You have to sign it. Their card, their rules.
Any well run business will refuse to accept an card that isn’t signed. That there are so many clueless cashiers that might accept it says something about their mental state, nothing more.
This is not a debatable matter.
It’s been many years since any clerk has touched my cc.
Every store and restaurant I visit has a customer card scanner. The card never leaves my hand.
I have two cc’s and never signed either.
When I shop online, completing the transaction requires I also provide specific numbers found only the card. I take that to mean I must be in actual possession of the card to do that (two-factor authentication) and not just use CC numbers someone gave to me. It must be in the CC contract that allow for this in online transactions, while a signature is required for human transactions.
In reading one of the CC contracts, if you hand a merchant an unsigned card, they are supposed to refuse the transaction. If you then sign the card and hand it back to the merchant, the merchant can demand a government ID to verify it is you who actually signed the card.
So what it boils down to is if you present an apparently valid credit card (signed) the merchant cannot refuse the transaction if you refuse to show ID, but if you present an invalid credit card (unsigned), then sign it, the merchant can require an ID to verify the validity of you and your signature.
Thanks for clearing that up.
You must only eat fast food then.
The vast majority or restaurants I go to present a check, which requires me to return it with my card, whereupon they run it, and return it to me to have the receipt signed.
As for not signing - what’s the reasoning behind this?
Some restaurants bring the credit card scanner to the table. That can be useful when the customer is paying with a debit card and needs to enter a PIN.
Apparently I only frequent poorly run businesses (that does sound like me). Of the six credit and debit cards I just checked in my wallet, none of them were signed (remedied). I’ve been using them for years without ever once being asked about the signature missing, much less forced to add one.
I’ve had too many places refuse an unsigned card to bother not doing it.
I can’t remember the last time anyone asked for my credit card. I swipe it myself or, now, just insert it into the chip slot.
Even before that, I don’t remember being asked to sign or compare the signature to my ID.
Bob
Interesting in Australia now, they no longer accept a signature. It’s PIN code only or pay-wave for transactions less than $100 if you have a card that does it.
Why can’t someone give you all the numbers on the card and have you do the transaction without having possession of the card? How is that functionally different from you reading the numbers directly off the card?
Have you ever even used a huge retail establishment that literally has thousands of credit card transactions a day? And that’s just in my small town. I can’t imagine the magnitude in a large, metropolitan city. So, what you’re saying is absurd due to the logistics alone, but as others have said, most of us mentally stable cashiers never even touch your cards. You do all that yourself and we’d be out on our ears by management if we slowed down a busy holiday season to check every signature (and then decline many), not to mention piss lots and lots of people off.
Wait, wait, wait. Hold on a second here. Let’s think for one second.
One argument for not signing your card is because it’s common for some people to not have a clerk look at their card.
So a not signed card is good for those situations where no one looks at it???
I’m, I’m … what? The “logic” of this isn’t.
In a situation where no one looks at the card, signed or not doesn’t make a difference. But in those situations where someone does, it should matter. The first situation is irrelevant. The second one is. How is not signing a card supposed to be better in either of the cases???
Well, in the first situation (no one looks at it) it saves you 1½ seconds of your life’s time. Surely that’s better. :dubious:
I couldn’t care less who does or doesn’t sign their card. My point, which combatted your original one about the mental competency of those who should check, is that it would be nigh impossible to routinely do so in a larger environment than your itty bitty town grocery store. Ain’t nobody got time for that, says customers, managers, owners and cashiers alike.
It’s not about better or worse. I’ve been using cards, credit and debit, since the 90s, and I’ve never had anyone look at the signature. Not even once. Ever.
So it isn’t that there are two situations you have to prepare for. Your second hypothetical situation, in which someone actually looks and cares about the signature on the back of your card, doesn’t happen.
Furthermore, clerks aren’t skilled graphonomists. Writing a signature on your card does absolutely nothing for your security or the bank’s.
The above is exactly true. Even if we got our hands on your card, could take the time to look at every one that passes through our line, we’d only be able to give the most cursory glance at how it’s signed. Who on earth would make some sort of detailed comparison (to what?) and then… what is it that you propose we do exactly? Because it would only take a couple of raging mad moms being kept from this season’s hottest toys for their kids and screaming at us, to us completely walking off the job and leaving you all left to your own devices. And I’m still not even sure why.
I’ve had places look at the back of my card even when it wasn’t signed, and just continue the transaction.
The only place I’ve been recently where it mattered was at the airport. I purchased airline tickets online, and had to show the card I used to purchase the tickets to the check-in people. I hadn’t signed, so they made me sign it there before they could proceed.
Anyway, just sign your cards. What’s the big deal?
I believe this tactic was previously mentioned. Yes, it is a problem. If a cashier is properly trained and alert, they should - SHOULD - request to see ID when a card is signed on the spot. Granted, the matter rests in the hands of the cashier. If awake and diligent, then a cashier should - SHOULD - not be dumb enough to assume a card signed on the spot makes everything all better and let you go without asking for further ID to verify the signature. Of course, SHOULD is the operative word here.