Does owning a credit card rot your brain?

[Kusanagi]

My cards have my picture on them, so we skip the whole See ID step :-)

[phillippbo]

The very sad thing is that they will be the first person to raise holy high h e double hockey sticks when it's their card that's stolen. Then they'll demand to know why nobody checked for ID or matching signatures. Sheesh.

(A similar problem I had I posted about here: http://www.customerssuck.com/board/s...0965#post30965 .)

It's similar to where I work now at the cable company. When someone calls in, the only way we have to verify the person we're talking to is who they claim to be is by checking at least one of the following bits of information: last 4 of the SSN, the driver's license number, PIN code, date of birth, or account password. The only information most accounts have is the last 4 of the SSN, and some customers get all huffy when we ask for it or when they can't provide it and we refer them to the front counter with a picture ID. Why can't people get through their thick skull that this very minimal safety precaution protects them from all sorts of nasty things, like their children ordering dirty PPV movies or adding a box worth several hundred dollars to their account and then skipping town with it? (In both cases, the customer would be liable for the cost. Of course, this does protect us too, but the customer should be concerned about their protection.)

My favorite responses to asking to verify security:

"They didn't ask me last time!"
"I don't give out my Social Security Number."
"It's my wife's/husband's/parents'/whoever's account and I don't know that information."
"But it's me, I promise!"
"Why do you keep asking for that information?!"
"But I just gave that to the last person yesterday/last year/earlier today/whatever!"
"But I pay my bill!"

To all of those: "To bad, so sad, come into the office with your ID..." is what I want to say.

[One-Fang]

So, do I sign the back of my card? No. I still write "see ID". If I have to go to the post office, I hope I remember to bring cash!

This really isn't a good idea.

As ringo pointed out, unsigned cards are invalid. Technically, no retailer should be accepting your card.

There is no reason not to sign your card. Sure, they can forge your signature if they have a copy. But if there's no copy, they can then write anything they like and it'll be accepted as 'your' signature. You are really opening yourself up even more to ID theft by not signing your card.

Sign the card and write "See ID".

[lordlundar]

(Yeah, despite the fact that I'd never do something like that, I enjoy figuring out how to beat the system. I wouldn't even want to, but kind of get a kick out of the fact that I could..it's kind of a logic puzzle for my sick, deranged mind. Please tell me I'm not the only honest law-abiding citizen who does that. Please. )

So do I. I just look at things from a different point of view..

Heck, the Mythbusters make a living doing that!

[Tito]

I like how the representitive put that. Then There Will Be No Sale. Like a judge giving his edict.

I liked that & also the affect it apparently had on the SC. I love managers who are not afraid to stand up to SCs like that!

[Brighid45]

My debit card is signed and also has 'see ID' written just after the signature. I've only had one clerk who both checked to see if the card was signed, and then asked me for ID. She was polite but had that 'please don't yell at me' look in her eye. I thanked her with a smile and asked for her manager, then told him I appreciated her thoroughness and wished more clerks were like her. You could see them both brighten right up. You never saw such relieved smiles! *lol*

I don't know why people freak out over giving the last four digits of their SS number. Only the first five numbers really matter--the first three indicate state of origin, and the next two are the result of some complicated formula that indicates your date of birth. The last four are chosen at random.

[vloglady]

What does wearing a Wells Fargo shirt have to do with the price of beans?

[ringo]

What does wearing a Wells Fargo shirt have to do with the price of beans?

Well, if more people wear Well's Fargo shirts, then the price of beans goes down.

As for the credit card ask id thing, I almost always have my id ready for when they ask. I put both sig and "ask id" on the back of mine.. even if its rubbing off.

[Department stores *sigh*]

been reading about all these places that take unsigned cred cards. kinda a shocker. I have never accepted an unsigned credit card. i generally let them go with a 'see ID' but blank = no go for me

[SuperDan]

been reading about all these places that take unsigned cred cards. kinda a shocker. I have never accepted an unsigned credit card.

Our pin pads prompt credit customers to show their card to the cashier. About half of customers show us the front of the card, the other half don't show it at all. Our cashier trainer flat out said that this step is intended for us to get a good look at the signature panel to mentally compare it with the credit slip they'll be signing about 30-45 seconds later, but it's not really necessary because the company doesn't care.

I guess there aren't many disputed charges against a grocery store.

[georgiab]

I actually had a customer thank me years back for asking to show i.d when he used his credit card. I was so stunned that a customer was being this nice that I didn't quite know what to say. He stated that someone had used his credit card before without his knowledge and that me asking asking for his i.d made him feel that people realized thata card can be stolen!

[pbmods]

Not only do customers not sign their cards, but they (usually old people) sometimes don't even take off the "please call to activate your card" sticker!

That's like a big candy-coated flag for thieves and scammers that you don't know how much power is stored in that little plastic rectangle with the magnetic strip.

[Pagan]

I don't know why people freak out over giving the last four digits of their SS number. Only the first five numbers really matter--the first three indicate state of origin, and the next two are the result of some complicated formula that indicates your date of birth. The last four are chosen at random.

Hmmm....mine doesn't seem to be all that complicated. The two middle numbers on my SSN is the date I was born! Of course, that number seems to be a recurring theme in my life.

[Seanette]

Hmmm....mine doesn't seem to be all that complicated. The two middle numbers on my SSN is the date I was born! Of course, that number seems to be a recurring theme in my life.

See http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_315.html for an explanation of that issue. In your case, it's probably a coincidence.

[Kogarashi]

Not only do customers not sign their cards, but they (usually old people) sometimes don't even take off the "please call to activate your card" sticker!

That's like a big candy-coated flag for thieves and scammers that you don't know how much power is stored in that little plastic rectangle with the magnetic strip.

I left those stickers on my two debit cards (two bank accounts), but that's because I used them to write myself a label identifying which card goes to which account (same bank, same design on the card; only the numbers are different). I made sure to sign the backs, and if I ever discover that my wallet/purse/cards are missing, I plan to immediately call the bank and have them cancel said cards. That's (almost) what I did when I had my cell phone stolen at Disneyland two years ago.

In that case, it took me about two days to actually get the number, and I merely had the number suspended until I could get a new phone. Luckily only three calls had been made on the phone, none of them longer than two minutes, and knowing how that phone behaved they were probably accidentally called when buttons got pushed by things in the thief's pocket.