Discover Card Hates Guns

[eddiememphis]

https://www.foxnews.com/media/discover-financial-reportedly-track-gun-store-purchases-starting-april

The company behind Discover credit cards will reportedly be joining a larger initiative to track when cardholders make purchases at gun stores.

"Discover Financial Services (DFS.N), a provider of credit cards, told Reuters it will allow its network to track purchases at gun retailers come April, making it the first among its peers to publicly give a date for moving ahead with the initiative, which is aimed at helping authorities probe gun-related crimes," Reuters reported.

As was discussed last year, it looks like cash is still king.

[encorehunter]

I wonder when my Cabelas card will track my gun store purchases.

[Wulf202]

Canceling mine this month.

[00tec]

I don't know anyone with a discover card. Guess I'm a poor.

[electronman1729]

People use a discover card?

[wctriumph]

I have always paid cash for firearms and the freedom infringing BGC. The only exception was to pay for the 1911 I purchased from the CMP and it was not the Discover card.

[Little Dutch]

I’ve used my discover for almost everything for well over a decade. Too bad.

[Wulf202]

Canceled

[Little Dutch]

Reading the article, it looks like Discover is among the last of the credit cards to adopt the new policy.

Multiple payment processors such as Visa, Mastercard, and American Express have already joined a massive project to separately categorize gun shop sales.

They did issue this statement.


Discover has no plans to track cardholder purchases of firearms or provide that information to anyone, nor could we. Merchant Category Codes are used to categorize types of stores, and do not enable us to see the product that was purchased. We are not alone in using these codes; they are used consistently by all the major payment networks. We strongly believe in the right of our customers to use their Discover cards for any legal purchase and remain committed to maintaining the privacy of their information.


I don't know. There's always cash. For now anyway.

[Eric P]

Honestly, what is the point of merchant code other than reward points?

I would hate for congress to ban this type of monitoring.

Everything is monitored. The government doesn't need discovers data. They have all the data they need on thier permission slip you fill out.

Personally, I would use thier card exclusively when purchasing 2A stuff, so that they contribute cash back for said purchases.

[eddiememphis]

Canceled

https://apnews.com/article/mastercard-visa-guns-second-amendment-c2f5db1f0be066458ee0041a5816736e

Visa and Mastercard "paused" their action.

In a statement, Visa indicated that the legal pushback was partially the reason they have paused their implementation.

“There is now significant confusion and legal uncertainty in the payments ecosystem, and the state actions disrupt the intent of global standards,” the company said.

“Visa and Mastercard came to the correct conclusion. However, they shouldn’t just ‘pause’ their implementation of this plan—they should end it definitively,” said Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen, who led the 24 state GOP group to pressure Visa and Mastercard to drop the standard, in a statement.

[Wulf202]

Honestly, what is the point of merchant code other than reward points?

I would hate for congress to ban this type of monitoring.

Everything is monitored. The government doesn't need discovers data. They have all the data they need on thier permission slip you fill out.

Personally, I would use thier card exclusively when purchasing 2A stuff, so that they contribute cash back for said purchases.

The thought occurred to me. However I've canceled my Citi card because their ceo went anti 2a so discover got the same treatment.

[Wulf202]

https://apnews.com/article/mastercard-visa-guns-second-amendment-c2f5db1f0be066458ee0041a5816736e

Visa and Mastercard "paused" their action.

In a statement, Visa indicated that the legal pushback was partially the reason they have paused their implementation.

?There is now significant confusion and legal uncertainty in the payments ecosystem, and the state actions disrupt the intent of global standards,? the company said.

?Visa and Mastercard came to the correct conclusion. However, they shouldn?t just ?pause? their implementation of this plan?they should end it definitively,? said Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen, who led the 24 state GOP group to pressure Visa and Mastercard to drop the standard, in a statement.

I put all my expenses I could on discover for the past several years. They're already a small fish so maybe it will actually be noticed

[Oscar77]

Honestly, what is the point of merchant code other than reward points?

I would hate for congress to ban this type of monitoring.

Everything is monitored. The government doesn't need discovers data. They have all the data they need on thier permission slip you fill out.

Personally, I would use thier card exclusively when purchasing 2A stuff, so that they contribute cash back for said purchases.

My Credit Union CC uses them to generate the "budget monitoring charts" or whatever you call them.
So you see, for example......."Oh my Gosh, I spent HOW MUCH on gas?" etc

FWIW, my CU CC mis-labels my gun purchases as "Entertainment" or something like that..........

[00tec]

Could be worse. Bank of America sent a sorted spreadsheet to the feds right after 1/6. This is coming for all of us.

Not my kind of party, but when my party is in the crosshairs, it's worrying. (Just for clarity, I'm talking party party, not political party)

[eddiememphis]

https://stripe.com/guides/merchant-category-codes#:~:text=An%20MCC%20is%20a%20four,key%20piece %20of%20payments%20processing.

MCCs explained.

Payment processing providers assign MCCs to businesses to determine which fees to charge for using their payments services, depending on factors such as a business’s level of risk.

You can use MCCs to either restrict issued cards from being used with certain business types or allow cards to be used only at certain business types. For example, if you’re creating a travel expense platform, you can set spending controls so your cards can only be used for purchases with travel-related MCCs. Some of the Stripe Issuing bank partners require us to block certain high-risk MCCs at a program level, such as gambling.

MCC data is available for every transaction and on the Authorization object, along with other helpful information about the transaction, including the amount, authorization method, and additional details about the business where the card was used.

[Oscar77]

Here's the complete paragraph quoted if you don't feel like following the link:



Why are MCC's important?

MCCs have a number of capabilities that can enhance your card program by:

Setting spending controls
You can use MCCs to either restrict issued cards from being used with certain business types or allow cards to be used only at certain business types. For example, if you’re creating a travel expense platform, you can set spending controls so your cards can only be used for purchases with travel-related MCCs. Some of the Stripe Issuing bank partners require us to block certain high-risk MCCs at a program level, such as gambling.

Gathering data on cardholder spend
MCC data is available for every transaction and on the Authorization object, along with other helpful information about the transaction, including the amount, authorization method, and additional details about the business where the card was used.

Rewarding cardholders
MCCs help with rewarding cardholders. For example, if you offer cardholders 3% cash back on business supplies, then any transaction with a business that has an MCC designated for office supplies will notify you to dispense that reward.