I just can't bring my self to sign on those silly pads that keep cropping up next to the checkout stands.

They keep telling me I have to, its the only way, until I drop the who kit and walk out.

Glenn

You mean those ones that take your digital signature? The only thing I hate about them is that they seem to be calibrated by a blind man. I start writing and my sig appears almost always about half an inch below where I'm taping the screen. Then I try to adjust and it ends up looking like I'm either in 3rd grade or I'm forging someone's signature

Giving away multiple digitized copies of my signature, just doesn't make good sense.

Glenn

I prefer the places that don't require a signature. It's a waste anyway even if they look at the back of the card it's too subjective and even if they don't match I don't think the cahsier will say anything so they can avoid a confrontation.

They should just require an ID to use a credit card.

Why? If you order something online they don't require anything at all -- not even a physical card.

As I remember, though, businesses get charged higher rates for purchases made where the card isn't scanned, probably to recoup fraud costs.

That would be fine with me but if they feel the need to do something I would rather have them require an id than a signature.

One of my workmates has "Please check ID" written in the signature area. He says that in places that don't have an "always check ID" policy, they still only check about half the time.

I get checked all the time, and I only have a debit card. I thuoght that wasn't a requirement with those.

It isn't if you enter your pin instead. If you use it as an ATM card, you need no signature, if you use it as credit, you still gotta sign. I honestly would prefer more people checked. I can't remember the last time I was asked to show ID when using my credit card.

Hehe, then my local Food Lion is extra safe. In order to check out there you must:
-select ATM on the pinpad
-slide card
-enter PIN
-tell the cashier ATM so they can enter it in
-offer ID

Sheesh!

The only thing I hate about them is that they seem to be calibrated by a blind man.

I resent that after having just installed 29 of them a couple of weeks ago in stores In pharmacies it is now a federal law having to do with a privacy act that went into effect Monday. One more thing I now have to fix when they break down.

The royal bank of scotland used to (probably still do) have a laser printed photo of the card owner on the back. Seemed like a good method of fraud prevention. They only downside is that if you grew a beard you'd need a new card. But hey, that's your lifestyle choice, you can't blame the bank for that.

I always sign with an 'X' on those machines. They don't care, and if there's ever a fraud problem, I'll know where the "signature" came from.

My point is that in many cases, you don't need to sign to use your credit card. Order anything online, for example. The only cases I can think of that someone is going to verify something using your signature are going to be cases where the seal of a Notary Public is going to be required, too.

What I'm saying is that there's very little chance that your signature can be used to pretend that someone else is you, so why worry about it? It's much more likely that someone will steal your credit card number, don't you think?

Aww, I appologize. I'm certain I've never used one of yours! The ones I see most often are at Best Buys in my area, and usually they look all beat up, so they probably aren't maintained very well.

I'm sure they're perfect when you install them! (no sacrasm)

I imagine the touchscreen electronics drift after a while...

Giving away multiple digitized copies of my signature, just doesn't make good sense.


For heaven's sake, why?

If it doesn't bother you to give them your signature on a piece of paper, why should it bother you to give it to them stored on a few bytes on a hard drive? If someone had criminal intentions towards your signature, how long do you think it would take them to digitize your paper signature with a scanner?

tanstaafl.

I'm sure they're perfect when you install them!

That's much better! Ok, so the first 4 of them I didn't know how to get into the setup portion to properly calibrate them and ended up going back to do those but they are all perfect now

I can't remember the last time I was asked to show ID when using my credit card.

In the UK, this never happens. When I was in the US last year, it turned into a major source of frustration.