How Do Signatures Protect Our Credit Cards?

Security is a top priority.

Major companies provide credit card protection services.  Lots of advice is shared, both by security professionals and friends.

One suggestion that I have adopted is not to put my signature on credit cards, but instead print boldly in that space, “Ask For Photo ID.”

I don’t know the evidence of the effectiveness of this approach, but it has got to be more effective than the use of undecipherable scrawls.

How would anyone validate that a signature is indeed the signature of the person presenting the card?

Isn’t comparing my live, handsome face with the stunning portrait on my driver’s license more reassuring than a signature?

Two things have amazed me about this practice.

First, I would guess that maybe one out of ten merchants or servers even bothers to turn the card over to check the signature box.  Of those, a tiny fraction ask for my photo ID.  Sometimes, apologetically.  As I show my driver’s license, I thank them for even asking.

Listen to Lew Margolis’ commentary

Second, an occasional merchant or governmental official has warned me that they cannot accept a credit card without a signature.  That’s right.  A scrawl somehow satisfies a commercial or governmental security interest, but an official ID, shown by the live owner of that ID, does not.

I understand that the type of credit card misuse or theft that I am describing is just the tip of the iceberg of credit card crime.  That fixing my signature is part of an ancient practice signifying my duty to meet this obligation to pay.

I understand the importance of standardized policies.  But, such policies should have a logical relationship to the intended goal, shouldn’t they?

I’m curious to know what I am missing.

— Lew Margolis