Matt, given how rampant CC fraud seems to be in your part of the country - I googled just now and found a lot of stories, including at least one astonishing one where somebody had actually managed to sneak a card skimmer into a gas pump at a Circle K station in Fontana - I admire your stand on principle, but I don't think you're going to get much of anywhere, and you're certainly not going to be able to transact a lot of the purchases that you want to, at this point, if you insist that merchants honor that interpretation of Visa/MC's TOS.As Starz26 pointed out, merchants are, by their lights, honoring the TOS; they're not requiring you to show ID to use the card, they're requiring you to show ID to complete the sale. It's a very narrow distinction, I agree, but it's a real one considering that you're being required to show ID even for cash purchases.
I agree that it does seem unfair that you're being singled out on account of your age, but I don't know what data merchants and law-enforcement agencies in the LA region are using for this policy. For all I know, the data may indeed show that a disproportionate number of the people caught and convicted for CC fraud in that area are, say, under 30 or 35, and if that's the case, then they can point to that data as justification for making younger people show their ID's. As you yourself found out when you called the police on one such occasion, stores can set any policies they want for completing transactions as long as it doesn't violate the applicable state, local or federal laws.Visa and MC's TOS'es are policies set by private commercial entities, not governmental statutes, and they're not enforceable by governmental agencies. It's unfortunate that honest people like yourself are being caught up in this and put to additional trouble, and I sympathize, but given the facts as far as I have been able to determine them, I'm very much afraid that all you can do if you want to make the transactions and purchases you want to make is do as the merchants ask.
