NEW YORK — Thousands of customers of pre-paid debit cards backed by hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons remain without access to their money more than a week after technical problems first began plaguing the cards.
RushCard customers, who are mostly people without bank accounts, said they have missed car payments. Worse, some said they have been unable to purchase food or important items for their families.
Simmons has been getting personally involved, talking directly with customers on Twitter.
ATTN: If you are experiencing problems with @RushCard, please DM me your name, address + phone #. We are working hard to get this all fixed.
— Russell Simmons (@UncleRUSH) October 19, 2015
.@Shewrites80 we are individually speaking to people who are still experiencing problems and trying to resolve them as quickly as possible.
— Russell Simmons (@UncleRUSH) October 19, 2015
The problems with the RushCard started October 12, when a software upgrade in the transaction processing system caused many RushCard accounts to show a zero balance or caused customers to have no access to their funds. The company says the glitch has been mostly resolved, though thousands remain affected.
An update for our @RushCard customers: pic.twitter.com/9JnQCtvFHX
— Russell Simmons (@UncleRUSH) October 21, 2015
Customer Racquel Rodriguez, of New Britain, has been locked out of her account since last Sunday. "I have no access to my funds," said Rodriquez. "My account is reflecting zero balance, and my direct deposit that was put in there last week is not showing."
Rodriguez has her paychecks deposited directly into her RushCard account. Her last paycheck is now gone.
"I don't know what I'm gonna do," said Rodriguez. "I have my daughter's college tuition. I dont wanna take out of her money to pay my bills. So I talked to my employer. They cancelled my direct deposit, but they cant do anything about reimbursing me for my week's paycheck."
She said she is now in jeopardy of having her lights turned off and her car insurance terminated. "I can't drive, I can't go to work, I can't provide," said Rodriguez.
Rodriguez said she has emailed RushCard several times, tweeted at the company and called customer service more than 20 times. "Saturday morning, I woke up at 5 o'clock in the morning," explained Rodriguez. "I was on the phone with them at 6 o'clock in the morning. They kept me on hold until 9 o'clock for them to hang up the phone on me."
In a statement to FOX 61, RushCard CEO Rick Savard said:
In an ongoing effort to upgrade and create new services for our customers, RushCard underwent a technology transition to a new transaction processing partner last Monday morning. During this process, many of our customers were adversely affected when the technology that was used to transition their accounts did not work as planned.
To those impacted, we can't begin to express both how sorry we are for the hardships that you've experienced and our commitment to making this right.
At this time, our system is up and running and we are processing deposits and transactions. A small number of accounts are still in an inactive state. We have set up command centers in NYC and Cincinnati to begin outreach to those who remain affected. RushCard employees are working around the clock to get every single customer full access to their funds.
As a thank you to our customers for sticking with us and to support their cash needs during the upcoming Holiday season, we've declared a Fee Holiday period from November 1, 2015 to February 29, 2016. Customers can use their RushCards without incurring any fees from our Fee Schedule without taking any extra steps to participate in this special offer. For more details, visit https://blog.rushcard.com/rushcard-fee-holiday/”
We are not done yet. You will hear more from us in the coming days about how we will continue to make good on our customers’ trust.
We want you to know how much we appreciate your loyalty and continued commitment to our company.
Anyone who has had problems with RushCard is asked to contact the Department of Banking to file a formal complaint. You can reach them at (860) 240-8299 or 1-800-831-7225.
