Saturday, October 13, 2007

Tip of the Week - have your photo ID handy

A strange thing happened to me today at Yorkdale. I went to the customer service desk to purchase a gift certificate. The customer service person told me I’d need to show her photo ID if I was planning to use my VISA card.

It was the first time I’ve been asked for photo ID when using a credit card in Canada before (I’ve been asked in the U.S.). I was uncomfortable due to privacy concerns. The woman at the customer service desk told me she has to present hers whenever she shops at Coach (since when does working as a customer service rep at a mall pay so well?) and Icon wouldn’t let her buy a purse using her credit card because she didn’t have photo ID at the time.

I can understand retailers’ concerns about credit card theft and fraud but I can’t believe they’d turn down a sale if a customer wanting to pay by credit card didn’t have photo ID.

Bottom line: if you want to make sure you can use your credit card the next time you shop, take a piece of photo ID just in case.

Technorati tags: credit cards, photo ID, Yorkdale

7 comments:

  1. If you don't mind my asking, was the purchase one with a hefty price tag, eg. over a thousand or two? I don't mind this as a protection to card holders. I have never had it happen to me though. I find no one even looks at signatures any more and my last name is so long I have given up on signing anything past the second "r".

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  2. I don't mind at all. I bought a $25 gift certificate. I don't think that would qualify as a high-ticket item.

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  3. I'm surprised by this - As long as they don't start taking down details from my ID, I think I would be ok. If they started to take down information, thats when I think I would walk away - but showing it wouldn't bother me. But it would surprise me!

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  4. Since I wrote this post, seems the trend is growing. I made two restaurant reservations at different places this week and both times I was asked for my credit card number. I declined. Fortunately, they wanted my business more than my VISA number. ;)

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  5. Thought of this post when I was in Washington D.C last week ... every time I used my credit card, I was asked for photo ID. Didn't matter what the amount was.

    I don't look much like my driver's licence photo :)

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  6. It is a violation of the store's merchant agreement with the credit card company to require you to show ID with your credit card. Report the merchant who requires ID to Visa at 1-800-VISA-911 or Mastercard at 1-800-300-3069 or http://www.mastercard.com/contactus/contactus_mv.html

    http://merchants.visa.com/accepting/pdfs/Card_Acceptance_and_Chargeback_Guidelines.pdf :
    “Although Visa Rules do not preclude merchants from asking for cardholder ID, merchants cannot make an ID a condition of acceptance. Therefore, merchants cannot refuse to complete a purchase transaction because a cardholder refuses to provide ID. Visa believes merchants should not ask for ID as part of their regular card acceptance procedures.”

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  7. thelowpriceleader, welcome to Bargainista. Thank you very much for sharing those links. I know people will find them valuable. I did.

    ReplyDelete

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