[General Discussion] Signing credit cards

What exactly is the point of signing a credit card? Maybe it worked 20 years ago, but these days with self checkouts and pay at the pump gas, half the time you don't even show the card to another person.

My favorite are the cashiers like the one I encountered today at the post office: those who demand that you sign your card in front of them. My card is relatively new, but the back is already rubbed out to the point that ink won't stick to it. The woman still demanded that I sign it, so I put a few half hearted squiggles on it. I then sign the receipt, and she tries to compare the signature on the receipt with the one on the credit card, both of which I just signed right in front of her. She never checked my ID (which would have been the logical thing to do if she was trying to stop fraud).

Anyway, what's the point? Many people's signatures look like squiggles anyway, so it would be easy enough to forge them on the spot. Most people's cards get rubbed out after a year or so, so they can't hold a signature. I'd say the majority of places these days make you sign on a screen/touchpad, which often doesn't resemble your signature at all. So what's the point of having a signature on the back of a credit card?

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Sidestepping how stupid it is that merchants are forbidden for asking for ID (and the occasional story from Consumerist from customers outraged that Wal-Mart dares to ask for ID), why don't credit card companies put their customers pictures on the card itself? My credit union does that, and most of the time I hand it to the cashier and they say, "Yep, that's you!". Seems like a simple and more effective way of preventing fraud than a signature.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

True enough, but my bank (M&T) doesn't have pictures on their cards. That's the debit card I use on a daily basis (as a credit card, since I have to pay if I enter a PIN number).

How ya doing, buddy?