. That seems very noble. Now let’s look at the noble fees.
Initial Fees: $59.95 (waives below monthly fee for 6 months) or $99.95(waives below monthly fee for 12 months)
Monthly Fee: $7.95
Direct Deposit: FREE!
I’m certainly glad that they are gracious enough to allow you to directly deposit your hard-earned cash into their non-interest bearing account for free. My heavens, I don’t know where we’d be if we had to pay our banks to take our money. So let’s get this straight, if you want to own this card for a year, then the cheapest you can get is $99.95 (that isn’t including the money you put on it).
The Actual Costs
To give your kid this card for two years, you’d end up paying out $195.35, minimum! This doesn’t include all of the other fees your kid will undoubtedly run up. Of course, your kid has never gone over on cell phone minutes before, so there shouldn’t be any extra fees, right?
Do you want to teach your kid a money lesson? Then do this, hold out $100 in one hand, and $295.35 in the other hand and ask them which they’d prefer. If they pick the $100, then smack them in the back of the head and ask the question again.
It Kind Of Makes Sense
Buying this card is a huge waste of hard-earned money. This is nothing but a cheap ploy to get kids to extort money from their parents on behalf of the Kardashians. Parents beware! If this makes any financial sense to you, then please take a nap and read this again later.
How Else Will They Learn?
There are hundreds of things you can do for free, or far cheaper that will have similar effects. How about starting your kid out on a Wal-Mart gift card? It will have nearly the same financial benefits except your kid won’t look as cool, and they can’t go to just any store. Unless your kid looking trendy is worth an additional $8.00 a month.
About Wealth Artisan
I think this is a brilliant idea! For the banks
I just blogged about how movie and TV shows get paid to include products showing popular actors and actresses using them.
This bank takes it one step farther and puts the actors/actresses on the product… Amazing!
I wonder if the Kardashian even realize that they are harming kids financially by putting their Image on the card, thus making it a “cool” card to have and use?
Perhaps they figure the government will bail out the card holders in the future (lol).
Hey There MoneyReasons,
I think, for the Kardashians, that this comes down to dollars and cents, and the financial well-being of their customers is an after thought. I always hate when companies try to put kids vs. their parents. It’s such an underhanded tactic.
Thanks,
Timothy
Oh my gosh, who in the world would actually buy this card? Just because 3 overrated people are on the card you should pay hundreds of dollars for years to use it? I would rather tape a picture of my kid’s favorite performer on a gift card and say ‘here you go, use it wisely’.
This society is driving me crazy!!!
Hey Kris,
You and me both. I agree that a gift card is the most logical route to go. The ability to go to any store is not worth $100 each year. It’s amazing what people think up.
Thanks,
Timothy
The sad part is..many people will buy in. I guess there are customers for whatever product you put out there!
It really is sad. I always joke about slapping Mercedes and Apple logos on things that aren’t selling, but I guess there is a bit of truth to that statement :-/
Thanks,
Timothy
I’m sure glad O.J. Simpson murdered 2 innocent people, otherwise those poor Kardashian girls never would have gotten famous.
Hey Greg!
Some quick research turned up a lot of crazy stuff. I had no clue that they were in anyway related to one of OJ Simpson’s defense attorneys. It’s really amazing how the world works sometimes (in a bad way). :-/ Thank you for the insight.
Thanks,
Timothy
Hahaha. If there were no fees, I’d get the card just so I can look at Kim Kardashian everyday. Notice that it’s not only the Kardashians that is selling the card but Kim’s bodaciously photoshop’d boobs. I’ll definitely blog about this card now.