I'd image that the postal employee, who accepted my credit card without a signature on the back, was probably breaking some postal regulation.
Having nothing to do with my statement, above, each time I go into the Post Office, it never ceases to amaze me as to how incompetent a service can be.
Notan
The signature on the back asserts that you promise to repay the debt extended to you. It has nothing at all to do with identification. Anyone can use your card but regardless of who does, you must pay the debt.
That being said, some stores take it one step further and insist that only the signer can use the card in their store. It's their choice, but you don't have to shop there.
Just today, Walgreens said they no longer require credit card receipts to be signed if the amount is less than $25.
Excuse me? Do you have any evidence to support such a statement? The credit application is your promise to replay any debt incurred to the account, regardless of whether or not the card is signed. The signature on the card is a security device, nothing more or less.
Which is a condition of that store's agreement with their card processor. Its not just the store's decision.
Right - many fast food and other low dollar transaction businesses waive signatures. You still have to pay the bill.
The reason they waive the security check is the need for speed in completing the transaction is high and the exposure to a large loss is low.
I never sign any of my credit cards on the back or the front or whatever. The signatures tend to wear off on my anyway. Worse that happens is that they ask me to see ID. If a company doesn't like that then I just go elsewhere!
And signatures really prove little anyways and nobody really checks them. A handwriting specialist would be needed and quite frankly I don't think I've ever signed my name twice the same way! Nowadays my signature isn't even readable - not even to me.
Besides, I posted this before, it's a good read:
As a kid, I used to wonder why my parents' signatures never looked like their names. Lately, I, too, noticed that *my* signature was just as unreadable.
Apparently, like many, I've become my own parents!
Notan
You take one lousy week off to join Thorax at the Elvis concert, and this is what happens: Notan writes on Thu, 05 Jan 2006 07:14:34
-0700 >>
I have three distinct ways I sign off on things, depending on whether I'm signing something, or just signing off, or filling in the blank labled "signature required."
-- pyotr filipivich Next month's Panel: Graft - Boon or blessing?
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