Banks Denying/Shutting Down high risk businesses (Full Version)

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DocStrange -> Banks Denying/Shutting Down high risk businesses (4/8/2017 11:58:10 AM)


This is an older link (2015) but it is still happening.
https://www.engadget.com/2015/12/02/paypal-square-and-big-bankings-war-on-the-sex-industry/
If you have a newer link, please provide it. I have been having trouble tracking down recent links

Visa, Square and other Banks are no longer processing credit card payments from many "Freedom of speech" organizations. This includes many in the adult industry. Backpage, Fetlife, Craigslist and many others have had their credit cards processing shutdown or have had to eliminate many aspects of their business.

This really has far and wide ranging impact. At what point will they stop? For now it affects mainly online merchants. But what happens when they go the next step. Events like Folsom Street Fair, Europerve, Seattle Erotic Festival, Kinky Copenhagen, Fetishcon, Domcon and others are in danger.

It is rather scary how powerful the bank merchants are. They decide you are high risk and boom, your business is gone. No laws to protect you, no recourse if they decide to cut you off. They can tell you how to run your business and if you refuse they simply will refuse to process any credit cards effectively putting you our of business.



NoirMetal -> RE: Banks Denying/Shutting Down high risk businesses (4/9/2017 7:24:43 AM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: DocStrange


This is an older link (2015) but it is still happening.
https://www.engadget.com/2015/12/02/paypal-square-and-big-bankings-war-on-the-sex-industry/
If you have a newer link, please provide it. I have been having trouble tracking down recent links

Visa, Square and other Banks are no longer processing credit card payments from many "Freedom of speech" organizations. This includes many in the adult industry. Backpage, Fetlife, Craigslist and many others have had their credit cards processing shutdown or have had to eliminate many aspects of their business.

This really has far and wide ranging impact. At what point will they stop? For now it affects mainly online merchants. But what happens when they go the next step. Events like Folsom Street Fair, Europerve, Seattle Erotic Festival, Kinky Copenhagen, Fetishcon, Domcon and others are in danger.

It is rather scary how powerful the bank merchants are. They decide you are high risk and boom, your business is gone. No laws to protect you, no recourse if they decide to cut you off. They can tell you how to run your business and if you refuse they simply will refuse to process any credit cards effectively putting you our of business.

I supported Fetlife though a bank transfer. There are ways to get around this financial censorship.



LadyPact -> RE: Banks Denying/Shutting Down high risk businesses (4/9/2017 8:41:22 AM)

Can't help with a more recent link. Sorry.

I did have a bit of a laugh at myself. Granted, it's been several years since I've been to FSF, but I couldn't really remember paying an admission fee. I had to look it up to reassure myself that we didn't pay to enter the event. Not that I didn't drop a few dollars while I attended. [:D]

I didn't really read up on this until the last go round about the issue hitting Fet. No offense, Doc, but I didn't really care when it hit Backpage or Craiglist. Not my realm.

A little closer to home when it was Fet. Unlike what some people think, yes, it takes money to run that site. I may not know the financial aspects of what it takes to do it but I'm inclined to believe that membership support dollars is a part of making that happen. No more credit card processing. Big, fat, hairy deal.

Before that whole thing, I had no idea that a person could trade a gift card in (with a small fee) to pay for something completely different. (This has actually made me re-think sending gift cards for Christmas, etc.) Still, I have to think this is a workable solution. Better than some of the others that I've heard. Baku should start his own bank. The Fetlife Admins should start their own, off-shore accounts. John should start an international lawsuit. Everybody stop using Visa in protest! Blah, blah, blah. None of them practical or anything that any of the people making the so-called <cough> suggestions <cough> would be willing to get off their own ass to do.

Could the same gift card method be used if it came to real life events?






LadyPact -> RE: Banks Denying/Shutting Down high risk businesses (4/9/2017 8:42:24 AM)

The dreaded double post.





DocStrange -> RE: Banks Denying/Shutting Down high risk businesses (4/9/2017 2:38:02 PM)

I honestly do not care about Craig’s list or BP either. My larger concern is the card banks have the power to shutdown almost any event/venue they choose and have been doing so over the last 3 years. Fetlife is just one of the latest. While some events do not have admission tickets, the events do have vendors who sell things. Cash used to be king. That is no longer the case for these events. No one wants to carry large amounts of cash. The banks can easily say we will not process the credit card transaction for that event because we consider it high risk.

