# Please Sign Your Credit Card

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-sign-your-credit-card/381899>\
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\
**Created:** [November 27, 2006, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-sign-your-credit-card/381899 "2006-11-27T02:47:02Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![kiaora](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/51bf81/32.png) [@kiaora](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kiaora)\
**Post date:** [November 27, 2006, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-sign-your-credit-card/381899/1 "2006-11-27T02:47:02Z")

</div>

If I sign your credit card with your name using my signature then I can use your credit card and sign your name with my signature(no one will ask for my ID because my signature matches the signature on the card). So. . . what is the use of not signing your card? I work in retail in New Zealand and have tried to explain this to numerous Americans that this idea of not signing your credit card is not very well thought out.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![myskepticsight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/cc9497/32.png) [@myskepticsight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/myskepticsight)\
**Post date:** [November 27, 2006, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-sign-your-credit-card/381899/2 "2006-11-27T04:32:50Z")

</div>

Most people I see at work with unsigned credit cards write SEE ID in Sharpie instead of signing it. I get very few completely unsigned cards. Just my experiences though.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\
**Post date:** [November 27, 2006, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-sign-your-credit-card/381899/3 "2006-11-27T04:36:55Z")

</div>

Yeah, it’s been nearly 3 weeks since we had a thread on this vital social problem…

> **[Why you should never sign the back of credit cards](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=388559)**
>
> Well, I have to say there is one reason to sign the card: Its required for the card to be considered valid. If you read the Visa Merchant Rules (available here ) on page 34 of the PDF it states that a card without a signature is invalid and is not...

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\
**Post date:** [November 27, 2006, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-sign-your-credit-card/381899/4 "2006-11-27T11:53:02Z")

</div>

I can think of no reason not to - except that I have forgotten to on one or two occasions.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\
**Post date:** [November 27, 2006, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-sign-your-credit-card/381899/5 "2006-11-27T14:50:03Z")

</div>

**kiaora** , welcome to the Straight Dope Message Boards, glad to have you here.

There’s already a current, fairly lengthy discussion going on this topic. Rather than have two threads on the same topic, I’m going to close this one and suggest that further posts happen at the other, at [Please sign your credit card](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=388559).

I think it will make it easier for folks to just have one site for the same discussion. If you’d like to report your initial post here on that thread, that’s fine.