Do retailers notice which bank card you use?

robatwork

You have too much time on your hands.

When I am abroad my Halifax Clarity card often gets a double take as I think the big X catches the eye from the normal boring debit cards....and they tend to handle the card as a matter of course where shop staff in the UK rarely touch a card now.

TheShape

Owain_Moneysaver wrote: »

They never see my card now as I don't hand it over. They don't need to see it as we no longer use signature verification.

That's an advantage as I can flash my Gold card but they can't examine it closely enough to see that it's just a regular card spray painted gold.

Ergates

nicetomeetyou wrote: »

Say if you had a basic account or normal current account or a premium account? If they are taking card payments all day they must notice people financial strengths and weaknesses. I.e credit worthiness. I know when I had my basic nationwide account which was a bright red debit card I was self conscious about it.

If you mean the person working behind the till. No. Even back in the days when they would have handled the cards themselves. As you say, they're taking card payments all day. They'll see hundreds of different cards, and unless they have (or have had) the same account themselves, they'd have no idea what type of account they'd link to. It's just a card.

EssexExile

Life was so much simpler when there was just Barclaycard & Access.

MovingForwards

I only used to pay attention to the card to see if the person presenting it was male/female and that tallied with the title / male/female name on the card.

Mrs_Ryan

My partner has a platinum Barclaycard (which bizarrely went against him in his PIP tribunal- but one of the panel members got snotty when she discovered he owns our home outright without a mortgage and even snottier when she discovered he has a platinum card, I think she thought he was so rich he didn’t need PIP) but I haven’t noticed anywhere being particularly nicer to him because of it!
I rarely take my NatWest card out of my purse- I mostly pay by Apple Pay so no-one sees what type of card I’m using. That said, if I’m using my Capital One card I do try and keep it hidden as it does embarrass me a bit.

Loanranger

I had an Open University branded credit card for quite a few years, I admit to being proud of that. I think it was an MBNA card.

Nebulous2

molerat wrote: »

I remember many years ago my friend wanted a brand new car. He went to one dealership straight from work, arriving on his Hammerite blue painted Velocette LE sporting his good old Belstaff jacket and trousers with pudding basin helmet and goggles. The dealer was very disinterested in his enquiries making it clear he thought he was a time waster who couldn't afford one of his shiny cars so he went elsewhere and paid cash. Never judge a book by its cover !

An acquaintance tells a story of one of his friends who is a tradesman going to view cars in his working gear. The salesman ignored him in favour of some better dressed customers, so he started pulling wads of notes from his pocket and laid them on the bonnet of one of the cars. That drew their attention!

I'm not sure how well it would work nowadays as dealers prefer credit because of the commission paid.

nick74

We have a prepaid debit Mastercard at work for department/pool use in the name of 'Mr Petty Cash'. I keep expecting it to be queried by a retailer (particularly as the most frequent user of the card is female) but fortunately due to chip & pin none of them have yet had cause to examine it!

Vet

I don't think i've ever considered this when shopping. But I doubt they are interested.