From large retailers to small liquor stores, occasionally a merchant will ask for identification when you’re using your credit card.

Well, for those that don’t know it, this practice is against VISA, MasterCard and American Express policies (I’m assuming Discover Card too). While a merchant can ask for your ID all they want, they should not refuse to complete the transaction if you refuse to show your ID.

When a merchant suspect fraud, among other things, they should check and compare the signature on the sale receipt to the signature on the back of the credit card. If they suspect fraud, they should call the card issuer. You should note that your credit card is not valid unless you’ve signed the card. “See ID” is actually not a valid signature, and some merchants will not complete the transaction unless you’ve signed the back of your card.

For some reason, this topic is always something that cause a lot of beef among people.

On one hand, you have merchants that refuse to complete a transaction until they see some form of identification, and on the other hand you have customers that are strongly against showing their identification. And even more, you have some customers that hates it when merchants don’t check ID.

Some people don’t like to show their ID because they don’t want to disclose unnecessary personal information.

Me, I don’t mind so much. I try not to be a hardass about it. When I’m lazy to pull out the ID, I’ll say no. Most of the time they’ll complete the transaction anyway (because they’re suppose to). If they say something about it, I mention that it’s against the policy and that would be the end of that. Occasionally I’ll show the ID just to get on my merry way. Most of the time, I’m not too worry about a shady employee memorizing my name, address, and other info within a quick glance.

Not really sure why people get so worked up over this though. Take what I read over at Fatwallet’s forum for example, where a person walked out of a supermarket with a cart full of grocery because the cashier refused to complete the transaction until they see an ID. Talk about spending a lot of time to prove a point.

Personally I think if everyone would just follow the rules, this wouldn’t be an issue at all.