As per an article by Cecil, I don’t sign any new credit cards I receive, instead putting on it “Ask for photo ID”. I was recently at an Ontario casino (government run) and while in the restaurant there was a document explaining that it was the law saying that all credit cards must be signed. They would not accept my card because I had not signed it. I tried to find specifics on google, but I got bogged down with useless information. Does anyone know of the Ontario law (perhaps Canada wide) dealing with this?
This has been done before on SDMB - I suggest you search. Bottom line - they’re right, you’re wrong. There is no benefit to not signing and putting “See ID”. All you are doing is putting yourself at risk by not following the customer agreement of most, if not all, credit cards. If you sign it, you have followed the agreement and will not be held liable if there is fraud. If a retailer accepts an unsigned card, they are also putting themselves at risk.
If Cecil recommends putting “See ID”, then he’s wrong as well. (Gasp!) The previous threads included responses from people who work in fraud departments for credit card companies - I’d take their word over Cecil’s.
It’s not law, it’s their agreement with the Credit Card Companies. They require stores to verify the signature on the cards, ie, match it to the signature when you sign the slip, which doesn’t always happen.
Do a search for “credit card sign” and you’ll turn up the threads that go into great detail. There’s nothing wrong with putting “See ID” in addition to signing your card, but you must sign the card for it to be accepted.
Well, thanks for calling me an idiot. What’s your problem anyway?
If I lose my credit card, there is a chance that I’ve also lost my ID. The thing is, my ID…HAS MY PICTURE ON IT. So, the person who is using the credit card also has to look like me. Sounds like I’ve just increased my security, but what do I know.
I have never been refused service in the many years I’ve been doing this. If someone got all whiney about the rules, I suppose I would just sign it, or go to some other store. It’s nice to know that if I got you as a clerk, you’d destroy my card (besides, I think you would have to enter the numbers by hand if the swiper didn’t take it, and yes, you would be arguing with me about it).
My god, calm down… life is far too short to get pent up over somethign so trivial.
Only an idiot would leave the strip blank. Yes, my ID is in the same wallet, but unless the criminal is willing to endure months of plastic surgery to look like me, I’m not really concerned about that.
The casino is the only place that ever said they would not accept the card. Of the many other places I’ve used it:
1 cashier asked me why I wrote that. She said good idea and handed back my card without asking for ID.
1 casher asked me for my ID then asked me why.
Every other cashier has not paid any attention to the signature strip at all.
Overall, not that effective, but it will more than likely convince a criminal it’s not worth the bother and that’s good enough for me.
If you sign the card when you get it, then the clerk checks your signature against the card, that is where the protection comes from. If you don’t sign the card, the main method of identity check is invalidated.
Even if some (most) places don’t care, they can and do occasionally get in trouble for not checking the signature.
Some clerks are clueless. I’ve presented unsigned cards a couple of times. The clerk tells me she can’t accept it if it’s not signed, so I sign it, then sign the receipt. Signatures match, so she’s happy.
On second thought, it’s not the clerk that’s clueless here. As long as the signatures match, that’s all she needs. If the signature on the card is not authentic, that’s the credit card company’s problem.
Oh, and I also had a “dead” card for a while (magnetic clasp on wallet), and the clerks were very good about manually entering it, so you don’t scare me sea urchin. (I learned that Wal-mart has a policy of taking an imprint of the card in this case, as proof that the card was in the store.)
I’ve only ever had this problem in Ontario, too. Specifically at one of the gift shops at the bottom of the tower-restaurant in Niagara falls. She (the clerk) said that the card had to be signed, but as long as the card still said “see photo ID” she’d have to (or would?) check my ID in addition to the signature. She loaned me a pen to sign the card, and we were all happy.
Now, I just simply sign the cards and write SEE PHOTO ID after the signature. Any time I present a card for payment, I usually give my ID by default, but sometimes withhold it and am asked for ID.
The only problem with signatures and/or “see photo ID” is that so many places don’t bother to even look at the card anymore. Gas station pay-at-the-pump, the Meijer’s, Walmarts, K-Marts, grocery stores, pharmacy, and so on and so on all have the self-serve scanners where you swipe your own card.
As for the magnetic strips, yeah, they just type in the number when they don’t work. This is somewhat common for me at times. But it’s a hassel in fraud-prone places like Mexico, where for some reason they’re never able or willing to key-in the number. If it doesn’t scan, it’s no good.