June 1, 2016 The Skanner Page 7
News
Russell Simmons Repays RushCard Holders, Pushes For Credit Card Reforms
By Stacy M. Brown
NNPA News Wire Contribut-
ing Writer
R
ussell Simmons is just
starting to regain a little
normalcy in his life.
He’s back at yoga and
the hip-hop and business mo-
gul is even able to run some er-
rands without worrying about
whether a disgruntled Rush-
Card holder might verbally at-
tack him — or worse.
Simmons never hung his
head despite mounting crit-
icism that rocked the music
impresario when his innova-
tive pre-paid RushCard expe-
rienced a computer glitch last
fall that prevented hundreds
of thousands of card holders
from accessing their money.
“I took full responsibility.
It’s my card and I made sure to
reach out to cardholders per-
sonally and I reached into my
own pocket to help people with
their rent, their medicine or
whatever emergency that may
have come up,” Simmons said.
“All I knew how to do was
to make good on it and try to
make the people that were
damaged whole again,” he said.
Simmons has done even
more and he continues his
push to have the underbanked
and the underserved beneit.
“My mission is to eventu-
ally see that when someone
pays their rent on time, pays
their light bill on time, that
these things go on their cred-
it reports,” Simmons said. “It
should be and if I can’t get reg-
ulators and the credit bureaus
to do it, then I will have to start
my own credit bureau.”
If that sounds like a bit of a
stretch, Simmons points to his
starting the RushCard as proof
that real change can happen.
“I was irst. No one else did
this until I came out with my
card,” he said, noting that he’s
not just the face of RushCard.
Along with his American Ex-
press and other items in his
wallet is his own RushCard
that he regularly uses.
“Look, we were the ones who
invented this and what I don’t
like is when people refer to us
as a celebrity company,” Sim-
mons said. “All of what Amer-
ican Express is doing, all of
“
for eight years on a RushCard
-- why can’t you get a mort-
gage? I think that’s a travesty. I
think a lot of the big companies
like MasterCard, the Visas, the
others that do the processing
and infrastructure work; a lot
of us could come together and
force them to accept this infor-
mation on credit reports of the
world,” Simmons said.
As Simmons pushes for
changes in policies in the cred-
it industry, he’s leaving the
door open for starting his own
credit reporting agency.
In the atermath of the
much-publicized
computer
glitch – which Simmons still
It’s my card and I made sure to reach
out to cardholders personally and I
reached into my own pocket to help
people with their rent, their med-
icine or whatever emergency that
may have come up
what Chase Manhattan did,
we did irst. We’re a virtual
bank. The other thing is that
we didn’t build this company
to make money when we start-
ed and, really, I didn’t think it
would become a business but it
did and I go to work every day
to try and improve the service
we provide.”
Simmons said his ight for
credit building is an uphill bat-
tle, but it’s a battle that can be
won.
It’s as much part of his life as
yoga, he said.
“You pay rent every month
refers to as a “tsunami” – the
business leader provided free
service to card holders for ive
months, sacriicing all of his
company’s proits to do so. He
also reached a more than $20
million settlement from a class
action lawsuit iled against
RushCard, be-
cause of the
glitch.
“I’m
glad
to do it. I had
put aside $25
million,” Sim-
mons
said,
noting
that
VALERIE GOODLOE/NNPA NEWS WIRE
Mogul says he hopes to see more inancial services for unbanked and underbanked customers
Simmons said he’s going to spend a lot more money in the Black community, in
peacekeeping programs, and on art education, following the settlement his
company reached over the class action lawsuit over the well-publicized computer
glitch that afected thousands of RushCard users.
the card isn’t just for commu-
nities that have been forgotten
and underserved by banks.
“There’s no reason why small
businesses can’t use a Rush
Business Card. We just add-
ed a feature, just now where
if you lose your card, you can
turn your card of instantly
through an app. Then you can
turn it back on.”
Simmons continued: “This
card should be for aluent
people as well as underserved
community members and it
should be the wave of the fu-
ture for millennials. This is
the bank for millennials and
the growth rate for our com-
pany is 70 percent millennials,
when it used to be single moth-
ers. Millennials who don’t
like banks are coming in our
direction and we haven’t even
begun the branding exercise to
speak to them.”
Simmons said that he didn’t
mind paying the $20 million
settlement.
“I don’t mind paying the $20
million. I don’t mind that that
was our cost. I am going to
spend a lot more money than
that in the community, in my
peacekeeping programs, in
RUSH and art education,” he
said.
Simmons said so much more
will soon be announced and
he’s conident that RushCard
holders and others will be
pleased.
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