Tip from my father, who switched from cash to almost all credit cards at POS: write "Photo ID Req." in permanent marker in the signature area. And, hey, one time when he sent me in to BBQ joint for some takeout with his card the cashier did look, but I was able to show my ID and make a plausible case for being his eldest son ^_^.
The lesson from your story is that "See ID" doesn't work. Indeed, these are the merchant guidelines from Visa:
> In the US, some customers write “See ID” or “Ask for ID” in the signature panel,
thinking that this is a deterrent against fraud or forgery; that is, if their signature
is not on the card, a fraudster will not be able to forge it. In reality, criminals
often don’t take the time to practice signatures. They use cards as quickly as possible after a theft and prior to the accounts being blocked. They are actually counting on you not to look at the back of the card and compare signatures; they may even have access to counterfeit identification with a signature in their own handwriting. In this situation, follow recommended steps listed above under Unsigned Cards.
It makes even more sense given this guideline, from the same handbook:
> When should you ask a cardholder for an official government ID? [M]erchants cannot make an ID a condition of acceptance. Therefore, merchants cannot as part of their regular
card acceptance procedures refuse to complete a purchase transaction because a cardholder refuses to provide ID.
I struggle to understand the security rationale behind that advice - what is more likely - Thief spends 60-90 seconds practicing the signature on the card, or Thief acquires government ID that matches name on the card.
Regardless - any time I'm making a large purchase (even with a signed card), you can be certain they scrutinize my government ID - I've never seen a retailer who has ever paid attention to the rules that stipulate you cannot make an ID a condition of acceptance.
If it were a meaningful amount of money, it's more likely the criminal would clone the card onto one with their own name on it.
It's purely a branding rationale. For some people, being "grilled like a potential criminal" by a checker would be enough for them to stop using the card or not shop at that store. Either way, it's a negative association between that merchant and that card for that kind of customer. Card networks have fantastic anti-fraud algorithms that are way more reliable than a bored teen checker.
Whenever a checker takes care to examine my credit card I make a point of thanking them for their diligence, as long as its within reason they're doing everyone a favor but the criminals.
I worked retail thru high school and college. Although some people were thankful I'd checked their ID, the majority were annoyed. N=1 and all that, but I imagine this was well-studied by the credit card companies - they're not in the business of losing money.
Problem is the card is not valid unless signed. An attentive merchant will insist on the card being signed. This has only happened to me a couple of times but still.
In California, Singapore, British Columbia - I've never had any problem with having an unsigned card, other than being asked for ID a handful of times.
I know people who do that, and they tell me that most merchants don't actually ask for ID. Which is surprising, since the merchant bears the pain in the case of fraud.
Except the person working the cash register isn't the merchant -- they are an employee, who isn't really worried about their job because they've only been there for a few months, and replaced a previous employee that was there for less than a year.
I guess in 99% of cases they see the transaction is not a fraud.
This is, by the way, the reason software development is hard - if you were to approach this problem the way typical software requirements are defined, you'd only piss the clerks off. In real life, people dynamically adjust their compliance with procedures to run the common case with minimum effort and improvise if something unexpected happens.
Considering at this point the vast majority of my CC usage never requires the card leave my possession, I can't imagine anything the card says being a major impediment.
