I had a wonderful opportunity to share credit education last night at a church in northwest Tucson as part of our company’s community outreach.  One of the topics we covered was identity theft prevention and one of our attendees asked about the back of credit cards.

There is a place for your signature on the back of the card and many people have started putting “See Identification” rather than signing it.  The thought is that if your card is lost or stolen, someone would not only have the account number and verification code on the back, they would also be able to copy your signature.  In theory, the checkout person who is looking at your card will ask you for ID, see that it is indeed you, and process your purchase.

The person asking the question last night said that someone they knew with “See ID” on their card was told by the retail store clerk that they could not accept it unless the cardholder signed it right then and there.  So we decided to look in to this matter and here is what we found.

According to an article on creditcards.com, Visa and MasterCard say that, technically, a credit card is not valid unless it is signed by an authorized user.  This is according to their agreement with the vendors and retail stores that accept the credit cards.   This is spelled out for merchants at the Visa website, click here to see it.

These are private contractual agreements between the credit card companies and their vendors and their consumers; there does not appear to be a federal regulation regarding this.  So, what do you do if you’re concerned about fraudulent use?

Try the double approach: sign your card and then write “Check ID”.   This covers the merchant requirement to only accept signed cards and you let them know you want to show your identification to assure no fraud is occuring with your account.  And if they don’t ask, mention it to them as you take out your ID.

This week is National Protect Your Identity Week.  You can get more identity theft prevention information at the official website.