Posted on 01/10/2008 11:56:51 AM PST by thmsmgnm
January 7, 2008
CREDIT CARD PROCESSING COMPANY REJECTS FIREARMS INDUSTRY
REFUSES TO PROCESS TRANSACTIONS . . . Citi Merchant Services and First Data Corp. are refusing to process any credit card transactions between federally licensed firearms retailers, distributors and manufacturers -- a move which will severely limit available inventory of firearms and ammunition to military, law enforcement and law-abiding Americans.
(Excerpt) Read more at nssf.org ...
First Data Corp and CitiBank are not agents of the ATF nor should they act like it. If there is a problem with transactions it is up to the ATF or other ACTUAL LAW ENFORCEMENT organizations to deal with.
I wonder if Citibank and First Data Corp will continue to process transaction for bars, strip clubs, night clubs, or on-line pOrn sites. Since there might be criminal activity going on with those businesses that they can't monitor.
thmsmgnm
They will process money transfers for Islamic charities that make payments to the families of suicide bombers for Hamas, but American firearms manufacturers, well THAT would be imoral.
Posted twice already.
Don’t write your own headlines. Causes duplicate posts....
Ping!
Emphasis mine. I understand "right to refuse" but CitiBank taking it way too far. Wonder if they would like it if I pulled my investments (I don't use credit).
Well, this is a simple thing to deal with. All those who purchase legal firearms just need to cancel any credit card with these two companies, and find a different credit card company to work with.
Citi Merchant Services is owned by First Data Corp, not Citibank. Citibank should have been more careful in how they sold off the unit, but I’d absolutely encourage Citibank to pull permission to trade under the Citi Merchant Services name.
For those of you who are still doing business with the big money center banks..I suggest that you look at your local credit union. They do more for a lot less. You pay for out of town ATM’s, but with planning you can get around that.
You can get a lot more personal service from your Credit Union and a lot more help when you need help.
We are full time RV and our credit union receives and pays all our bills..and communicates via email. No Money Center bank will do that..unless you are a high net worth client.
My Mastercard has a CITI logo. Is this Citibank?
FDC is now owned by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR, a private equity firm, not traded) under the leadership of Michael Capella (one of the fellows responsible for destroying Compaq before moving on to Worldcomm).
Welcome to Free Republic.
First Data transfers untaxed wages from criminals to Mexico !
No, this is merchant services, i.e. credit payment processing. Regardless of what institution your card is from, when you use it to pay for something, the merchant processes it through whatever merchant services company that merchant has chosen to contract with.
However, I recall reading on another thread that this whole thing is inaccurate info anyway. Hopefully that’s the case.
I'm not sure that is the same as Citibank.
It is a partnership involving Citibank. From their "About" page:
Citi Merchant Services Provided by First Data Merchant Services Corporation
Citi Merchant Services provided by First Data Merchant Services Corporation is a contractual alliance in the U.S. between Citicorp Payment Services, Inc. (CPSI) and First Data Merchant Services Corporation (FDMS). FDMS provides all the systems, technology, processing services and customer support to the alliance. CPSI is the sponsoring card association member and provides the clearing and settlement functions on behalf of the alliance.
Customers of Citi Merchant Services provided by First Data Merchant Services Corporation benefit from the expertise and expanded service offerings of both First Data through FDMS and Citi through CPSI.
I agree. If it is correct though, a way of dealing with it would be to pay cash. Once you have cash in hand, they would have no control over how you used it.
Except that then you would also be hurting all the other merchant services providers, since you’re not likely to be able to find out which company a store uses in most cases. Maybe you could find out from management for places you shop regularly, like your local grocery store, but cashiers would rarely know what company is processing the charges.
I’m not following how this would affect businesses such as grocery stores who do not also sell firearms.
Your grocery store is just as likely as an FFL was to use this particular merchant services provider. You can’t boycott the provider unless you refuse use credit cards at any establishment that uses this provider. Obviously if the provider is refusing to process FFL transactions, there wouldn’t be anything to boycott when you’re patronizing FFLs — the provider has already walked away from the business.
BUT, do verify this story before trying to act on it. I saw a post on another thread saying that the company had responded that in fact this was NOT their policy, and that the story was based on information provided by an employee of theirs who didn’t understand that such transactions are legal.
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