Bank of America takes a stand against gun businesses

[Brian Pfleuger]

Originally Posted by Double Naught Spy

Do you take the fight to the extreme of not accepting BOA credit cards at the risk of alienating customers and losing business, which will result in a loss of income and potentially resulting in a loss of the business? In other words, do you extend your fight with BOA to being a fight with your customers who may have a BOA credit card, telling them that you don't want their money if they are going to pay with BOA credit? That would be a very bad business decision from the standpoint of helping the business to thrive in an already stressed economy where more folks and restriced discretionary income.

All true.... I think that my response might be to post signs in the store and on the web page indicating to customers that I would strongly prefer not to accept BoA payment forms. If a customer handed me a BoA card/check then I would ask them if they were aware of the problem and run the card/take the check if they so wished.

On the other hand, such action does ring mildly of a personal vendetta as I'm certain that BoA is not the only major (or minor) bank with those policies and the only difference really is a personal spite. I certainly would not (and do not) do business with them but to take up a cause against them based on this alone might be a little overboard.

[Double Naught Spy]

All true.... I think that my response might be to post signs in the store and on the web page indicating to customers that I would strongly prefer not to accept BoA payment forms.

Which that would be perfectly reasonable and fair to everyone.

However, it isn't just BOA.

Citibank is anti-gun.
http://www.opticstalk.com/forum_post...9261&PID=74539
http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=15299 (I know it is WND, so take is as just another example)
http://tigerhawk.blogspot.com/2008/0...gun-stand.html
http://gunowners.org/op011610lp.htm

Citibank and First Data
http://accurateshooter.wordpress.com...s-for-boycott/

Chase Bank is Anti-gun
http://www.auctionarms.com/Help/Foru...ubjectID=30800

Maybe too Compass Bank
http://www.thehighroad.org/archive/i.../t-300624.html

And all of this is without even going into the personnel policies of each of the financial corporations. I think that you will find, without exception, that all the major financial institutions are anti-gun, at least at the workplace level, though not all extend that to alienating their customers, though some do.

I know a lot of gun owners dropped AOL because of their policies toward employees. How many financial institutions are actually pro-gun at both the customer and employee level? I bet the number is very low. Maybe we can figure out what few they are and all of us migrate our accounts to them?

[buckms]

Just found out about this BoA "policy" today when they rejected my business cc application...to me rejection of a business for this reason has the affect of limiting/restricting a legitimate business from interstate commerce...thanks for the post AZarmament.. went to the local CU and set up checking and CC.

[Uncle Buck]

Double Naught Spy and Peetzakilla: You are right, it could seriously impact a business. Posting the sign is a very good idea.

I have a policy that I do not accept checks from a certain local bank. It has caused a few problems, but we were able to work around them and everyone was happy in the end. I got my money and they got their chickens.

Sometimes we (I) act irrationally and after thinking things through find a better way of dealing with situations. I have explained to my customers why I do not take checks from this bank and the fact there is a branch just up the road that has an ATM.

[docpadds]

We are a Chase customer and have our business accounts with them, we are an FFL.... they have been great and very supportive of all of our needs.

We went to somebody else (NRA endorsed system) for the Credit Cards based on features available and the cost, but Chase had no issue with our business when we checked with them..

[XR750]

I quit BofA because they suck as a bank.

[arcticap]

One of my gun clubs removed all of its assets from BOA about 5 years ago after more than 20 years of handling the account because they were just not a very accommodating bank and not because of any 2A issues. That decision led the club to identify another bank with much better rates, products and service.
It was really BOA's loss since the club's account has grown considerably larger over the years.

[BillCA]

Originally Posted by Double Naught Spy

Do you take the fight to the extreme of not accepting BOA credit cards at the risk of alienating customers and losing business, which will result in a loss of income and potentially resulting in a loss of the business?

I would urge any business owner to read the fine print of the VISA and/or Master-Card contracts they have. Amongst the fine print in these contracts you may find that you can be penalized or your contract cancelled if you refuse to honor any card carrying the credit-card logo, regardless of which bank issued it.

You can certainly post a notice in your store that you prefer not to accept BofA cards at all, and denote why. But under the general terms of most VISA/MC contracts, you cannot charge any extra amounts for specific cards.

[SVO]

Due to personal family issues, I have to deal with 7 different banks. One of those 7 is BoA. I have found that BoA is the most difficult and un-cooperative to deal with. I don't have the option of moving the money, so the best I can do is to cash CD's and spend the money as fast as I legally can. If you think BoA banking branch is diffucult to deal with, then you have never dealt with BoA's insurance branch. As Peetzakilla said, find another bank.

[riverwalker76]

You also have to look at all areas of this topic.

Bank of America has a very stringent risk assessment program. If they find anyone or anything to be a high risk loan ... they deny them. Simple enough.

We do not know all aspects of the reasons the OP was denied, but rather his accounting of it. I'm not saying he is being dishonest, but rather that we do not know his credit history, business practices, or place of business. SImply put ... we don't know the whole story.

Also, what about the firearms industry in today's day and age ... given the current administration and political tendencies ... do you find would be an acceptable risk for a loan? Banks look at the long term viability of a business before they loan any amount of money. The firearms industry is not known for it's viability just because of the amount of small businesses that fail in the field each year. Location, demographics, and the economy all play a part in these decisions.

I'm sorry you were turned down, but I don't know enough about the situation to make an educated decision. I find the 'Conspiracy Theory' that BoA is an Anti-Gun lending institution to be just that.

You people really need to look into the lending policies of an institution before you go labeling them "Anti-Gun". I have found that 99% of the businesses that have been labeled as such were done out of ignorance by parties who are mad because they got turned down for a loan.

I'd be willing to bet that if you wanted to go in and open a coffee shop or family restaurant ... they'd have said the same thing. Then what would you call them? Anti-Coffee or Anti-Food? Come on .....

[bestwrmd]

I already cancel all my Credit cards in BOA. They do not deserve our business.

[Berettaman]

The motto around my home is "Bank Of America, YOU SUCK"!! We had so many problems with them when they bought up Fleet Bank. We found them charging so many hidden fees. They screwed up my mortgage big time. When they took over Fleet they jacked up my credit card interest rate from 12% to 23%. I sent my credit card through my shredder while I had them on the phone while filing a complaint. The last straw was when they started giving credit cards to illegal aliens. I closed every single account with them including my mortgage. We pulled every penny of ours out of their so called bank. This was over two years ago. The scary thing is they still send us monthly bank statements letting us know that we have zero balances in all of our closed accounts. Bunch of dumb azzes!!

[Mike Irwin]

No sense in bringing this one back up with no new information.

closed.