Dude! Like What Happened to Membership Has Its Privileges

Whoa dude, like you mean I can’t use my American Express card to buy medical marijuana? Bogus! Like what a heinous restriction of my rights. Dude! Like what happened to, “Membership has its privileges.”

Sometimes I come across a story in the news that I just have to share for no other reason than it just tickles me. American Express has banned the purchase of medical marijuana with its cards. Since credit card companies have no souls, I believe them when they say they are only attempting to limit risk. I expect pot heads tend not to be good credit risks.

This is not a new problem. None of the credit card companies allow their customers to use their cards to buy chips at gambling casinos. Obviously, people who are using their credit card to buy more chips are not a good risk. If the casinos were still using the credit services of Tony Soprano, at least he could send a leg breaker to make collections if the loser was late making payments. The credit card companies probably charges a higher rate than Tony Soprano, but they have to rely on telephone collection agencies. I bet Sammy “Four Fingers” Mozzarelli gets better results. This practice is a little peculiar since the credit card companies allow their customers to take cash advances out of the casino’s ATM. What do they think happens to that money? Oh well.

“American Express first banned the purchase of online pornography in May 2000, saying it faced an unacceptably high level of disputed transactions.” (From Smart Money: What Your Credit Card Won’t Let You Buy). They will let their card holders buy pornography from a brick and mortar business. I remember those days. It seemed like every week there was a new story about a fake porn site scamming the young and the restless or the old and the dirty by stealing their credit card information.

Customer rights advocates are getting all spun up about these restrictions. They state it “is an inconvenience for the merchants, infringes on consumers’ rights, and amounts to moral policy-setting.” Well, yes and no. It seems like the line between immoral and illegal behavior can get rather fuzzy. Now American Express claims their online pornography ban also is an effective tool against child pornography. They also are worried about the possible legal implications of medical marijuana sales if the Federal Government decides to use existing laws to crack down on the states that allow the sale of medical marijuana. Recently we saw such a crackdown hit the online poker industry. In such scenarios credit card companies could lose a lot of money. Credit card companies do not like to lose money.

As long as people want gambling, prostitution, or even semi-illegal drugs, I guess there will be a place for cash in our economy.