@creditwherecreditisdue wrote:
usmc58555 wrote::
@Watchmann wrote:
+1 on that. I don't sign my cards, instead I write CHECK ID with a black Sharpie. Maybe 5% of the time a merchant will flip the card over to check the signature and ask to see my ID (Drivers License). Otherwise, no one even tries to verify a signature. And more and more transaction have you swipe the card yourself, another opportunity lost for positive verification.
"Check ID"/"See ID" actually is not acceptable for Visa and Mastercard.
You have invalidated the card.
Most government entities (USPS etc) will not accept said card for a transaction.
http://www.creditcards.com/credit-card-news/sign-or-write-see-ID-1282.php
+1
Merely requesting ID is a violation of a merchant's agreement with MC and Visa. I will not and have not presented ID when I have been asked to. No one has ever refused to process my charge.
+2
Apparently, USPS enforcement of the unsigned card/Check ID thing varies by location. My local Post Office will not accept any unsigned card, regardless of the patron's willingness to show ID. They even have a sign on the counter stating that unsigned cards will not be accepted. But I've read on other forums that unsigned cards at the USPS have not been a problem locally for those people posting about this.
I sign each of my cards, and refuse to show ID if asked for it. I've met the requirements of the issuer by signing the card, and that should be good enough for the merchant, as it is good enough for the company issuing the card. Any merchant wanting further proof of the card's validity outside of the signature on the card and the authorization number for the transaction is himself suspect, in my opinion. I'm not willing to provide further information for him/her to possibly misuse.
That being said, it appears that in some areas (Las Vegas, for instance) asking for further ID has become commonplace with or without a signature on the card, regardless of the rules for merchants. Rampant fraudulent usage of cards has led merchants to take things into their own hands, so to speak, but what good is does them is anybody's guess.
What I think is interesting is that a signature on a sales slip cannot be matched to what is on the card until the transaction has already been run through the terminal and approved. If the signature does not match at that point, what is the salesperson supposed to do then...snatch the goods from the customer, then wrestle him to the ground? I don't think that's going to happen, and it's probably the reason the kid behind the counter barely looks at a card anymore, if at all. The transaction either goes through or it doesn't.
Just for the heck of it, though...if you've got "Check ID" scrawled in the signature box on the back of your card, you should be scrawling "Check ID" on the signature line of the sales slip. You've made your "X" on the card...("Check ID" functions as your signature)...it matches your "X" on the slip...the usage is valid, no? Who's to say what my signature should actually consist of?
