I heard someone say they do not sign the backs of their credit cards. This way, one is forced to show ID when a clerk bothers to compare signatures. This sounds like a good idea all around. Thus, if the card is lost or stolen, they do not have your signature to forge. What does the SD think of this? Is it an extra level of protection for the card owner?
If it’s unsigned all the person has to do is sign, either your name, or actually their name, the name on the CC does not have to match the name printed on a card, the signature is the authorized user.
You may have to present ID and also sign the CC in front of the clerk to make the transaction, I believe they are required to do that in their merchant agreement. You are protected against CC fraud already. And really so few will check at all if it’s signed.
Some suggest putting ‘ask for ID’ , but technically that would be your authorized signature, and all the person has to do is sign the receipt ‘Ask for ID’ and the merchant has to allow the transaction.
And if your card is stolen, they sign your name on it themselves and since the card is now signed, the signatures are the same and they almost certainly won’t get asked for ID.
I’d say the idea is really stupid unless you have some way to absolutely prevent someone else from signing your card. It also violates your agreement with the card issuer.
I sign mine, and write Check ID. Sometimes people do ask to see my ID after reading that, but not always.
Long answer - Whether you are required to sign your credit card or not so it can be used is contained with the contract you agreed to when you accepted the card. The same applies to the merchant and their contract agreement with the credit card company.
Short answer - If you don’t sign your card, it’s not valid and a merchant is supposed to refuse to accept it for payment. If a merchant accepts an unsigned card, they can be liable for the value of the transaction if it turns out to be fraudulent.
Some credit cards now have a dollar limit where transactions below that limit do not require a signature to the transaction (on your part). However, the requirement that the card itself must be signed for a merchant to accept it remains valid.
While a merchant can ask for an ID to verify you are the cardholder, the merchant cannot refuse the transaction if you do not show ID when requested by the merchant.
I agree that you should sign the card, but practically speaking, often the clerk never sees the card, since I swipe it myself. At most, they ask to see the front to enter the last four digits.
My post office will not accept a credit card for payment unless it is signed.
I have “Request Photo ID” on the back of my card. Never had a problem.
So I present my unsigned card and it is rejected for not being signed. I then sign it on the spot and present it again. Is there now any reason it should not be accepted?
If I were a merchant, I would ask for a government ID, as stated in the merchant agreement. If the image and signature on the government ID didn’t match you and the card you just signed, I would reject it.
Back in the day when I worked in retail, we also had the authority from the credit card companies to confiscate a card that was not properly signed. The CC companies used to pay bounties for unsigned cards and cards on watchlists. Yes, back in the day we had to consult the monthly (paper-based) watchlists with every CC transaction.
I used to write “check ID” on the back, but I’ve long since stopped doing that. Other than that, I’ve never signed the back of any credit or debit card I’ve ever owned. It has literally never been a problem. When I did have “check ID” on the back, nobody read it, and nobody checked my ID.
Frankly, bank fraud and card theft are between you and your bank. You shouldn’t expect minimum wage earning teenagers to keep you and your money secure.
I’m sure things were different back in the day, but 99% of the time now the cashier doesn’t even touch my card, I can do the swiping all myself. And even when they do take my card, they never look at it except to find the stripe, but they can and often do figure that out by touch, without even looking.
I don’t see how this can be true, or online shopping wouldn’t exist. The vast majority of “merchants” I deal with are computer programs who don’t even have eyes, nor the skills to distinguish my signature from hieroglyphics, let alone another person’s signature or a fraudulent version of my own.
And frankly, how is a teenage cashier supposed to distinguish between my signature and someone’s forgery? Even “expert” witnesses on handwriting are mostly just good bullshitters who get lucky sometimes.
Also, the whole “merchant agreement” rules are kinda moot, because 99% of cashiers have no idea what the actual rules are.
While that sounds reasonable, it conflicts with what you told us in post #6:
So I wonder if the card companies have guidelines that cover this specific situation, and if not I wonder what consequences the merchant would realistically face for refusing the transaction.
Nobody ever sees mine. I swipe it. If the merchant asks me to sign on the slip, I make a squiggly line.
That is exactly what has happened to me at the post office a few months ago. It wasn’t signed. I signed it in front of the clerk. He accepted it (no ID check) and we went on our merry way. I’m not particularly worried if someone steals my card and tries to buy something with it. I’ve never had any issues disputing fraudulent charges (which, to my knowledge, have all happened without a card present, anyway) and usually the bank finds it before I do. Until relatively recently, merchant card agreements in the US prohibited the retailer from asking you for your ID, anyway. Not that this stopped many retailers from asking, anyway, but it would slightly annoy me.
The question of whether to sign your card only matters in the event that your physical credit card is ever lost/stolen AND you neglect to inform your bank in a timely fashion. I’ve had a couple of credit cards that were compromised by unknown means (internet transactions? hacking? …?), but I can’t remember the last time I actually lost a credit card out of my wallet.
Apart from that, you’re only legally liable for the first $50 of fraudulent charges - and if you politely ask your credit card issuer to eat that $50 (under threat of closing your account), they generally will do so. When my cards were compromised, that $50 wasn’t even an issue; AmEx just did a chargeback against the merchants who accepted the fraudulent transactions and never asked me to pay anything. Similar protections are provided for debit cards (and if someone steals your debit card, they won’t have your PIN, so they won’t be able to use it anyway).
All of which is to say that I don’t worry much about whether to sign the card; I just sign it.
Actually, it still seems that Visa and Mastercard merchant agreements do not technically allow merchants to require IDs. I thought that had changed when they dropped the prohibition against having minimum purchase requirements for credit card use a few years ago, but I guess that wasn’t part of it.
I would not - and you should not - rely on any tricks with the signature box to prevent card fraud if it’s stolen.
As others have noted above, by doing this you are asking the merchant to violate their agreement with the CC company (well, your card might be different, but probably). So you create inconvenience for the cashier and for yourself on those extremely rare occasions that a cashier chooses not to ignore your non-conformity.
Your protection against fraud comes when you monitor your card statements and contest any charges that are not legit. (And, obviously, through reporting a stolen card ASAP.)
Using the “see ID” or blank space trick is kind of like putting a sign on your car that says “please look out for people trying to steal this car” - you’d be better off making sure you lock it, and once in a while you may get a concerned citizen calling the cops on you when you get in the car.