Just get over it!

[Spiffy McMoron]

Sheesh people, 3 seconds is nothing to get excited over. Unless it's, ahhh - doing the taxes.

And even then, it's nothing to get excited (and brag) about!

[Dave1982]

All the various nonsense with credit cards and signatures really drives me up the wall. I especailly love the twisted logic behind not signing credit cards because they don't want their signature to get out there if the card is stolen (and they dont' even write CID or SEE ID in there; it's just blank).

Ok, idiot, first of all, your signature "getting out there" is the least of your problems if you lose your wallet or card. Hello? EACH AND EVERY TIME YOU SIGN YOUR NAME you put your signature "out there." What is to stop me, the clerk, from photocopying a credit card receipt and forging the signature? Nothing. Plus, a signature is not as important as an ID for most stuff anyway. I could make up a fake ID in someone's name and then sign any way I want to. Unless the merchant already knows this person they'll never know the signature is bogus. Not to mention the fact that hardly anyone bothers to check them anyway. Your signature is NOT the key to your life.

Second, these nitwits utterly fail to grasp that an unsigned card is GOLD to a thief. If I were to come across an unsigned card, all I would have to do is look at the name on the front, sign that name on the back, and boom: I now have a card with a signature in my own handwriting on it, so those few people that DO check will be none the wiser unless and until the card is declined.

Basically, they worry about (what I feel is) a non-existant threat while ignoring the obvious and very real one.

Twice now at my current job I've dealt with a very cranky woman who get's VERY angry when I ask to see here card. "Oh jeeze, and I suppose you'll want to see some ID as well? Such a waste of my time; the guys up the road didn't pester me about it!" And the hell of it is that it was a legit card in her own name, so she had nothing to worry about.

Then there's the jerk at my first job who raised hell to the point of nearly bringing the whole checkout area to a halt, but that's for another day.

[Jester]

When I get the "CID" and "SEE ID" on the back of the credit card, I go back to the table, and almost invariably the following conversation ensues...

JESTER: "Hi there. Because I have this bad habit of following directions, I need to ask to see your ID." (indicating back of card as I say this)
CARDHOLDER: "Do you realize you're the first person today to ask us for our ID?"
JESTER: "Yes. Yes I do."
CARDHOLDER: "Here you go. Thanks!"

No muss, no fuss, no problem! Well, usually. Maybe I am just lucky and get the SEE ID folks that actually are impressed that someone actually asks to see their ID.

[Sofar]

I check the signatures, I ask for I.D., although only once have I been suspicious of an unmatching signature. The signature on the card was spiky, scrawly, thoroughly lent foward, and the initial D was taller than the signature was long. The signature on the reciept couldn't have been more different, it was short with large round loops, not lent to either side, and very legible, it looked a little like technical printing. I asked for I.D., she obliged and the card was indeed hers. She said she'd changed her signature since she'd signed the card.

I stopped asking for I.D. for unsigned cards, though. It got too tedious, no one signs their cards anymore. Effin' paranoid is what people are, and willing to believe that the rules apply to all but them.

[Jester]

How many people really drastically change their signatures?

I am not talking about the slow evolution or devolution of a signature, mind you. For example, when I first started signing stuff in my teens, it was a fairly neat, though not perfect, signature, with all the letters in my name clearly defined. I would scoff at signatures that were merely scrawls without any real definition. How could they call that a signature? But then as I aged, I noticed something with my own signature. Letters started becoming less defined. The first to truly go was the last letter in my first name. It no longer exists. It is a line. It was followed shortly thereafter by the second to last letter in my first name. Now that part of my signature is just the first two letters followed by a scrawl. I figured that that happened because the last two letters in my first name are both short, low letters, but the first two are tall, so my last name was safe, as it contains mostly tall letters. How wrong I was. The last letter in my last name is not down to being a line, but it is not really recongnizable as the letter it is. At all. You know there is something there, you just don't know....what. And I figure this is what happens with most people.

That being said, if you got one of my early in life signatures and one of my current ones, while they are not the same, you could see the relationship and that they are the same person's, without being a handwriting expert.

So, with all that said.... how in the bloody hell does one's signature completely and totally change? Or am I just being as naive as when I once thought barely recognizable scrawls were ridiculous to be considered as actual signatures?

[HYHYBT]

How many people really drastically change their signatures?

Mine did, mostly to counteract what you described. My signature got tiny when I started having things to *sign*, as opposed to writing my name (silly difference, I know), and only about three letters were recognizable even as letters. And my handwriting had gradually changed styles too, though not yet at the time for the worse. One day I decided to sign my name differently, it looked good, and I've stuck with it since (though it still is unreadable unless I'm trying to be neat)

[Maevis]

Not sure what to say about signatures changing.

I actually have several signatures...I have my "fast" sig when I'm in a hurry or have alot of things to sign. I also have a more legible sig for when I'm signing for fedex/ups so that they can actually, you know, read my name so they don't have to stare at it blankly and then ask me...and how do you spell that?
Then there's the Full Legal Name Signature for Official documents which is a huge pain in the arse considering I have five names to write down.

Then of course, I got married and changed my last name, and that took me several years to form into a new signature.

Needless to say, the back of my CC says, "See ID"









AND I hate people who freak out about being asked for ID. The worst was when I worked in a very wealthy neighborhood and people would throw FITS and tell me how many generations their family had lived in said neighborhood, how many years they had been coming to the store, and blah blah blah. At which point I would put my hand across my name tag and say, "Quick! What's my name?" and they would stare at me for a bit and then sigh and hand me their ID.

[Cosmic Cat]

Most people don't get mad when I ask for an ID, but they do get mad if I ask and then they don't have it! One day a teenager came in with her mom's card and I wouldn't let the transaction go through because the mom wasn't there with her. Sorry, but I have no way of knowing that she didn't steal her mom's card! My boss's daughter stole her her ATM card and immediately withdrew $300 from her bank account! I can't assume that all children are good sons and daughters who wouldn't steal mommy's and daddy's cards.

[Gurndigarn]

So, with all that said.... how in the bloody hell does one's signature completely and totally change? Or am I just being as naive as when I once thought barely recognizable scrawls were ridiculous to be considered as actual signatures?

Remember Gary Hart, by any chance? They once did a news segment on his handwriting, comparing his 60s signature with his 70s and 80s. He changed it quite deliberately to help define his image. And, part of that included chopping off part of his last name...