Why do we need to sign on the rear of a Debit card

smudge450

Whilst in one of Morrisons supermarket today the lady in front of me went to put her debit card in the machine ,the lady on the till remarked that it was not signed, she then said sometimes it will come up on her till that the card cannot be verified due to not having a signature on,So she would not be able to complete the sale on that card.
There was no problem with the card ,so when my turn came i told the till lady my card was not signed, she then trotted out the same to me, again no problem my card was accepted.

What i cannot understand is how the hell can a signature be verified when it's in one of those card machines at the till.

The till lady said that a few weeks previous it had happened to a man on her till, after 15 mins of fighting his corner he walked out leaving his already packed bags on the counter.
Anyone come across this or can explain why the hell we need a signature on the card these days?

CLAPTON

clearly a load of nonsense but
why not simply sign it just to keep them happy

smudge450

It's the customer they should be keeping happy, and it goes against the grain for me to be told what to do by big business.

Lokolo

smudge450 wrote: »

It's the customer they should be keeping happy, and it goes against the grain for me to be told what to do by big business.

Next you'll be saying the customers always right. Ha.

I am pretty sure they can still swipe the card and ask you to sign. So what happens if someone steals your card, signs the back, then scratches the chip so it cannot work. They then scan old school style, check signature and its a perfect match.

usedandabused

at the airport my nan was refused her foreign currency because she never had signed her debit card, really was ludacris lol

smudge450

I've just phoned Morrisons and the till lady obviously does not understand the system herself, some retraining i think.

The only time they would ever want your card signed is if they are having problems with the chip and pin machine , then they would need to do the transaction manually by having the customer sign the reciept and comparing it with the signature on the card. They obviousley would not allow you to sign the card there and then.

And the last thing i would say is "the customer is always right"
i learned that over many years of dealing with the public face to face

sulkisu

smudge450 wrote: »

Anyone come across this or can explain why the hell we need a signature on the card these days?

I have occasionally used my card and asked (and been allowed) to sign, instead of using my pin number. Other times chip n pin machines have been out of order and I have never used chip and pin overseas. If a card was unsigned and was lost/stolen, I would imagine that a fraudster could simply sign it and then run up a huge bill in the cardholders name - as in the days before chip and pin.
TBH every card that I have, including store loyalty cards, online savings accounts (where the card cannot be used in branches or ATMs) all stipulate that it is signed immediately, so that's what I do. Far easier than not signing and then arguing about it later.:)

Rikki

If chip and pin is declined the sale can still be completed by you signing for the transaction, but not if the card hasn't been signed.

By signing the back you can prove the card is yours by matching the signature.

dzug1

Additionally some debit cards still double as cheque guarantee cards

What i cannot understand is how the hell can a signature be verified when it's in one of those card machines at the till.

The machine says the chip/PIN won't work - get signature
The cashier takes card out of machine
The cashier looks at the signature on the back of the card
The cashier looks at the signature on the slip you sign
If they are the same then bingo

If the signature space on the card is blank they can't do this.

whatmichaelsays

Two reasons.

Firstly, somewhere deep in your bank's T&C's, it will state that signing the back of the card is deemed acceptance of it's terms of use.

Secondly, even with chip & pin, you could be asked to sign for your purchases. This could be, for example, because of a damaged chip, because your card has special conditions attached to it (if you are partially sighted for example) or because chip and pin may not be in operation at a given retailer / POS, either in the UK or abroad (chip and pin is not compulsory).

lordash

I believe it says something along the lines of "card not valid unless signed" on almost every card I have ever seen, and also I believe it may actually be in breach of the visa/mastercard regulations to accept an unsigned card, even if it is processed by chip and pin. (at least it was back in 2004)

Having said that, I don't think I have turned down a customer with an unsigned card, normally I ask for a driving licence if it does go to signature, and then check photo/signature/name and then ask customer to sign back of card.

Always sign the card, there are ways of getting money fraudulently out of accounts without pin numbers.