The Approved Card (Suze Orman)

[diznee25]

What do you think about this? I saw Suze Orman on Anderson today and she talked about it near the end of her segment.

Personally it's not something I would use. Off the bat this card costs $3.00 to purchase and then it's a $3.00 per month fee, (although the first month is waived.)

Plus there are a ton of other fees that you potentially pay, depending on the services you use that are associate with the card. Example: You get one free call per month to a Customer Service Agent. But after that it's $2.00 per call. I would save all my questions and call Customer Service once per month to avoid that fee! But that's sort of inconvenient.

I also read some of the FAQs: Can you use it at the pump? No, you have to walk into the cashier to pay for gas.

So overall I can really see the drawbacks to this prepaid card. But to be honest, my debit card is still more convenient for me. My new bank offers many services including one where I don't pay any overdraft fees. (My card is set up to automatically get declined if there's not enough money in checking account.) So really my checking account works exactly like The Approved Card thru Suze Orman.

So I'm curious as to what the real benefits of this prepaid card are?

I should point out that I'm a huge fan of Suze Orman, but this idea is a real head scratcher!

diznee25

 

[marie1203]

I agree with you. I never seen the real use for prepaid cards other than GC.

 

[disney_5]

I saw her talking about this on the view and thought it sounds like a great way to not overspend each month and to keep better track of your purchases. I do not know what the fees are or what happens if you overdraft the card. It does sound usefull for people who have a hard tim budgeting.

 

[diznee25]

I saw her talking about this on the view and thought it sounds like a great way to not overspend each month and to keep better track of your purchases. I do not know what the fees are or what happens if you overdraft the card. It does sound usefull for people who have a hard tim budgeting.

Actually that's the point of the card, because it's a prepaid card, you can't overdraft. (It's explained on the website.) I'll hand it to Suze Orman, the website is very self explanatory. There is a tab that says "Fees." So any fee you could incur is listed. At the very minimum someone would pay only $3.00 per month fee. (And the cost of purchasing the card.) The other "extras" aren't really necessary.

But yea, I agree with you. This is a great option for someone who doesn't budget very well. Because if they overdraft on their bank account, and have to pay a bank fee $10, $20, or more, then the prepaid card at $3.00 per month is a better deal!

diznee25

 

[Nayan]

http://consumerist.com/2012/01/suze-orman-launches-her-own-pre-paid-debit-card.html

http://consumerist.com/2012/01/suze-orman-calls-bloggers-idiots-for-criticizing-her-prepaid-debit-card.html

http://consumerist.com/2012/01/suze-ormans-pre-paid-debit-card-labeled-cream-of-the-crap.html

 

[Colleen27]

I think the target markets for prepaid cards are those with poor credit and/or a ChexSystem history that would prevent them from getting a credit or debit card, as well as for those who don't have access to no-fee checking/debit options. $3/mo is less than a lot of banks are charging for no minimum balance checking accounts these days. I know one of those articles quoted someone who criticized the card as saying you can just go to a credit union, drop $5 in an account, and have a debit card for free but there are a lot of people for whom that isn't reality, whether because of lack of physical proximity to a bank that offers that sort of account or a financial history that would disqualify them from such.

And there is another aspect of the prepaid card that I think gets overlooked, but that sounded like a great idea when it was explained to me - for use in higher-risk transactions like shopping online and while traveling.

We don't use credit at all, and for obvious reasons we weren't very comfortable using the debit card attached to our primary account for online shopping, paying at the pump, or other higher-than-average risk transactions. One of the options we looked into then was the GreenDot prepaid card. It really wasn't a bad deal - $5 purchase price, but CVS occasionally ran $5 ECB offers that made the initial purchase free, and the monthly fee is waived if you load >$1000/mo or use the card for >30 purchases. There's no risk of overdraft and your exposure in the event that your CC# is compromised is limited to the amount you've loaded. Especially back when banks were so reluctant to remove overdraft "protection" and were approving debit card purchases far in excess of available funds it looked really good - it took talking to the branch manager and spending way longer than opening an account should take for us to establish our secondary checking without any automatic links to our main checking or savings, because they really wanted to sell us on overdraft protection and kept restating their fraud resolution policies and making us feel like we were paranoid for not wanting all our money linked to the card number that we input on Amazon, BN.com, etc.

 

[bumbershoot]

I think the target markets for prepaid cards are those with poor credit and/or a ChexSystem history that would prevent them from getting a credit or debit card, as well as for those who don't have access to no-fee checking/debit options.

YES. Or even a checking *account*. I had a friend who was well into her 40s, and had messed up years before I met her, and because of the problems with Chex (which she had taken care of soon after her problems) she *could not get an account*. At all.

If that still hasn't cleared up by now (I haven't talked to her in years), this is probably exactly what she needs.



I also read that you get *unlimited* access to your credit reports from one of the agencies, which isn't something to sneer at!

 

[mistysue]

The real benefit to this card is that it makes Suze Orman rich.

With the fees, isn't this the exact sort of thing she would advise people NOT to take?

