Achtung, Juden! Das ist Verboten!

In processing a customer order today, we got a “Service Not Allowed” message from our credit card merchant services bank. They’re the ones who handle all of our credit and debit card transactions. We called them to find out what this message means, because we’d not seen it before. Well, they were by this time quite familiar with the “problem”. The problem is MBNA, in this case, who issued the card to our customer, DOES NOT ALLOW TRANSACTIONS WITH GUN RELATED BUSINESSES.

If you’re doing any business with MBNA, you’d best give them a jingle, and DO NOT FORGET this. This sort of thing seems to be on the rise, and it will get worse unless we push back, soon.

Update, Jan. 7, 2015; The customer called his bank, assuming the “Service Not Allowed” was due to a late payment on his part. As I explained to him several times; we were told by our Merchant Services bank that it was due to MBNA policy, and that our Merchant Services people were quite familiar with said policy as they’d had to deal with such denials many times previous. The customer only repeated what he’d said about a possible late payment. In any case, the transaction, on the same card, was approved today. All I can make of it, given what we were told by Merchant Services, is that MBNA will cave without comment or discussion once they’re called on it. From what commenters are saying, the practice of denying transactions may be random, or it may be targeted toward individual customers or vendors. Without more information I have no way of knowing. This would all seem quite unbelievable, except for what we already know about the recent IRS targeting, Fast & Furious, the attempted intimidation of Sharyl Attkisson and others, and other insidious pranks aimed at the perceived enemies of Progressivism.

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24 thoughts on “Achtung, Juden! Das ist Verboten!

  1. Could you change your company description to “Constitutional law educational organization”?

    • The problem is that when you sign up for credit card processing services they demand to know the nature of your business. If you are lie/mislead them they could terminate your account at any time.

      • Just to be clear, and so everyone knows what we mean; we don’t do business with MBNA, at least not directly. They are the customer’s card-issuing bank in this instance.

        It’s been so long since we signed up for our merchant account, I don’t have any recollection of how we defined the business. For all I know it could have been “Manufacturing, wholesale and retail” or “Optic mounting hardware”. I am curious how it is that MBNA’s system came to prohibit us.

        I have yet to be able to reach the customer. He’ll be delighted no doubt, for the opportunity to express his beliefs by taking his money to another bank.

        • Yes, clearly it’s critical to let the customer know that his bank is attempting to censor him.

  2. MBNA is owned by Bank of America. I closed all my accounts with BoA about 2.5 years ago. When they asked why I told them, “I’m so angry with this bank I’m not going to tell you why.”

    It’s a little bit complicated so I’m not going to get into it here but I’d be glad to explain it in person if you asked. And there were multiple things over the years that caused my blood to boil with them and none of them were related to guns. This just confirms my opinion of them as incredibly stupid and malicious. I hope they go bankrupt and whoever acquires the remnants, fires every employee, black-balls them in all financial industries, razes the buildings, and purges the Internet of their existence as anything other than a bad example.

    • Hm. I have a BofA card, and I haven’t run into this issue — recent orders to Brownells and Boberg went through without a hitch.

    • I closed an account with them about the same time for the same reasons. My family had been a customer of North Carolina National Bank aka NCNB aka NationsBank since1966. The bank was a mere six years old at that time. In other words, we were very long-time customers.

      NationsBank was the dominant partner in the merger with BofA but took the other’s name due to brand recognition.

  3. I cancelled my BofA-associated card when I heard about the trouble they gave McMillian. I got an amazon.com Visa card instead; they were delighted with my business, and I get back points toward future amazon.com purchases.

    (Do they know about gun-related transactions? They should… I’ve bought plenty of gun-related accessories from amazon.com, using the card. They don’t seem to mind.)

  4. Pingback: SayUncle » Another anti-gun bank

  5. Get an NRA Visa card. Removes the guilt of not responding to all their solicitations, as they get a small percentage of every transaction. First National Bank of Omaha does the deed.

  6. A couple of years ago I worked for a large national security company that had the guard contract with B of A. In addition to our annual in-service training required by the state we had to attend classes required by the bank. In one, we were instructed as to the profile of someone prone to workplace violence. Described was a White male, over 40, a veteran, former member of law enforcement, and a member of the NRA. Realizing I fit all of these categories, I asked if I could be immediately excused from the rest of the session, since I posed such a threat to everyone in attendance.

    • Exactly. Just like the IRS “has no policy”, meaning no official written policy, of stonewalling and harassing conservative 501 c3 applicants.

      I’ll file this event under “shark bumps”. The shark circles its perspective prey at a distance, analyzing, trying to figure out if it’s something safe and good to eat, and if it senses the time is right, it will test the prey’s reactions by swimming in and bumping it, then swimming away to observe…

      I was shark bumped twice this week. Both instances resulted in simple phone calls, me asking polite questions, and lo and behold, everything’s cool, yo! Hey they was just funnin. Nothing to see here!

      Speak softly and carry a big auto pistol on your hip, an AR-15 in your vehicle and long range precision rifles in your closets.

  7. I had forgot they are owned by Bank of America. I have a Bank of America Bass Pro Shops card….

  8. Hmmmm….

    Legal business.
    Legal product.

    Limitations are not mentioned in the contract, are they?

    Class action lawsuit.

  9. I know of people who keep rifles, food, ammunition, etc. buried in multiple locations. The American West is peppered with such sites. Just sayin’.

    Looks like the French were more than shark-bumped today.

    • Yes, after reading Matthew Bracken’s trilogy I can see why people would take such precautions.
      The French events made it clear to me that you don’t have a right to free speech if you don’t have the ability to defend it with effective self defense weapons. Freedom of speech in a disarmed victim zone is an illusion.

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