Visa, Mastercard halt gun purchase tracking code

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Amos Moses
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Jan 31, 2022
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Colorado
Cash for guns if I buy, though not currently looking.
I think a bigger issue is what exactly they’re categorizing as a gun purchase. From what I read, it could just be a purchase from a firearm retailer. So go into sportsman’s to buy a new cooler, and you’re flagged.
 

MattB

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I think a bigger issue is what exactly they’re categorizing as a gun purchase. From what I read, it could just be a purchase from a firearm retailer. So go into sportsman’s to buy a new cooler, and you’re flagged.
Time will tell, but my sense is that the new MCC code will be more limited in its application. It looks like Sportsmans Warehouse generates less than half its revenue from firearms/ammo sales, so I doubt that it would be forced from the broader sporting goods MCC code to the new firearms-specific one. Traditional gun stores which generate a very high % of revenue from firearms/ammo are where I see this MCC being applied.

There is also a merchant processor convention for providing line-item detail for transactions (level III data) that may get pressed into use for those sorts of retailers, so that a card issuer could discriminate between firearms/ammo purchases and general sporting goods purchases at a retailer that sells both. I suppose this could also be applied by gun stores to differentiate between buying a gun and buying a gun safe, but I doubt mom and pops will go this route.

We will see how this plays out, but there is a lot of work to get this scheme fully implemented. One card issuer accepting the new MCC code doesn't do a thing until the retailers are converted over and reporting it. From what I have read, it is not as easy as just changing an MCC code in a data field to affect the change at the processor level. My guess is that, even if the entire industry moved in that direction in lock step, it would take years to fully implement.
 

Flyjunky

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Time will tell, but my sense is that the new MCC code will be more limited in its application. It looks like Sportsmans Warehouse generates less than half its revenue from firearms/ammo sales, so I doubt that it would be forced from the broader sporting goods MCC code to the new firearms-specific one. Traditional gun stores which generate a very high % of revenue from firearms/ammo are where I see this MCC being applied.

There is also a merchant processor convention for providing line-item detail for transactions (level III data) that may get pressed into use for those sorts of retailers, so that a card issuer could discriminate between firearms/ammo purchases and general sporting goods purchases at a retailer that sells both. I suppose this could also be applied by gun stores to differentiate between buying a gun and buying a gun safe, but I doubt mom and pops will go this route.

We will see how this plays out, but there is a lot of work to get this scheme fully implemented. One card issuer accepting the new MCC code doesn't do a thing until the retailers are converted over and reporting it. From what I have read, it is not as easy as just changing an MCC code in a data field to affect the change at the processor level. My guess is that, even if the entire industry moved in that direction in lock step, it would take years to fully implement.
Who cares how long it would take, simply trying to implement it is the problem
 
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Amos Moses
Joined
Jan 31, 2022
Messages
390
Location
Colorado
Sounds like a private company making decisions.
Sounds to me like a private company collecting specific data to share with the government. Hence the multiple pieces of pending legislation to outlaw the process.

I doubt much will be passed to protect against it, but I sure hope so.
 
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