Credit card company stops payments on gun-related sales — but there’s more to the story

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A credit card company has reportedly declined, and even reversed, some gun-related sales. However, the company said the report did not reveal the full story. (Getty Images) 

Sarah TaylorSTAFF WRITER

The New York Post reported that Intuit stopped processing credit card payments — and even reversed some charges — on gun-related sales. However, Intuit fired back, saying that the report did not reveal the full story and that the policy that stopped the processing of certain gun-related sales has been in place a long time.

What did the Post report?

On Monday, the Post published an article with a headline that read “Intuit stops processing payments on all gun purchases.”

Lois Weiss, the article’s author, wrote:

Several gun-related businesses were suddenly — and without warning — disrupted in recent weeks when Intuit stopped processing credit card payments because phone and internet sales were gun-related, The Post has learned.

Some of the payments stopped didn’t even involve firearms, but simply T-shirts and coffee mugs and gun safety classes, according to small business owners.

One person impacted was Ken Campbell, a former Indiana sheriff and current owner of Gunsite Academy in Paulden, Arizona.

Campbell told the Post that he spoke to Intuit, who told Campbell that “it mistakenly believed firearm sales were being made directly to the customers, which it requires for such items.”

Campbell, however, said that the firearms were shipped to a local dealer who possessed a federal firearms license and complied with mandatory background checks.

He said that Intuit didn’t care and said that if he was aware of the company’s policy that gun sales must be made face to face, he would not have used them.

“It’s fine, it’s capitalism, and if you don’t want to do business with us, we don’t want to do business with you,” he told the Post.

The Post reported that Intuit issued a statement on the matter which said:

As an American company, we respect the US Constitution and all the rights contained in it … For these transactions our bank partner requires them to be done face-to-face … Our policy today requires the customer to be present to swipe their credit card.

So what’s the policy?

Heather Mclellan, a spokesperson for Intuit, told Guns.com Tuesday that the company’s policy on firearms is “not new, nor has it changed.”

Mclellan said, “Our company does NOT prohibit ANY of these regulated industries — including the firearms industry — from using QuickBooks for payment processing.”

“In fact,” she added, “many do so today.”

“However, for these transactions our bank partner requires them to be done face-to-face,” Mclellan continued. “To meet this requirement, our policy today requires the customer to be present to swipe their credit card.”

Mclellan explained that when transactions are “keyed in” by a vendor — “including online and over the phone” — Intuit is unable to verify whether or not the customer was present for the transaction.

She added that that very issue conflicts with the company’s “long-standing financial safety policies in the electronics payment industry.”

“All of our customers agree to these terms when they sign on to use our services,” Mclellan told the outlet. “When a customer of ours is unable or unwilling to meet this commitment, we reach out to them directly to explore a solution to the problem or to transition them off of our service.”