TexasCHLforum.com

pbwalker wrote:

RiverCity.45 wrote:As a condition of a vendor's contract with the credit card companies, they have to agree to verity that the identity of the person presenting the card matches the name on the card.

Citation please?

I'm a business owner that takes credit cards. It's in the contract I signed and part of the fraud prevention training the merchant account company provided.

One of the requirements:
"Always compare the cardholder's signature to the signature on the back of the card. If the signature panel is blank, have the cardholder sign it. If the cardholder refuses, you should request another form of payment."

And from training:
"Unsigned cards:...check the cardholder's ID...such as driver's license...."
"Ask the customer to sign the card...Compare the signature on the card to the signature on the ID."

Training also urges businesses to hold the card during the transaction, scrutinize the embossed numbers, and verify the info on the printed receipt matches the info on the card. One reason some retailers will ask for your card and then enter the last four digits from the card into the register is to verify it matches the data contained on the magnetic strip. Fraudsters often will change the magnetic info and an inattentive merchant would not notice that the card number/name on the receipt doesn't match the info embossed on the card.

As for chargebacks putting the merchant's ability to accept cards at risk, from the training:
"Chargeback ratio. A merchant account that accumulates too many chargebacks may be shut down by the provider, regardless of whether the chargebacks are won or lost. In the case of Visa and MasterCard, merchants are required to maintain a chargeback ratio no greater than 2 percent of all transactions. A provider may see the high number of chargebacks as an indication that the goods and services being sold are not the same as those declared on the merchant service agreement."

Visa and MC are the lifeblood of merchants who take credit cards. This risk of losing the ability to accept credit cards often figures prominently in merchants' policies regarding verification of identity.

A merchant's ability to accept your credit cards requires merchants to do so in a way that minimizes the merchant's and the issuer's risk.

As a condition of a vendor's contract with the credit card companies, they have to agree to verity that the identity of the person presenting the card matches the name on the card. They're not doing this to irritate you. They are doing it to prevent charge-backs, which, if a company has too many, can lead the credit card company to terminate their business arrangement.
The best solution is a card with your photo on it.

There really aren't boogie men hiding behind every bush.

A store wanting to check a receipt to prevent shoplifting is a violation of civil liberties? Hogwash. If you don't want your receipt checked, shop somewhere else.