Around here we can get a supplementary card on Visa / Master accounts. Essentially what this means is that we give a card to a family member or whatever that we are still responsible for.
Most banks offer a separate limit on these (i.e - lower) but it still counts towards your total limit.
I run one for my father in law and mother in law (separate banks).
System is particularly good for the Nanny as you can limit your exposure (lower limit), get an itemised listing of the spending, she can use it other times for other expenses (petrol, food or whatever if on an outing for instance) and the bill comes directly to you.
Put me in the “what planet are these checkers on?” compartment.
I frequently hand my credit card to my adult children, grandchildren, employees and and other persons that I may need to hand it to in order to facilitate a situation. My wife and I don’t even know which credit card belongs to which of us, they just kind of float back and forth.
Who checks at the “pay and go” gas stations? Nobody. Target? A machine swallows the card, spits it out and the buyer doesn’t even sign. Use the self-checkout lane at Wal-Mart and there’s not a clerk within 50 feet.
I’d say hand the card to your nanny, tell her to sign with your name in those places where a signature is required, and go on about your day’s business.
Heck, I’ve given my debit card with the picture of white female me to my black male co-worker so he can pick up lunch for me. Nobody’s ever said a word.
Neither of those are cites to the merchant agreement. Page 28 claims that a business may be liable for fraud chargebacks involving non-matching signatures, but in practice this is absolutely not the case for large merchants. It is probably not the case most of the time for small merchants, either.
My opinion is based on my five years of experience in the merchant acquisition business. I work for one of the largest merchant acquirers in the world.
It’s not illegal. It is against the merchant agreement, but not illegal.
Also, it’s nowhere near easy to get the card issuer to do anything about it. There was a thread awhile back where people who had filed complaints about being asked for ID or told that there was a fee or somesuch discussed their experiences; IIRC, all but one got the blow-off.
I’m happy to do it too. Wish everyone would ask. And again, no, it’s not illegal. It’s just against the merchant’s agreement with card issuers.
That’s because most of the time, they are barking up the wrong tree. The card issuer has no relationship with the merchant whatsoever. That’s the acquirer. And they don’t put the phone number of the acquirer on the back of your credit card.
The acquirer is the company that handles all the payment requests from the merchant and passes them on to Mastercard/Visa/Amex/etc. Oftentimes it will provide the point-of-sale terminal as well. Wikipedia on acquirers.
Because the ten merchants on your street could have been acquired by ten different acquirers. Who else are you going to call? They tell you to call them so you at least have someone to complain to before you are ignored.
A quick update: We got cash from the ATM and gave that, plus the card, to the nanny. While I was nervous about that (given some things folks have said upthread), we figured that if they shopped at a place where the cashier never handles the card, it wouldn’t be an issue.
They wound up not needing the card, the cash was sufficient.
I have had her use the card in the past, when she’s taken the kids to a movie (you get the tix at the self-serve kiosk), or when she’s taken them to the dentist (where they would clearly recognize the kids and know the charge wasn’t going to be disputed).
If it looks like this will be an ongoing thing though, I do like the suggestions of having an authorized card on our account. It’s pretty sporadic though, so it may not be worth the trouble.
I can see why the issuers wouldn’t be too pleased at lending out the card - I could decide to be a scammer, call in the charge as unauthorized, they’d look at the signatures and see that the chicken was dancing to the wrong beat when it scratched my name…
Great that all was resolved easily. Frankly speaking I wouldn’t give two shits what the shop or the bank thinks of lending the card, it’s not my concern.
What I would be more worried about would be the Nanny racking up fraudulent charges or similiar on the card. I don’t know your limit, but the moment you pass her the card (*aty least here) you become liable for any charges she makes. This would also include that gold and diamond encrusted Rolex that she buys just before skipping the state or anything similiar.
To me voluntarily putting yourself under that sort of anvil waiting to be crushed is just not a good idea. THe supplementary cards I mentioned above are used maybe once per quarter, but nobody complains anywhere.
We know our Nanny (I’m Mama Zappa’s husband, BTW). She would never rack up fraudulent charges. We’ve had a a hard time getting her to spend our money (as opposed to hers) on legitimate charges for our kids.
We trust her with our kids’ lives. After that, what is money?
Reasonable concern, though in this case we’ve known her for 11 years, and have found her to be scrupulously honest, demonstrated on many occasions. I definitely wouldn’t do this with someone I didn’t know well. Anyone who has let a family member use their card would be at the same risk (heck, with some family members I’d worry more :p).