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.
