Signing a CC receipt

[momof2]

their are REALLY STUPID laws in cali, if you give your CC to a clerk and they look at the back to see if it is signed or not, if it isnt they wont charge it unless you sign it, if the back of the card says CID then by cali law, they dont have to except it b/c it is not a signature, some clerks wont look at the back of the card or ask for ID at all, why cause clai law says that retailers are NOT to ask for ID, this is stupid, it makes me soooo mad, that their is a chance that your CC is stolen and no id is asked for, then both parties are screwed, you for the money lose and if you do get it back then the store looses the money, its a lose lose situation.

[Anonymous]

Technically your card isn't vaild without a signature anywhere, read your cc agreement, most people just don't say anything about it. The post office will also make you sign your card.


When I worked at Target back in the dark ages we were supposed to ask for ID with credit cards, but hardly anyone did.

[Anonymous]

My new CC is not signed and I funnel as many of my expenses as possible through it all with no complaints if that says anything about how strict stores are on bothering to check.

I have only actually had 2 people ask for my ID in the ~2 months I have owned the card.

Every single time I sign something I just scribble on it and I have yet to have anyone complain about it.

If your card is ever stolen I certainly would not hold my breath and hope the store clerks catch it.

I guess I should probably write CID on it or something but I am having fun with my little experiment here.

[athensguy]

According to the credit card merchant agreements, the merchant is NOT ALLOWED to ask for ID for use of a Visa or MC if the card is properly signed. They are supposed to eyeball the back of the card and the signature mark you make on your receipt. There is a complaint form to report businesses that ask for ID, along with a couple of other violations involving transaction fees or min/max charges:

MasterCard complaints

The only time they are required to ask for ID is if the card is not signed. Then they are supposed to ask for ID and have you sign it on the spot.

[MattH]

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@erchambers wrote:
They are supposed to eyeball the back of the card and the signature mark you make on your receipt

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In my experience, very few clerks ever eyeball my card. If the amount is under 25 bucks, they don't even ask for a signature, I just feed it through the machine and away I go. If it's over $25, either the machine captures some random motions I make with the stylus or they hand me a slip to sign, I put a random squiggle resembling a child learning to write, they stick the slip with my squiggle in a drawer, and that's that.

There is one major exception: some stores require the clerk key in the last four digits, presumably as a means of forcing her to at least have the card in her hand, but in most cases ALL she will eyeball will be the last four digits, eyeballing the signature is very very very rare.

Maybe they could have a special sweepstakes program for retail clerks: if our Secret Shopper sees you actually eyeball the signature you will be entered in a drawing...

Many years ago my father got a phone call from a LOCAL bank, "we have somebody trying to cash a check with a signature that doesn't look like yours, do you recognize the name XXXXX?" A few years back when somebody forged a few checks on my wife's account with a much larger bank, they did NOT notice that the signature had no resemblance whatever to hers. Fortunately the total of the forgeries was less than the balance in her account so none of her legitimate checks bounced, but getting the money back from the bank involved a certain amount of tedium.

Message Edited by MattH on 05-18-2008 07:40 PM