Howard's Views

Dear Fellow Business Owners:

BEFORE THE CRIMINAL-LIKE ACTIVITIES OF THE CREDIT CARD CARTEL

Since 1992 the Credit Card Cartel* has waged an all-out war upon ALL businesses that accept their small plastic cards as a form of payment in business transactions. Before 1992 it was a form of business partnership, whereby business owners honored Diner's Club, American Express, Visa, MasterCard and others, in a relationship that benefited both parties. Using their local banks to aid them in the transactions, it was a partnership that seemed to work well for everyone concerned. There was harmony, trust and a good partnership.

There was a growing number of consumers carrying cards with them all the time, but yet, for most businesses, only 10% to 20% of their sales were written up on credit card tickets and therefore, their bank charges were not overly burdensome.

The consumers more often paid with cash or with checks, and thereby retailers received 100% of their profit on close to 90% of their sales.

This is the way it should be; this is the way it was before the 1950s, before there were plastic cards to siphon off our profits. The U.S. dollar, currency, was king. Whether you had an item priced at $2,000 or an item priced at $2.00, when the customer handed us our money, every penny of it was ours. No one was getting a percentage of it. If the customer wrote you a check, it was deposited it in the bank and the full profit was retained, we received 100% of our money. That is as it should be.

With the founding of Diner's Club, the main purpose was to provide a convenient method for travelers, professional and business people as well, to pay restaurant bills, which at times might exceed the cash that diners might have in their wallets. It would allow them to entertain freely, to run up a tab at the bar and then pay it all off at the end of the month . . . to Diner's Club. It proved to be a business builder for many restaurants while at the same time giving them immediate cash (well, almost) and not having to carry accounts on their books. Diner's Club and its' competitors that soon sprang up, such as American Express, were Charge Cards. A Charge Card required those who carried them to pay the billing invoice in full each and every month. It was not a revolving account credit card.

*The banking fraternity associated with Visa International-MasterCard involved with any sort of bribes or bribery to induce people to make a conscious decision to accept the bribe and use plastic cards with the Visa or MasterCard logo to pay for a bill or purchase rather than by cash or check, in order to earn any sort of reward for doing so, thereby depriving retailers or wholesalers of their right to receive payment without interference, a long established prerogative of the business community.

This Site's mission is to expose this fraud and eventually bring about the elimination of "AIR MILES" and "POINTS" as a form of Bribery and a useful tool by American Express and other members of the Charge and Credit Card Industry to pillage the profits of American businesses.

American Express, with its' Charge-Card, is engaged in a huge double-cross of American businesses through a simple device, an act of Bribery. It goes hand in hand with what is known as Mordida in Mexico, a Spanish expression meaning "the bite" or a small bribe.
It unfairly and unethically siphons off their profits of every business which accepts credit or charge cards, and is worked in collusion with third parties (airlines, hotels, etc.). They, along with certain Visa and MasterCard banks, have literally taken control of our businesses and deny us the option of accepting other forms of payment. Why should we submit to such chicannery and hand over our profits as easily as we would to an armed robber?

The Credit Card Industry (i.e. Visa, MasterCard, Discover)is also defrauding the card holders, working both ends against the middle, adding tremendously to the costs of doing business.

Air Miles is the "Payola" of the Charge and Credit Card industry, designed to steal merchants profits on a daily basis. By bribing the cardholder to use plastic instead of cash or checks. It has been hugely successful for the Credit Card Cartel in accomplishing their goal, to get a percentage out of each dollar spent, like a tax, and they are succeeding quite well. Review the charges on your bank statements, and then compare them to 1992, 93, 94 and 95. You'll be shocked at how much they've increased, at what you're paying out today that you formerly did not have to pay out!

It's time to fight back! Boycott AMERICAN EX-CESS.
STOP 'EM COLD.
ADD YOUR 4% MDR COSTS (BANK CHARGES) TO EVERY SALE!
IF THE I.R.S. IS ALLOWED TO DO IT, WHY CAN'T YOU?

It began in the early 90's, with the introduction of a very subtle ploy by the credit card and charge card industry, a ploy called air miles, innocent sounding to be sure, appealing to the consumer, but it was more insidious in nature than that because it was a bribe to encourage consumers to change their buying habits and use PLASTIC rather than cash or checks.

Because each use of a credit card steals a percentage of the merchants' profits, they become victims of what are, I believe, essentially a series of small criminal acts*, but if not criminal, then highly unethical or immoral acts. Many are small, but on major purchases these bribes take hundreds of dollars out of a merchants profits. At first, every car dealer in the country took huge losses, until they changed their policies regarding Credit Cards, with losses in the millions. Over the past ten years these bribes have taken (stolen) billions of dollars from America's businesses, billions!

It is time for America's Class Action law firms to become involved. The stakes are enormous. The crimes by the Credit Card Cartel are monstrous and growing day by day.

It is time that the hunters became the hunted, the predators became the prey, that the victims turned, stood their ground, and fought to reclaim lost profits...in a Court of Law.

VISA & MASTERCARD (OR THE USE OF PLASTIC) HAVE INCREASED THE EASE WITH WHICH YOU CAN BE ROBBED OR DEFRAUDED BY AT LEAST 1000 TIMES.

BESIDES, MOST OF THE BANKS BEHIND THEM ARE IN THE BUSINESS OF DEFRAUDING CARDHOLDERS AS WELL. PLASTIC IN YOUR POCKET IS LIKE PUTTING A REVOLVER TO YOUR TEMPLE, ESPECIALLY USING THESE TWO BRAND NAMES.

A study of the problem will prove that Air Miles rewards the rich with free trips at our expense! Imagine, many CARDHOLDERS paying only an annual $50 Fee to American Ex-cess and then getting hundreds, even thousands of dollars worth of free Airline tickets.

It's the best investment anyone can make, the surest and biggest payoff in any Financial market in the world! But, it's all at your expense. You've become the sucker, courtesy of American Ex-cess.
SOLUTION #1: MAKE THE CARDHOLDER PAY IT! ADD THE 4% TO THE TOTAL SALE.

We must add the MDR [bank charges] to the sale so that the Cardholder pays these costs. We need the right to determine the terms, both minimum and maximum amounts we'll accept on both charge and credit cards, and to add those charges to the sale if we so wish...instead of absorbing them!
It's time to regain control of our own businesses instead of allowing these sneaky, greedy, grasping, predatory bankers to exercise that

control over us. That's exactly what the major part of the banking industry has become, predatory, uncaring and ruthless.