Faddish consumer products have notoriously short lives. And thankfully, after just three weeks on the market, the Kardashian Kard, possibly America’s dumbest financial product, has gone the way of the Pet Rock, the Edsel, and acid-washed jeans.
The card is—rather, was—a prepaid debit product, laden with truly egregious fees and hawked hard to the young, the restless, and the financially illiterate. Parents could load money onto the card for use by teenagers without a credit card or checking account. But those young customers paid dearly for the privilege of carrying Kardashian plastic:
Consumers Union, already a fierce critic of the product, launched a full-on attack, with an online petition and Twitter campaign. Dozens more critical stories piled up. On Black Friday, Connecticut Attorney General and Senator-elect Richard Blumenthal joined in, announcing that his office had requested more information about the “predatory” card’s fee structure.
•CLICK HERE to read the Slate story.
