<p>My parents used to give me their card every week to buy gas. Fianc</p>
<p>I can see how anyone can use card to buy gas, since they are mostly self serve. More and more merchants have been asking to see ID and my license these days. I think its fine and have no objections, although it takes SLIGHTLY longer.</p>
<p>When I use the credit card to buy gas, the machine will always ask me to enter my zip code in the transaction.</p>
<p>Is this the case everywhere in US now? I have been living in two states recently. I need to enter the zip code at both places. I do not think I needed to do this several decades ago, if I remember it correctly.</p>
<p>I would hope the procedure would not be the same as several decades ago…</p>
<p>When I have pumped gas using a credit card, zip code was required.</p>
<p>We have done the zip code thing for as long as I can remember. Years and years.</p>
<p>You always have to put in a zip code where I live in MI. I used to have to go inside to pay with my parents card, though… Can’t remember why. There was a time when not all the pumps could be paid outside. </p>
<p>When I worked at borders seven years ago they taught me if the card was signed I didn’t have to ask for ID, if it wasn’t I did. I cheated and only asked if people looked like they were already reaching for ID. People used to get SO MAD, some if I asked, some if I didn’t, you couldn’t win.</p>
<p>“I haven’t even signed my card because I WANT to be asked for ID, but most people don’t ask.”</p>
<p>No! If you don’t sign the card and it’s stolen, the thief will put her own signature there!</p>
<p>If you want to be asked for ID, then write in the signature box “Please ask me to show photo ID” or something to that effect. That way, they will ask you, you can show it - or if you’re in the mood, you can gently chastise those who clearly aren’t looking to compare signatures.</p>
<p>Mcat - we have had that here in Illinois for years. </p>
<p>What used to happen was that if someone stole a credit card, they’d get all their buddies to meet at the gas station and pass the card around and fill up multiple cars within a few minutes time, hopefully before the theft was discovered and the card canceled. Now if they don’t have your zip code, they are foiled.</p>
<p>The gas station nearest us requires a zip code. That’s the only one I frequent that does, though.</p>
<p>Clerks hardly ever ask for ID here. But when I travel other places, they do.</p>
<p>My mom has a credit card with her photo on it. She didn’t sign the back on purpose, so no one could steal her signature. When clerks ask to see her ID, she gets annoyed since it’s obvious it’s her by looking at the photo.</p>
<p>But that makes no sense! If you sign, then the thief has to try to at least match your signature. If you don’t sign, then the thief signs themselves and it always matches!</p>
<p>I’m also puzzled; when did this not signing your credit cards idea begin? If you don’t sign you will be totally screwed if someone steals it.</p>
<p>Sales associates are trained to not accept an unsigned card but with the automatic swipe machines it would be easy to go for years without anyone knowing it’s unsigned so what on earth is the point?</p>
<p>I started doing it because I had dozens of people do it when I was working as a cashier and it forced me to ask them for ID since that was company policy at the time, though I’ve since learned it makes no difference regardless which is why I still haven’t bothered to sign it. I am really not convinced it makes you any safer OR any more endangered. Nobody cares one iota if it is signed anyway. Someone could steal it and sign their name or keep using it unsigned, if somebody steals it I am completely screwed regardless. How do you expect it to protect you? We have just been discussing how nobody even checks the name on the card, do you think they bother to check your signatures against each other? Or that they would really fight it if they didn’t match? I sign my name differently every time anyway.</p>
<p>When someone took all those cards out in my fiance’s name one of the ways I was able to convince the one really stubborn bank that the account wasn’t his was by sending a copy of his drivers license to show the signature on the card they had didn’t match my fiance’s very unique signature. I am glad the thief didn’t know what his real signature looked like.</p>
<p>You know those signature pads don’t much care what you put in the box don’t you? In my experience scribbling anything is accepted.</p>
<p>“Sales associates are trained to not accept an unsigned card but with the automatic swipe machines it would be easy to go for years without anyone knowing it’s unsigned so what on earth is the point?”</p>
<p>I always sign my cards just because they say on the back to sign them but I never really thought much about it. However, I did use an unsigned card once at the Post Office and was asked to sign it right there. I don’t see how signing or not signing makes much difference. The customer signatures on those key pad things are unreadable, anyway. Even mine rarely looks anything like my actual signature.</p>
<p>You at least might have a fighting chance if your card is signed and a thief tries to mimic your signature. But you won’t have any chance if it’s unsigned and the thief signs it himself.</p>
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<p>I don’t think that matters. As far as I understand it, there are things people do with their writing that create a unique signature, even if they have to sign on one of those electronic thingies, with a broken finger, etc. It’s not how it looks as much as how it is created, if that makes sense.</p>
<p>I found this on the website of a manufacturer of these pads, so take it for what it’s worth…</p>
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</p>
<p>[Wacom</a> Spotlights Electronic Handwritten Signature Pad Solutions at BAI Retail Delivery 2013 - WSAV: News, Weather, and Sports for Savannah, GA](<a href=“http://www.wsav.com/story/23827476/wacom-spotlights-electronic-handwritten-signature-pad-solutions-at-bai-retail-delivery-2013]Wacom”>http://www.wsav.com/story/23827476/wacom-spotlights-electronic-handwritten-signature-pad-solutions-at-bai-retail-delivery-2013)</p>
<p>Zip code has been required at gas pumps for quite a few years in all the states I lived in and rented cars from.</p>
<p>I just asked my wife about the zip code thing at the gas pump. She says it is always required. How I could manage to not remember this worries me.</p>
<p>I think it was because we preferred to pay by cash when we were young. I remember that we could pump the gas first and then went into the gas station to pay it later in the town we lived back then. Later, we were required to pay first before filling it up. It’s so inconvenient that we started to use the credit card to pay for the gas.</p>
<p>DS is now close to the age when we first owned our car back then. It seems his preference is to avoid using his credit card. (he has two credit cards, one of them solely in his name. Both are with a quite high limit) unless he definitely has to use it. He also does not want to own his own car, until he definitely has to. His choice. He could be quite stubborn sometimes. (An example was a recent incidence: He does not want to replace his running shoes even though there is a hole on it. It could be not safe when he’s jogging when wearing that kind of shoes on a potentially icy/snowy road.)</p>
<p>The zip code at the gas pump is a relatively new thing in Texas, and still very spotty. I have to put in my zip code very rarely. It’s more common when in Dallas or Ft. Worth, and virtually unheard of in other areas. At gas stations near our lake house in west Texas, they don’t even have the accordion like attachment around the gas pump which is supposed to contain the fumes. Very old school; you are happy if they have the pay at the pump option. :)</p>
<p>It doesn’t matter a bit what you sign on the electronic pad! Try “Minnie Mouse”, “Martha Washington” or " Petunia Pig"- anything will go through!</p>