whimsy, you miss the point of the original statement “no one has to accept a credit card in payment.” If I enter into a contract with MasterCard, I may be breaching that contract by refusing to accept a properly tendered MasterCard. However, that’s a dispute between MasterCard and the merchant, not between the merchant and the buyer of the goods or services who has tendered the card. As a purchaser of goods, I don’t have any ‘right’ to pay in any given way. I, the person who tenders the card, don’t have a legal right to enforce its acceptance by the merchant.
What I suggest to anyone who doesn’t have a card accepted on signature only is to complain to MasterCard (or VISA), setting for the information about the merchant. This might result in MasterCard reminding said merchant of its contractural obligation to MasterCard.
Let’s also clear up the difference between the merchant requiring that the purchaser tender photo identification, and the purchaser asking on the back of the card that the merchant ask for photo identification. In the former case, the merchant may be breaching the contract with MasterCard. In the latter case, the purchaser may be doing something stupid. But the staff report, while incomplete, as shown by the threads referenced by AmbushBug, wasn’t wrong; this dispute over how to best protect yourself from the possibility of unauthorized use rages unabated in many forums.