Capcom Cash Card Packs A Nasty Punch

Andy Chalk

One Flag, One Fleet, One Cat
Nov 12, 2002
45,698
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Capcom Cash Card Packs A Nasty Punch


Those hot new Capcom prepaid cash cards may look pretty sexy coming out of your wallet but it turns out they're packing a fistful of service fees and hidden charges that'll make your eyes bulge faster than a Hadoken in the junk.

Capcom [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/89500-Street-Fighter-The-Debit-Card] merchandise. But with great power comes great responsibility, and in this case cardholders are responsible for laying down $9.95 to buy the card and a minimum $10 initial deposit, plus a $4.95 monthly access fee. Ouch.

But it doesn't stop there. As Defend Your Dollars [http://www.defendyourdollars.org/2009/03/street_fighter_4_prepaid_cards.html] discovered, that's "tip of the iceberg" territory. Reloading the card when it runs dry will cost you another $4.95, which is apparently a standard fee on any Visa cash card. You want to actually use the thing? That'll cost you, too: 25 cents every time you enter your PIN, and $1.50 to yank money out of the local ATM, which you'll pay in addition to whatever fees the bank may charge for the privilege of using their machine.

Your card is declined because you haven't put enough cash on it? 50 cent charge. You forget how much cash you've got on it so you decide to be responsible and check before attempting a purchase? 50 cents. Having trouble of some sort, aside from the fact that you're going broke paying for this sweet new Chris Redfield cash card? It'll cost you 25 cents to call in to an automated help line and if you're so unreasonably demanding that you actually want to talk to a person, it'll be $1.50.

There's more! If you manage to overdraft the card you're on the hook for any amount overspent plus a $10 overdraft fee. And if you eventually decide that carrying Ken and Ryu around in your ass pocket just isn't worth the expense it'll cost you $10 to cancel the card, which you'd better pay because along with the $4.95 monthly service fee there's also a $5.00 dormancy fee if you just don't bother using it.

If you still want to sign up for one of these things you can do so at full list [http://www.capcom-unity-card.com/] of fees, penalties and other ways you can give away your money for the opportunity to impress the girl behind the counter at Starbucks. Consider yourself warned.

via: Kotaku [http://kotaku.com/5166563/capcom-debit-cards-tiger-uppercut-you-with-bank-fees]


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Virgil

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Legacy
Jun 13, 2002
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Wow, that may actually be the most evil credit card I've ever seen.
 

Galletea

Inexplicably Awesome
Sep 27, 2008
2,877
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I wonder how many people are actually surprised by this. Cards always have hidden charges, and special looking cards with super bonus things inevitably are more trouble than they're worth. At least they look cool, for all the shop assistants who might actually appreciate the motifs...
 

GyroCaptain

New member
Jan 7, 2008
1,181
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And that's why I use a check card and have a standard credit card from BOA for emergencies.

The latter has Yoda on it. Yoda is better than Ryu. [/lazy pun]
 

InventiveHero

New member
Oct 2, 2008
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Wow, that is earth shatteringly awful. I don't know if this is a better show of the company looking to exploit youth, or the sorry state of the world's economy - that they see fit to leverage so many fees!
 

Cousin_IT

New member
Feb 6, 2008
1,822
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Gimmicky cash card in squeezing every penny out of those dumb enough to setup an account coz the card had a pic of their favorite computer game character on it shocker. Anyone who expected a good deal should be banned from using anything but metal coinage.
 

Rednog

New member
Nov 3, 2008
3,567
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This is really no different than any other reloadable cash card out there. If you need a prepaid card just get one from a local currency exchange and avoid the prepaid "gift cards" from stores because they often have built in delays on them or screw up if a company charges you the random $1 or so before they charge you the real amount.
 

laserwulf

New member
Dec 30, 2007
223
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It may be legal, but it's certainly not ethical. I was looking at a similar card in a grocery store, and just the monthly fee was enough to turn me off. I didn't see anything on the cardboard backing that talked about all those other fees, so it would seem that Visa is looking to profit off of the laziness and/or ignorance of anyone who buys them.
 

Volucer

New member
Sep 4, 2008
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Wow, that seems pretty evil, evil enough to that even the devil may cry at the ammount he's being charged to use (or even not use) his card.