What is the point of writing see ID on the back of your credit card?

Question

Think of everytime you use your credit card these day. They gas pump, u-scan check outs, many times no one even looks at your card. To me, writing see id on the back is a lame attempt to place responsibility on another party. Isn't is just better to be responsible to know where your cards are and what to do if they happen to be stolen? What happened to being responsible in today's society?

Answer 1

The responsibility is (and always has been) on the merchant to verify the ID of the card's user, regardless of there being a signature or "see ID" on the back of the card, most cashiers just don't bother.Most are too lazy to really look at the signature (which most will NEVER question the authenticity of, even if they do check) having "check ID" on it reminds them of thier job.

As for "knowing what to do", you don't always realize your wallet is missing right away, a person can run a huge bill in a few hours before you realize and contact the credit card company. At least, having "see ID" on the back may give a thief pause before trying to use your card, making less purchases that you have to dispute later on.

Answer 2

Your question is somewhat accusatory. I personally don't think there should be ANY automated point-of-purchase (POP) systems that accept credit cards without some form of identity validation. What happens if you get mugged, beaten, and left for dead. Several days later you awaken in a hospital, and some time after that you get around to cancelling your credit cards. How many 1000s of dollars could have been charged up to that point? And, the CC companies don't eat that money...it gets passed on to you and me, in higher rates and fees. So, there is no real incentive for CC companies to force the issue of identity verification at the point of purchase. The whole "See ID" signature attempts to force that, at least in the cases where there is a human clerk at the POP. That seems VERY responsible to me. If anything, all this automated, unvalidated use seems very irresponsible.

Answer 3

It's incase it is stolen. My mom had a card stolen and if it wasn't for the 'see ID' on the back, it would never have been stopped-if the person didn't check ID, the person would've gotten away with it. People can match signatures--if that's what they are going by is how the card is signed compared to how they sign the receipt.

Answer 4

In case your credit or debit card is ever stolen.

You should never leave the signature strip 'blank'. If your card is ever lost or stolen, a thief could sign your name to it and run around town using it.

A lot of merchants ask for picture ID nowadays anyhow -- with or without the notation on the bank.