What does 'not valid unless signed' actually mean?

briskbeats

Got a new bank card in the post yesterday. Always sign the strip and noticed the words "not valid unless signed" above the strip. Noticed more people are not signing their cards now as now doing contactless. But I get one customer on average per month, a slip is printed asking for a signature. If customer doesn't have their card signed, I ask for proof on another card or driving licence. If the customer has no proof of signature, we have to ask customer to get cash out from the ATMs outside. 

So what is legally meant by not valid unless signed? Does it mean we can't take customers' payments if the signature slip is printed and card isn't signed?

For goodness sake people, sign your cards. It will save a lot of hassle and embarrassment. 

eskbanker

If your question is what does it mean to a retailer of some sort, your rights and obligations are presumably specified in your merchant services agreement, so that should explain what you're required to do to verify signatures, and how to handle unsigned cards, and where liability rests if such a card is used fraudulently?  If this isn't documented, ask your acquiring bank/payment processor....

dr_adidas01

briskbeats said:

Got a new bank card in the post yesterday. Always sign the strip and noticed the words "not valid unless signed" above the strip. Noticed more people are not signing their cards now as now doing contactless. But I get one customer on average per month, a slip is printed asking for a signature. If customer doesn't have their card signed, I ask for proof on another card or driving licence. If the customer has no proof of signature, we have to ask customer to get cash out from the ATMs outside. 

So what is legally meant by not valid unless signed? Does it mean we can't take customers' payments if the signature slip is printed and card isn't signed?

For goodness sake people, sign your cards. It will save a lot of hassle and embarrassment. 

It means exactly what it says “Not Valid unless signed”. 

It can’t  be anymore obvious!! 

Zanderman

Not signing cards that have a signature strip is madness. 
Regardless of whether it makes them valid. 
An unsigned card is a gift to a thief - as they can sign it with their own signature. 
Hugely irresponsible not to sign, even if rarely asked to sign for purchases. 
I sign all of mine (except for those with no signature strip, obvs).

born_again

Can't remember the last time I was asked to sign. Retailer should just be telling them either get cash to pay or unblock card at ATM,. As it puts more liability on them.


Anyone that picks up a card will just use it contactlessly & then dump it once declined. A card is only a gift to a thief if they have the PIN. As retailer should be telling them to go away & get cash to pay.

Anyone that is old enough to remember the pre chip pin days, when you had to sign. The signature was very rarely checked by staff.

BooJewels

born_again said:

Anyone that is old enough to remember the pre chip pin days, when you had to sign. The signature was very rarely checked by staff.

More fool them.  My husband used to be a manager of a hifi store, so selling quite high unit price items - and he regularly got cash rewards for handing in/reporting dodgy cards.  I think it used to be £100 - which was a weeks salary then - and way more than the commission he lost.  

Nearlyold

BooJewels said:

born_again said:

Anyone that is old enough to remember the pre chip pin days, when you had to sign. The signature was very rarely checked by staff.

More fool them.  My husband used to be a manager of a hifi store, so selling quite high unit price items - and he regularly got cash rewards for handing in/reporting dodgy cards.  I think it used to be £100 - which was a weeks salary then - and way more than the commission he lost.  

That's taken me back some 40 years to my days as a store manager in the jewellery trade - when there were no PDQ card machines and all card payments above the floor limit (around £30) had to have telephone authorisation from Visa or Access. If you were suspicious (even if the sale was below the floor limit) you would ask for a "Code 10" authorisation.  The card recovery reward could be a nice little earner and was always paid in our case to the staff member who had raised their suspicions.

BooJewels

Thanks a @Nearlyold - I was trying to remember how it worked - I was forgetting about phone authorisation - that would be it - they'd tell him to keep the card and send it off to them, I think.  I remember he got a guitar swung at his head by one unhappy customer.  This would have been around 35-40 years ago.

Daliah

As it happens, I was asked for a signature earlier this week, in a supermarket, for a Mastercard I had previously used quite a lot contactless, with Chip & PIN, and online. I had not signed the card - probably should have done. The cashier handed me a pen, I signed my card and then the payment slip.

Obviously any old thief could have used my card if they had been asked for a signature. But this is so rare in the UK these days, and even in the US and other countries, where signature seems to still be more common than in the UK, the retailers rarely check that the signature on the card and on the sales slip are actually a match. I don't consider signatures a great security feature, and I prefer to pay with ApplePay, and never normally take any cards out of the house*. Just this particular card (FairFX pre-paid) has been issued by aliens and cannot be added to ApplePay, and I had some money on it which needed spending.

* been relying on ApplePay for several years now, and only became unstuck on one occasion, when Lidl's contactless system was unavailable for a day. 

briskbeats

Three years ago, the internet went down on 6-7 streets, including all the retail places and homes down these roads.

 It was horrendous. Contactless wasn't an option. Some people don't carry their physical cards. All ATMs down. Some customers' cards automatically printed a signature slip. Normally we could save the transaction so just need to scan the barcode and receipt details are loaded up. Not when the internet was down. Unable to give cashback, get gift vouchers (plus paying on them), top up mobile phones - either through the card or issuing voucher, check stock levels and reduce things.

Code checkers had to physically write out stickers with price and brief description of product just in case customers took advantage of putting a handwritten sticker for 50p from a sandwich and putting it on a beef joint.

We even had the flat bed machines dug out just in case all card payments failed. 

[Deleted User]

Last time I worked in retail we just didn't accept signatures. It was chip&pin and contactless only. If you had a weird card it just would just decline or not do anything, no signature slip would come out.