Prepaid Visa® Purple Diamond RushCard

From the CompareCards.com Editorial Team:

The Purple Diamond Visa is a prepaid card from Rush – the company affiliated with hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons. Rush was one of the first big firms to introduce many of the most popular kinds of prepaid celebrity branded cards.

The popularity of these cards is stoked by the fact that prepaid cards are available to virtually anyone with no credit check. There are no interest rates to pay, no late fees, and no need to have a decent credit score in order to be eligible for one of these cards. But they do carry the Visa logo and among the most widely accepted forms of plastic on the planet. They are honored in millions of retail establishments worldwide that take Visa, and the Purple Diamond also offers free features including online account management tools, text alerts, 24/7 customer service, and a prescription discount card good at participating drugstores.

You can also use the free “RushPath to credit” feature which helps cardholders establish a credit history, and if you refer a friend who becomes an active Purple Diamond card customer you will get a $5 referral bonus. There are miscellaneous fees including a $9.95 monthly fee and a $7.95 application fee, but the maintenance and monthly fees are waived if you qualify by joining the card’s “pay as you go” plan. Under that plan you basically use the card to cash your paychecks and then pay a nominal fee to withdraw the cash – which can make it easier to cash checks if you do not have a checking account at a bank.

The Bottom-Line
This is a standard prepaid card and it offers some helpful money management features including online bill paying. The fees with any prepaid card are numerous and the fee schedule should be carefully studied before signing up. But those associated with the Purple Diamond are relatively good compared to many prepaid cards that are more expensive, and there is also an option for those who mostly need a card to facilitate the cashing of paychecks.

The Good
You don’t have to have good credit or a credit check to get this card, and if you refer a friend you get a $5 bonus.

The Not So Good
It is a prepaid card so you have to deposit money to activate it, unlike a typical credit card, and there are miscellaneous transaction or maintenance fees.