I get the paranoia about ID theft, I do. And credit fraud, or losing your savings to someone else, I can understand that as well - one of my sisters was wiped out due to card cloning, although unfortunately for the fraudster she had barely enough in her account to cover the cost of his blank card...
However, by not signing your card you are not helping to keep yourself safe - quite the reverse in fact. If you lose that card, I can then sign the back however I please & pass it off as my own! Of course this only works if the card isn't Chip & PIN, but the cards that my system tells me to check for signatures are primarily chip-less anyway. Funnily enough, showing me your ID from another country isn't a foolproof backup plan either, as I have no way of knowing how genuine it is. Just sign your card, like the company tells you to do - many cards have it written on the back that the card is not valid unless signed anyway!
I had one of these from a gentleman earlier and (due to our lack of a common language) his girlfriend explained that he never signed his cards due to the possibility of someone copying it... I explained it as above ("if you lost this & I signed this, I'd be able to use it unchallenged") and he practically rocked on his heels as the stupidity of his chosen course of action finally hit him!
However, by not signing your card you are not helping to keep yourself safe - quite the reverse in fact. If you lose that card, I can then sign the back however I please & pass it off as my own! Of course this only works if the card isn't Chip & PIN, but the cards that my system tells me to check for signatures are primarily chip-less anyway. Funnily enough, showing me your ID from another country isn't a foolproof backup plan either, as I have no way of knowing how genuine it is. Just sign your card, like the company tells you to do - many cards have it written on the back that the card is not valid unless signed anyway!
I had one of these from a gentleman earlier and (due to our lack of a common language) his girlfriend explained that he never signed his cards due to the possibility of someone copying it... I explained it as above ("if you lost this & I signed this, I'd be able to use it unchallenged") and he practically rocked on his heels as the stupidity of his chosen course of action finally hit him!
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