Comments on: Can Merchants Require an ID for Credit Card Transactions?

By: Justin

Justin — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 17:04:17 +0000

Asking for ID is the presumption that you who are presenting the card is trying to defraud the store.

I live in NYC and I refuse to provide ID; and if the store makes this a condition of my purchasing the items, I immediately report that store to VISA.

Thus far I have reported two national chains within the last 4 months.

By: Rick Adams

Rick Adams — Sat, 02 Oct 2010 00:36:40 +0000

If the card says NOT VALID UNLESS SIGNED. That means ASK FOR ID is not a signature. I have had many banks tell me to cut up the card, and the bank promptly canceled the card for the customer. When the customer gets mad at me, I tell them they must follow the rules of the bank.

Also we almost lost our contract for Visa/MasterCard because an employee asked for Id from the VP of MasterCard! You CAN’T ask for ID! No matter what, you will get paid from them. AX is the ONLY card that is not transferable.Many Store branded cards are the same way. IE: Jane Doe can’t use an AX card with the name Jon doe.

By: Marc

Marc — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 21:01:49 +0000

In some states, such as Washington state, there are laws that trump visa/mc rules and allow a merchant to request ID to use the cards. The expectation is that by requesting ID the merchant can prevent a card from being used fraudulently.

Writing “see ID” or “request ID” on your card unfortunately does not make the card valid. Some merchants will make you sign the card if it doesn’t already have a signature. I know this is rare, but it can happen. The bank even says, when you receive the card, that the card must be signed for it to be considered invalid. If you put your signature and them cram in words to the effect of “see also ID” that is acceptable. However oftentimes the signature space is too small. In that case sign the card and then use a black sharpie (permanent marker) to write “see also ID” somewhere else on the card.

By: Al

Al — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 21:51:18 +0000

and also RobertV is very clear that you have never worked at a retail shop if you think only 1% of population lie cheat and steal is more something around 40%. You must understand that retail business ask your id for the business but also your safety. A person can easily steal your card information through gas station pumps, bank doors that required a card to go in or simply the internet and use your card for a month straight untill you notice. And then you know what is the business right to not take blame for that since the customert refused to show his id saying that was against the law. Think about the whole picture just because it never happen to you doenst mean it never will.

By: Al

Al — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 21:39:35 +0000

due to rules of this matter that many small business don’t take credit card. I’m a manager at a small retail business and we required id for EVERY credit card transaction due to the fact that if we receive any transaction that was denied by any credit card company we get charged a fee of $35 dollars. So if we make a sale on a credit card of $10 and is not honored other than the 2% we get charged for every credit transaction we also get charged $35 dollars even if later the credit card company still decides to pay for the $10 dollars. We also apply a 75cents charge to either credit or debit transactions since we are charged 2% on every credit card transaction and about 67cents on every debity transaction. I’m not against the customer rights but the law for the business rights are completly misleading and not helpful to the business. You must all remember that in the moment that a business has a low or no profit the ower simply decides to close the business causing not only the customers but also the employees to suffer. Also having in mind that these details that I shared here are from a small business being much different from big companies such as Vons, Target, etc.

By: jeannie

jeannie — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 14:15:01 +0000

Regarding comment by Robert V:
I work at a c-store, and each month we are sent a list of transactions that the card company will not pay because the cardholder said they did not make that purchase; in this event, we must prove that it was, indeed, the cardholder who bought the items in question. Without ID, the customer is long-gone and able to refute charges all day long. We have no recourse but to eat the cost of the inventory. We also were forced to implement a store policy of a three dollar minimum for card transactions because we are a small franchise store with limited buying power, and people frequently came in and purchased a cigarillo at .64 while the debit card (MC or Visa) charges us .35 per transaction. In reality, we just paid someone to buy our product. The same holds true with lottery transactions; we make .01 on the dollar, but the card company charges us .35 for the transaction. Policy be damned, we are not in the business of giving away inventory – or worse – paying someone else to take it. Respectfully, jeannie.

By: Robert V

Robert V — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 18:39:01 +0000

isn’t this the whole point of the visa commercial where a person takes too long to write a check or a person forgets thier id. ID is the last thing they “need”. if its a froudulent transaction and they have followed the proper proceedures like verifying the signature, then visa/mc or amex is on the hook, not the merchant or in most cases the customer. another way 1% of the population who lie cheat and steal make it hard on the rest of us.

By: Nathan

Nathan — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 18:27:32 +0000

If the name clearly doesn’t match the person, the card can be rejected. I’m not sure of the legality of this, but as a cashier, I have taken the card and put it in a safe place until the owner came to claim it.

By: Anne

Anne — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 00:22:26 +0000

What about when the name on the credit card clearly doesn’t match the person, ie, a clearly gendered name being used by a person of the opposite gender? Or if the person is clearly too young (younger than 10 years old) to be using a credit card other than their parents’? These used to be issues when I worked at Pier 1 – women would frequently bring in their husbands’ credit cards, but you never know if it’s stolen, or even if it’s revenge shopping in a divorce.

By: Chris Desmond

Chris Desmond — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 16:26:11 +0000

I write “Request ID” in the signature block of all of my credit cards because I WANT merchants to verify my identity. Worth a moment of my time, having been identity-thefted twice already.