 

[eliza61]

The real benefit to this card is that it makes Suze Orman rich.

With the fees, isn't this the exact sort of thing she would advise people NOT to take?

Yes and no. Evidently she is marketing this to a small (or maybe not so small section) of the population that as previous posters said have pretty well messed up their financial lives or simply find it hard to stay on a budget.

From what I read it has 2 advantages.
1) she's talked trans union into incorporating the cards into their history report, so if you use this card wisely you can build a bit of credit.

2) lower fees if you are a chronic bad budgeter.

Oh, I agree it will make Suze richer. Remember though, the folks who would use this card were probably not following alot of Suzes advice in the first place.

 

[JB2K]

While many will jump on this card because it has Suze Orman's endorsement, there are similar cards that are very accessible (without all the fees).

Target has this prepaid offering from American Express.

 

[JB2K]

.

 

[MomToOne]

From what I read it has 2 advantages.
1) she's talked trans union into incorporating the cards into their history report, so if you use this card wisely you can build a bit of credit.

This could actually be a big plus, if someone needs to rebuild their credit history. Most other prepaid cards don't post to your credit reports with the 3 major bureaus. And, in a way, since you can't overdraft, it's a pretty safe way to do that for people who have problems overspending.

 

[JuneCleaver]

She was on the View and Good Morning America yesterday talking about it.

I think as much as it might help others, it also helps Suzie's bank account lol!
She is not doing it strictly out of the goodness of her heart!

 

[bumbershoot]

Yes and no. Evidently she is marketing this to a small (or maybe not so small section) of the population that as previous posters said have pretty well messed up their financial lives or simply find it hard to stay on a budget.

From what I read it has 2 advantages.
1) she's talked trans union into incorporating the cards into their history report, so if you use this card wisely you can build a bit of credit.

The article I read specifically said that while info is reported to TU for research purposes, it will NOT help your credit score.

 

[RitaE]

Yes and no. Evidently she is marketing this to a small (or maybe not so small section) of the population that as previous posters said have pretty well messed up their financial lives or simply find it hard to stay on a budget.

From what I read it has 2 advantages.
1) she's talked trans union into incorporating the cards into their history report, so if you use this card wisely you can build a bit of credit.

2) lower fees if you are a chronic bad budgeter.

Oh, I agree it will make Suze richer. Remember though, the folks who would use this card were probably not following alot of Suzes advice in the first place.

I don't know about her marketing plan being for the financially problematic set, but I got a huge exciting big announcement email that Suze had a wonderful new product in the works 3 days before the official release, and let's just say I have no problems getting debit and credit cards and I will NEVER pay a fee for the "privilege" of using my own money to pay for everyday items like gas and groceries. I'd just go to the cash envelope system if it came down to that.

If you want my personal opinion on the product I think it sucks and it is absolutely a Suze money maker. It turns my stomach everytime I hear her hawk it up as something she "invented" (which is a huge joke because pre-paid cards have been around for a long time) as a kind, beneficial act to assist the public in staying on budget. What a crock of poop.

 

[diznee25]

The article I read specifically said that while info is reported to TU for research purposes, it will NOT help your credit score.

Yes, you are correct. If fact, for other posters benefit I'll copy and paste from the approved card website:

The information we share with TransUnion concerning your Approved Card account will not appear in your credit report. If that were to change in the future, we will inform you in advance of any such reporting.

Your spending information will be reported to TU for data purposes only. Suze Orman says in other section of her website that it is her hope that in the future the use of prepaid cards will help build your credit.

But as of now, prepaid cards DONOT build credit. Period.

This is why so many articles bashed Suze Orman for how all of this is worded on the website. It's written in a way that people will think this prepaid card will build their credit. When in reality, this is what Suze Orman is working towards....it's just not here yet.

Oh, another thing. This is why Suze calls this The Credit Project.

diznee25

 

[eliza61]

I think as much as it might help others, it also helps Suzie's bank account lol!
She is not doing it strictly out of the goodness of her heart!

I.

If you want my personal opinion on the product I think it sucks and it is absolutely a Suze money maker. It turns my stomach everytime I hear her hawk it up as something she "invented" (which is a huge joke because pre-paid cards have been around for a long time) as a kind, beneficial act to assist the public in staying on budget. What a crock of poop.

And that makes her different from Dave whats his name or Ali Velschi (CNN) or any other financial guru on tv?

Do you honestly think ole Dave is not collecting huge paychecks from his books, his seminars, his tv show?

Helping some one achieve a goal does not mean you cannot make a living at it.
She has a service and a valuable one at that. I have no problem with her selling it.
Why is a crock of Poop? What you think because you stay on a budget, there are not millions of people who can't? Obviously you don't watch tv then because the airways are full of companies claiming to help folks get out of debt so obviously there are quite a few people who can't stay on a budget.

Personally, I don't use these services but I have absolutely no problem with them making money and running a business offering a service to the public. Has she been brought up on fraud charges? she's always on TV, from her own show to pbs, to network tv so obviously she offers some thing.