Random Thoughts

[Max Rockatansky]

The bigger shock to me was the absence of any place to put my signature on the new card.

That would have been fun at the casino I worked at last—official policy there was I could get written up for accepting a card with no signature on it.

Maybe I'm just young, but the importance of signing credit and/or debit cards has always confused me. I assume the idea is that your signature is unique to you and should match your signature on the receipt, but my signature is the only thing I've written in cursive in years and it's not especially consistent as a result. If anyone was actually using that to validate my identity, I probably would have gotten called on it many times over by now, and the fact that I haven't been makes me think anyone could fake my signature and nobody would notice.

Checking the signature used to be required of merchants by credit card companies.  Back in the day a significant part of my early LP days were spent watching video to see if the cashiers were checking.  Usually I would get to asked to review video if a credit card company was filing a chargeback claim against the store.  Most of the time the cashiers weren't checking.

[Rothman]

The bigger shock to me was the absence of any place to put my signature on the new card.

That would have been fun at the casino I worked at last—official policy there was I could get written up for accepting a card with no signature on it.

Maybe I'm just young, but the importance of signing credit and/or debit cards has always confused me. I assume the idea is that your signature is unique to you and should match your signature on the receipt, but my signature is the only thing I've written in cursive in years and it's not especially consistent as a result. If anyone was actually using that to validate my identity, I probably would have gotten called on it many times over by now, and the fact that I haven't been makes me think anyone could fake my signature and nobody would notice.

But why wouldn't you sign the card like you do receipts?

[TheCatalyst31]

The bigger shock to me was the absence of any place to put my signature on the new card.

That would have been fun at the casino I worked at last—official policy there was I could get written up for accepting a card with no signature on it.

Maybe I'm just young, but the importance of signing credit and/or debit cards has always confused me. I assume the idea is that your signature is unique to you and should match your signature on the receipt, but my signature is the only thing I've written in cursive in years and it's not especially consistent as a result. If anyone was actually using that to validate my identity, I probably would have gotten called on it many times over by now, and the fact that I haven't been makes me think anyone could fake my signature and nobody would notice.

But why wouldn't you sign the card like you do receipts?

If I'm signing something important, like the card itself, I'll take the time to do the nicer version of my signature. If I'm signing a receipt, the odds are I'm half-assing it and putting my initials followed by squiggles. (And if it's one of those tablets you have to sign with your finger, it might look like one giant squiggle.)

[Scott5114]

The bigger shock to me was the absence of any place to put my signature on the new card.

That would have been fun at the casino I worked at last—official policy there was I could get written up for accepting a card with no signature on it.

Maybe I'm just young, but the importance of signing credit and/or debit cards has always confused me. I assume the idea is that your signature is unique to you and should match your signature on the receipt, but my signature is the only thing I've written in cursive in years and it's not especially consistent as a result. If anyone was actually using that to validate my identity, I probably would have gotten called on it many times over by now, and the fact that I haven't been makes me think anyone could fake my signature and nobody would notice.

Signing the back of the card signifies that you agree to comply with the terms and conditions of the card issuer. (That's why historically the signature panel had "NOT VALID UNLESS SIGNED" next to it.) It has nothing to do with identity verification.

[kphoger]

Years ago, I change the way I sign my name.  That actually turned out to be problematic every so often.  Notably, there was a number of years in which my passport still had my old signature in it, and trips to Mexico required me to sign my name on the immigration documents exactly as it appeared in my passport—except that I eventually lost the muscle memory to know how to do that.  There was also the matter of renewing IDs while using one with a different signature as supporting documentation.  Ugh.  I'm glad they all match now.

Anyway, my current debit card literally doesn't have anywhere to sign.  That's what took me aback when I first got it.