Rubber ball, Fetish Factory’s holiday party, Europerve, German Ball Fetish Weekend are my favorite venues. All usually offer packages. Without the credit card companies these events might still happen but at a much smaller scale.

I know gift cards can be exchanged for other things for a fee. I do not know how this is done or who processes it? Somehow I think this is still going through the card banks of Visa and Square.

Alibaba (China’s equivalent of Amazon) is getting into credit processing and my provide an alternative for those not wanting to deal with Visa or Square. Right now Alibaba is focused on providing smaller businesses credit but may in the future get into the card market.



Lucylastic -> RE: Banks Denying/Shutting Down high risk businesses (4/9/2017 7:42:18 PM)

mastercard and visa...up to it for many many years, cracking down harder and harder over the last 15 years.
Its one of the main reasons I shut the BDSM adult toy store down.



tamaka -> RE: Banks Denying/Shutting Down high risk businesses (5/3/2017 12:07:35 PM)

Maybe we should get the feminists to support bdsm. Then everything will be ok.



Lucylastic -> RE: Banks Denying/Shutting Down high risk businesses (5/3/2017 12:26:23 PM)

baiting? how sad



stef -> RE: Banks Denying/Shutting Down high risk businesses (5/3/2017 12:53:07 PM)

It's tasocka, you expected something else?



tamaka -> RE: Banks Denying/Shutting Down high risk businesses (5/3/2017 1:04:44 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: Lucylastic

baiting? how sad


Not baiting. Serious.



syndeasweet -> RE: Banks Denying/Shutting Down high risk businesses (9/14/2017 4:26:36 PM)

As it relates to Backpage I'm glad. They have, for years, refused to address the underage trafficking on their site.
I am Jane.



DomStrictMale -> RE: Banks Denying/Shutting Down high risk businesses (9/14/2017 10:55:14 PM)

Using that logic, they should cancel anything to do with Catholic churches for their abuse of minors.



driramann -> RE: Banks Denying/Shutting Down high risk businesses (9/29/2017 3:33:37 PM)

I have been running adult-oriented businesses for over 15 years. No longer active, per se, but passive. In the banking areas and am addressing this thread, which continues to plague us.

Each bank has their own set of rules. Tedious as it may be, there are some banks who do not care about what the feds say to do, they need business, fees, etc., so they do not care. However to avoid any problems, let me recommend doing this:

1. If you have a business, whether TIN, EIN or DBA, think of a generic, non-creative name.
2. Just like search engines, banks have their own keywords too. Anything that even remotely sounds adult, sexual, fetish or adult-oriented is getting flagged.
3. As you should know, the fine print in any TOS in banks tells you "we may cancel, terminate or discontinue any transactions at our sole discretion and without warning to you. (paraphrasing)--they send a bank check to you for the balance you have and you redeem it, account cancelled.
4. So, put on your reverse, creative thinking cap and title your businesses "Weather Vane Industries" or "Wind Commander Sales" or Vintage Archival Research, you get the idea.
5. Also, stay away from names that highlight electronic, cellular stuff, even pc related, anything that sounds like it could be gaming or gambling, any genre, and of course stay away from anything aviation related,...that should be self explanatory.
6. There are other areas too. Use thinking and best judgment in titling your bizzes. If you are unsure about something, don't use it. Remember, this is all done under the umbrella of national security and those tentacles can be applied in a myriad of ways and to myriads of people or groups.



submgreenbay -> RE: Banks Denying/Shutting Down high risk businesses (10/10/2017 7:33:35 PM)

>It is rather scary how powerful the bank merchants are.

Anything that gets to big, gets scary to me. And the data collection and analytics is scary too. I wish people were more cognitive about it all. There are certain inconveniences one must accept, (rather than go the easiest route) to ensure continued freedoms.



PowerXXXchange -> RE: Banks Denying/Shutting Down high risk businesses (10/25/2017 10:35:51 AM)

I uses a merchant services account and they certainly don't seem to care much - then again maybe were too small for them to take much interest. The MSA processes the card info and deposits into my bank.

Doubt it would be a problem for any small-ish business to do a DBA as something vague like "(insert town name) Sales"

PxC



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