General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Oprah Winfrey is as much a fraud as the ones she brought into the spotlight. [View all]whopis01
(3,941 posts)She put out a debit card (the Approved Card from Suze Orman) with claims about it being a tool to help build your credit. The marketing was clearly designed to confuse people into thinking that it operated like a secured credit card when it was nothing of the sort.
For example, the marketing included statements from Suze Orman such as I am proud to say that the Approved card is the first prepaid card in history to share information with TransUnion, a major credit bureau.
While that was technically true, the information shared was not used for credit reporting purposes and had no impact on anyones credit score.
She then spun it as an experiment to see if activity on a debit card can create a FICO score. Guess what? It doesnt.
Meanwhile fees were collected for virtually anything done with the card. Checking your balance, calling customer service, not using direct deposit to put more money on the card, etc. all generated fees.
That isnt an unusual thing for such cards - but she would rail against such things on her show. She tells people to avoid these types of nickel and dime fees. She even berated other celebrities who put out similar products (the Kardashian Kard) and then turns around and offers the same thing with some false suggestions about it being helpful to building credit.
So, she qualifies as a fraud in my book.