What Personal Information am I Required to Give to Merchants When Paying by Credit Card?

You know the situation. You are purchasing an item in a store and you give the sales clerk your credit card. The sales clerk now wants to see your driver’s license to prove that you are you and writes down your DOB and driver’s license number. Do you have to give them that information? After all, the clerk now has your credit card number and with the information on your driver’s license, they probably have enough information to perpetrate an identity theft. 

If asked, you can refuse to provide additional information. If a merchant asks you for information and you refuse, they can not deny you the sale just because you do not want to produce your personal information. (Sorry, if you are under 21, you can’t use this rule to get around producing ID for alcohol purchases…). So, you have every right to just produce your credit card and not produce any further identity. There are a few exceptions (like if your card is unsigned) but this is basically the rule. (See  section 9.11.2 for Mastercard’s policy: http://www.mastercard.com/us/wce/PDF/MERC-Entire_Manual.pdf, and page 29 for Visa’s policy: http://usa.visa.com/download/merchants/rules_for_visa_merchants.pdf

On the other hand, I personally want the merchant to see my ID so that someone can’t use my credit card without further proof. I have signed all my credit cards (ALWAYS sign your cards whether you add this or not), and added “See ID” on the back. While the merchant is not required to comply with my request, to me, as long as they are not writing down the information, I would rather have them see a picture of ME (and not the ID thief) with the comparisons of names. But the choice is up to you!