Credit and Debit Card Ratings

Girl Scouts Embrace Prepaid Cards

A Girl Scouts chapter strikes a deal with prepaid card company, SpendSmart Payments.

by Chris Warren

Thin Mints, Samoas, Tagalongs and Lemonades are definitely not financial terms. Yet the truth is that, aside from fundraising, one of the main reasons Girl Scouts from across the country sell these and other varieties of cookies is to learn something about money management and running a business. Think about it: Successfully selling hundreds or thousands of cookies requires smart marketing and sales strategies, wise inventory management as well as record keeping and order tracking.

While involvement with the organization’s sprawling cookie business is certainly one way for young girls to become more financially aware and savvy, one Girl Scouts chapter has gone a step further. In October the Charlotte, North Carolina-based Hornets’ Nest chapter announced that it had established a partnership with SpendSmart Payments Co., a financial services outfit and prepaid debit card issuer based in San Diego, California.

According to a recent story in The Kansas City Star, SpendSmart is crafting a financial education program that will be offered starting in January of 2014 to the 16,000 girls in North and South Carolina who make up the Hornets’ Nest chapter. With materials designed to appeal to girls from kindergarten through high school, the curriculum being developed by SpendSmart is meant to help girls understand the value of money and credit, as well as learn how to budget and use plastic wisely.

“That last point of emphasis caught my attention,” Kansas City Star reporter Steve Rosen wrote. “As part of its partnership, Scouts 13 and older can sign up for the SpendSmart Prepaid MasterCard.”

It is understandable why SpendSmart would be eager to become well known by thousands of young girls. The company offers prepaid debit cards specifically designed for teens and parents. Among other features, SpendSmart cards alert parents via text or email whenever a purchase is made, allowing them to monitor how well (or poorly) kids are spending money.

Rosen points out that SpendSmart charges a $3.95 monthly fee, an amount that is both far higher and lower than other prepaid debit cards. He also notes that prepaid cards like those offered by SpendSmart also charge for withdrawing money from an ATM, replacing a card and checking an account balance. “The upshot: Whether it’s SpendSmart or some other prepaid debit card, weigh the costs against the services provided and decide on the best deal.”

SpendSmart certainly hopes the Girl Scouts like the cards and the information they’re offering. The company hopes the deal with the Hornets’ Nest chapter is the first of many partnerships with the Girl Scouts.

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  • Girl Scouts Embrace Prepaid Cards

    Girl Scouts Embrace Prepaid Cards

    A Girl Scouts chapter strikes a deal with prepaid card company, SpendSmart Payments.

    by Chris Warren

    Thin Mints, Samoas, Tagalongs and Lemonades are definitely not financial terms. Yet the truth is that, aside from fundraising, one of the main reasons Girl Scouts from across the country sell these and other varieties of cookies is to learn something about money management and running a business. Think about it: Successfully selling hundreds or thousands of cookies requires smart marketing and sales strategies, wise inventory management as well as record keeping and order tracking.

    While involvement with the organization’s sprawling cookie business is certainly one way for young girls to become more financially aware and savvy, one Girl Scouts chapter has gone a step further. In October the Charlotte, North Carolina-based Hornets’ Nest chapter announced that it had established a partnership with SpendSmart Payments Co., a financial services outfit and prepaid debit card issuer based in San Diego, California.

    According to a recent story in The Kansas City Star, SpendSmart is crafting a financial education program that will be offered starting in January of 2014 to the 16,000 girls in North and South Carolina who make up the Hornets’ Nest chapter. With materials designed to appeal to girls from kindergarten through high school, the curriculum being developed by SpendSmart is meant to help girls understand the value of money and credit, as well as learn how to budget and use plastic wisely.

    “That last point of emphasis caught my attention,” Kansas City Star reporter Steve Rosen wrote. “As part of its partnership, Scouts 13 and older can sign up for the SpendSmart Prepaid MasterCard.”

    It is understandable why SpendSmart would be eager to become well known by thousands of young girls. The company offers prepaid debit cards specifically designed for teens and parents. Among other features, SpendSmart cards alert parents via text or email whenever a purchase is made, allowing them to monitor how well (or poorly) kids are spending money.

    Rosen points out that SpendSmart charges a $3.95 monthly fee, an amount that is both far higher and lower than other prepaid debit cards. He also notes that prepaid cards like those offered by SpendSmart also charge for withdrawing money from an ATM, replacing a card and checking an account balance. “The upshot: Whether it’s SpendSmart or some other prepaid debit card, weigh the costs against the services provided and decide on the best deal.”

    SpendSmart certainly hopes the Girl Scouts like the cards and the information they’re offering. The company hopes the deal with the Hornets’ Nest chapter is the first of many partnerships with the Girl Scouts.

  • The Occupy Card Moves Ahead

    The Occupy Card Moves Ahead

    The Occupy Money Cooperative needs to raise $900,000 to make its card a reality.

    by Chris Warren

    The Occupy Wall Street Movement’s first steps into the financial services industry have not been particularly smooth. The announcement this past summer that the Occupy Money Cooperative, an offshoot of the anti-status quo coalition that grabbed the world’s attention with its street protests and barbed criticism of banks in the fall of 2011, would attempt to issue a prepaid debit card was an immediate source of fascination.

    Yet when the proposed fees associated with the Occupy Card were unveiled in September, an avalanche of criticism quickly followed. Far from being hailed as a savior riding to the rescue of helpless citizens being preyed upon by the big banks, respected observers like Consumer Reports declared that the card’s fees were worse than many other products already on the market. “Our first look at those proposed fees shows that the Occupy Card needs some work if its sponsors truly want it to be superior to other prepaid cards,” declared the Consumer Reports review.

    Nevertheless, the supporters of the Occupy Money Cooperative appear just as determined as ever to not only launch its prepaid debit card but to revolutionize the banking system. According to an article in the Cornell Daily Sun, the student newspaper at Ithaca, New York’s Cornell University, university professor Robert Hockett is among those working to make the card a reality.

    According to the article by reporter, Helen Donnelly, the Occupy Card will be launched once Hockett and the other co-founders of the Occupy Money Cooperative can raise $900,000 in initial operating capital. The article does not say how close, or far, the group is from reaching that amount.

    Despite its bumpy rollout, Cornell’s Hockett insists that Occupy’s ambitions are still to go well beyond just a prepaid debit card. “The Occupy Money Cooperative is beginning with the debit card. This debit card is a specific counterpart to cards like these that exist in existing banking institutions already offered. Chase Liquid is probably the best-known example,” Hockett told the newspaper. “The ultimate plan is to offer all the other services that these existing banking institutions already do, but on a non-profit basis.”

     

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