Credit Cards
This story reminded me of an observation that I've made several times. (No, it has nothing to do with guns.) Around here every cashier always checks the signature on the credit card. If you use a credit card (not a debit card), then the cashier must swipe the card for you on the little box. Then they hold onto your card and actually flip it over and compare your signature as they watch you sign the receipt. Yes, this includes the teenage cashiers when I charge something that costs $5 (the American way!).
Really, I should never be making this observation because it should be this situation everywhere. But what I'm used to is people usually swiping their own card, so the cashier can never check it. Even when the cashiers do swipe it, they rarely check the signature. Even after Jonathon gave me the idea of writing "PLEASE CHECK ID" in the signature spot, they still don't even bother to flip over the card to read it. Or when they do read it, they ignore it in most cases. (The card that I use here does not have that written on it.)
posted by Sean @ 10:47 AM
3 comments
3 Comments:
Agreed - only store that seems to check around here is Best Buy. I don't even bother taking my license out "just in case" anymore. My credit card has been run through so many times in gas stations that its taking the strip of paper where you sign the card right off yet no one seems to notice. I used to ask cashiers how they knew it was my card but even that game got boring because 2 places still wouldn't look at my ID when I asked that.
At Barnes and Noble we always looked at the signature (and this was stressed to cashiers as something important to do) but I didn't hold onto it long enough to check the signature as they were signing the receipt.
I tried to do that initially, but after 4-5 times I discovered that customers believed either:
a) I was trying to steal their card, despite the fact that I held it right in front of them, or
b) I was trying to steal their identity, as if I only had to watch them sign their receipt while holding their card to learn to imitate their signature.
I gave up after that and settled for just checking the back.
Our post office now has a sign that says they won't accept cards with "See ID" or "CID" (which I've never seen) written on them.
I've had the same experience with Best Buy being the only place that I can think of that even looks at the signature anymore. They actually compare it to the signature line about half of the time.
This reminds me of a website I found linked from Slashdot a while back:
http://www.zug.com/pranks/credit/
and the more daring follow up:
http://www.zug.com/pranks/credit_card/
Oh, and the true American way is to charge less than $1 on your card. I've charged snacks totalling about $0.67 when I realized I didn't have correct change.
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