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A little-noticed move by American Express to ban the purchase of medical marijuana with its credit cards has reignited a longstanding debate: How much can a credit card company control what you buy?
To the surprise of consumers, major credit card companies are making decisions about what they can and can't buy with their credit cards. What's off-limits? Legal purchases like gambling chips and donations to at least one controversial non-profit organization; in some cases, buying pornography is also restricted, and so, increasingly, is medical marijuana. Last month, shortly before Delaware became the 16th state to legalize medical marijuana, American Express told merchants that its cards could not be used to buy it.
Companies say they're protecting themselves against legal risk, but critics say this kind of corporate policy is an inconvenience for merchants, infringes on consumers' rights and amounts to moral policy-setting. "You ought to be able to use a credit card for any legal purchase," says John M. Simpson from the non-profit Consumer Watchdog. "It seems to me that credit card companies are imposing their moral values on the world."
http://www.smartmoney.com/borrow/credit-cards/what-your-credit-card-wont-let-you-buy-1306530948401/
Thoughts please on whether this is acceptable or not?
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I think all they are doing by imposing restrictions is encouraging their customers to find a new cc provider. If they are truly that worried about the website that they are processing payments for, then report it to the FTC. If not, butt out!
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The credit card company is covering themselves there I think from being seen as supporting the drug industry and being pro-marijuana, legal use or not. Let's see if they do the same thing for all the porn sites that are paid for by credit card next. I bet they don't! They would lose too much in transaction fees. If they want to draw moral lines in the sand, then they can't stop at medical marijuana.
I agree with that! It's like having your mom examine your credit card statement. Not cool at all!