Consumer complaint received 2015-10-27
Company: Empowerment Ventures, LLC
State: WV
Product: Prepaid card
Sub-product: Transit card
Issue: Fraud or scam

Complaint:
RushCard ( UniRush, LLC, XXXX, XXXX XXXX, XXXX, XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, and XXXX ) was going through a tech update. During this process, the entirety of cardholders ' accounts were unavailable for a few hours, which is understandable. However, now, 2 weeks later, a lot of cardholders ' accounts are still unavailable and people are unable to access their account ( some reporting that RushCard is unable to even locate their account ), others reporting that they had funds in their account and now the funds are missing or gone and RushCard has no idea where they went to. I personally was not affected for any type of direct deposit or card-to-card transfer or anything of the sort, but I DID have funds and felt unsafe at loading my card for fear of not being able to acccess the funds. I am reporting the aforementioned entities as fraudulent ( not a scam ; I 've been a loyal customer since 2009 and nothing like this has ever happened ) in the way they handle business. Some cardholders are even reporting that customer service representatives are even taunting them, claiming they got their funds on their cards from RushCard, yet people who are working and things have n't. It 's quite disheartening. Some are reporting that RushCard ca n't even locate their accounts, as if they were never a customer to begin with. Some say they call and are on the line for quite an extended period of time, while others are simply hung up on and have to call back, making them feel hopeless. Some have to go to other banks to take out loans, others going to payday loan places so they can pay bills and provide food for themselves and/or their loved ones, gas for getting to and from work, etc. XXXX cardholder claimed she received a phone call from RushCard stating they are " investigating accounts XXXX by XXXX '' and she will have to wait to get any of her stolen money back. She asked the RushCard customer support representative " how do I eat in the mean time '' and the rep said suggested her " local church or soup kitchen. " I have no idea what the majority of these cardholders are facing and it sickens and disgusts me that RushCard would do this and say things of this nature to cardholders, working-class people and people who receive a monthly check, some still waiting for it to deposit. 

How are people supposed to live and survive like that with a company who does these types of things? How are we supposed to entrust our funds and account information to a company, while having a nice record previously, now has XXXX that is quite less than stellar, and expect to be ok with this? I 'm only speaking on my behalf with examples in the text here. I do hope something comes of this because I, for XXXX, was completely thrown by this. I 'd always trusted RushCard, but not now. I am also hearing reports of RushCard funding people {$25.00} or {$75.00} or such for " system outage '' fees. I suppose this is hush money or to keep them from filing? No idea. 

Whatever the case is, cardholders are fed up and we need and demand action against RushCard and its subsidiaries. 

Thank you for reading.

Company response to consumer: Closed with non-monetary relief