GE Capital halts lending for gun shop purchases

[IDemo]

Source: money.cnn.com

Months after the shooting that killed 26 at a Connecticut elementary school, General Electric has halted its lending program for purchases from gun shops, the company said Wednesday.

GE Capital, which provides consumer financing services, had previously provided lending services to gun shops to help consumers finance firearm purchases. Earlier this year, the company sent letters to shops notifying them that the program would be terminated for future purchases.

The move was the result of "a more rigorous audit process... in light of industry changes, new legislation and tragic events that have caused widespread reexamination of policies on firearms," GE Capital spokesman Russell Wilkerson said in an e-mail.

GE Capital had in 2008 stopped providing financing services to new merchants whose primary business was selling firearms. The move to nix the remaining relationships will affect less than 75 retailers and is an "immaterial" part of the company's sales volume, Wilkerson said.

Read more: http://money.cnn.com/2013/04/24/news/companies/general-electric-gun-financing/

[tularetom]

1. If you have to finance the purchase of a firearm you should not be buying one

There are far more productive uses for your money.

[Deep13]

2. True. That applies to a lot of things and this is one of them. nt

[pipoman]

3. Yeah,

like motorcycles, and ATVs, and vacations, and couches, and car stereos, and food, and wedding dresses, and..

[GreenStormCloud]

8. Who carries that much cash anymore?

Most people who make a purchase of that size use plastic. All this will mean, at worse, is a trip to the ATM before buying a gun, for those customers.

[tularetom]

9. Puttin the purchase on a card that you pay off monthly = cash

As far as I'm concerned.

Maybe if you're actually carrying around that much money, you need a gun.

[Sunlei]

12. 10 million U.S. households don't have bank accounts

we have a lot of cash carrying Americans and criminals know this.

ref http://money.cnn.com/2012/09/12/pf/fdic-bank-accounts/index.html

[Sunlei]

11. They will still take credit cards, GE cap. is like a store credit service.

[CokeMachine]

10. I believe they are talking about

financing new gun shops not the actual guns purchased by consumers.

[freshwest]

5. Good. Time to stop equating guns with other consumer purchases. Not the same.

[bossy22]

6. how are they not consumer purchases?

depending on who purchases them

[GreenStormCloud]

7. Lanza's father is a GE executive.

So the action is understandable, and futile. Some other company will fill the market niche.

[Kolesar]

13. Futile

says you

[GreenStormCloud]

16. I gave a reason why the action is futile.

You didn't give any reason.

[Crepuscular]

14. This issue is not about credit for consumers buying guns

it's the credit that is used by gun shops (like any other retailer) to purchase inventory. Not going to have much of an impact, there are plenty of other sources of credit out there. Might hurt some of the smaller mom & pop type shops but won't have any impact on larger retailers.

[GreenStormCloud]

15. Thanks for the clarification. N/t