Year ago met some eccentric that signed a perfect biro scribble (high frequency sine wave, like) across the whole rear of the bank card, rendering the whole space basically black. And cheques done the same.
She reasoned, she was unique - no one would attempt to copy her signature.
Completely hatstand ...
Scott expressed precisely :
Then there is a copy of my signature on my driving licence.
Would that comply with bank rules?
Signing is perfectly valid, but if it turns out to be a stolen card, the retailer bears the cost, while with chip and pin, the bank does.
There are also chip and signature cards that do not require a pin - for people with health problems that make remembering a pin difficult.
Yes, pre-printed signatures would make sense.
SteveW
No. In loss of power, computer facilities or card network problems, shops just demand cash only. They don't even keep the old rip-rap machines.
SteveW
Long ago I remember a newspaper article where the person authorised to sign cheques for a company involved in arms manufacture signed them with a doodle of a tank - the bank didn't like it, but in the end had to accept that it was a valid signature.
SteveW
Like passports?
Oh, yes, they do. I used one last week.
Some do.
I am very surprised - most places seem to just go cash only until the system is back up and without that system, the retailer takes the hit if the payment is dodgy.
SteveW
There is a well known small tool supplier for various hobbies such as model railways who has quite a large stand at many shows who still uses the old system of the imprinter machine for card payments. They have a large number of staff so the delay isn?t too much but they take your card to the imprinter and then bring the paper forms for you to sign on A4 sized boards with a ballpoint attached by a piece of string. It seems strange in this age and they seem to do it even when adjoining traders are having no trouble with chip and pin terminals using a cell phone network .
And this firm still sells the equipment so presumably there is a market.
GH
Very many years ago I had a credit card with my photo and signature embedded in the middle layer of the card (I think it may have been N&P???). This was well before chip and pin and and point of sale card readers so retail staff were expected to check your signature.
The signature looked a tiny bit pixelated as it had been scanned at too low a resolution but it was more than a fair representation of my signature and probably a lot better than I achieve trying to fit my signature on that small strip on the back of my cards.
The company also paid a good rate of interest for amounts that you were in credit (overpaying the statement bill).
When the card side of the business was taken over by one of the bigger players both the paying of interest and the printed photo/signature ceased very quickly with the issue of new cards.
I just lean on it a bit with a biro and it seems to take. I've also tried ball-rollers (less successful) and what looks like a medium-tipped permanent marker (a bit blurry).
When I closed a building society account recently I presented the pass-book and bank card to the teller. I realised I'd forgotten to sign the card but he obviously wasn't bothered.
I have to do mine so seldom these days that it can vary quite a bit.
Chris
I used one at a farmers' market, where there was no network coverage. I have been asked to sign in Denmark.
And driving licences, as I mentioned previously.
Are you sure about this? I would expect that if emergency procedures are invoked because of a failure on the part of the bank, the bank would then carry the risk. I know someone in Europe's largest credit card issuer (if they still are) so will try to find out.
Many shops just shut if they lose the POS system, they simply can't function without it. Nothing has a price on these days, I guess they could operate as shops used to, you go to the counter ask for what you want, staff member goes and collects it, makes note of price from shelf edge along with items barcode, manually adds up the cost.
They'd need the manual record of every sold items barcode to feed into the POS system when it's back up so the automatic JIT orders and deliveries are made. Though I suspect the "manual adding up" would present more of a challange, even with a calculator on a phone...
Smaller stores not reliant on POS systems and with priced goods might have it buried away in the back of a filing cabinet a stock of slips might be more of an issue. That and having to explain what a clickclack machine is to anyone under what 30?
Back when my wife was in her late teens, she used to have a summer job in a supermarket. When they were on the tills, they were expected to know the price of every item in the shop and there was no use of barcodes.
SteveW
They probably didn't have 5000-10000 items to remember then.
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