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Comment by nemeth88 | Hacker News Reader

Credit card signatures are intended to be verified on the spot. That's why the back of the card says it isn't valid until signed. The cashier was originally supposed to compare the signature on the card to the signature made at point of sale to verify the CC holder's identity. https://consumerist.com/2014/07/19/10-answers-to-credit-card...

Of course this doesn't happen, and for good reason too since the signature made on a resistive touchscreen ends up looking nothing like that on the credit card.

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I'm curious though, how does that apply to other people using your card?

For example, my wife wants to use my CC so we asked our CC company what we need to do to add her, to make her a valid signature.

The answer? Nothing. I can have anyone I want use my card. They sign it with anything they want. It's up to me down the road to claim fraudulent charges, and if I do, the person who signed is the one committing fraud.

This was two cards, both Visa cards offered from different companies.

Wouldn't that be at odds with what you've mentioned here?

Merchants shouldn't be accepting other people using your card, no matter their claimed relationship to you.

If you want your wife to be able to use it, you get her added as an Authorized User and she gets a new card with the same number but her name and her signature.

> If you want your wife to be able to use it, you get her added as an Authorized User and she gets a new card with the same number but her name and her signature.

Yea.. but who do we get her added with? Because, as i said, we tried that. We called to get her added, see what we need, etc.

They said nothing. They literally said anyone can use my card, and it's assumed fine until i dispute it later.

So we literally tried to get her added, but couldn't - they said it's not needed, and that was that. This happened for both cards, lol.

CC companies are usually more than happy to issue another card on your account with a different name if you ask.

Also none of my cards are signed because when I do sign them, the ink rubs off after a few days! So I assume the whole signature system is purely ceremonial at this point. Or at the least it's a way to say a human was present with a physical card.

I was told that if that was once the case, it is the case no longer- really the signature is only to verify that someone was there to have made the purchase, to decrease the store's liability if it is a fraudulent charge.

This is why the charge to the card goes through before you have to sign anything. Even on pos systems where you sign on the screen, I get the text message notifying me that my card was charged even before I start to sign on the screen.

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