Protect Your Credit Cards From Retail Practices

Every time you write a check and the sales clerk writes your credit card number on it as identification, you are subjecting yourself to possible fraud. And every time a sales clerk writes your home phone or address on the sales slip when you use your credit card, you are leaving yourself open to an invasion of privacy.

Several states, consumer groups and retailers are moving to make these practices unnecessary or illegal.

If you’re like most people, you probably have not thought much about giving your credit card number whenever you buy something by check. It’s needed for identification or in case your check bounces, you’ve probably reasoned.

But to the extent that your check now contains your name, address, home phone number and credit card number, it could be used by an unscrupulous person to apply for credit in your name.

“It’s very common in department stores to give a person instant credit merely after presenting an existing credit card or a credit card number,” says Elgie Holstein, executive director of Bankcard Holders of America, a consumer group. Thus, anybody with a copy of your check could apply for credit at a store under your name, go on a shopping spree and leave you with the bill.

“By the time this misrepresentation is detected, a consumer’s credit history may have suffered severe damage,” says California Assemblyman Rusty Areias (D-Los Banos), who has introduced a bill in the state Legislature to ban the practice of writing a credit card number on a check.

And, as it turns out, there is really no justification for a retailer to write your credit card number on your check, Holstein and Areias say. That is because credit card firms such as Visa and MasterCard prohibit retailers from charging purchases to a credit card to cover a bounced check.

Accordingly, several states, including Maine and Iowa, have passed legislation banning retailers from requiring a credit card as identification before accepting a check. Areias’ bill, modeled after those other laws, is given a good chance of passage.

Meanwhile, some retailers--including some stores in the Bloomingdale’s and Limited Inc. chains--no longer require clerks to write credit card numbers on checks, Holstein says.

Another practice that has also peeved consumer groups and some lawmakers is retailers asking for and writing down your telephone number or address on a credit card sales slip when you use plastic to buy goods or services.

Retailers claim that they need this information as protection in case the sales clerk doesn’t get a clear imprint from the card on the sales slip. If that happens, the store likely will lose the revenue from the sale because it won’t be able to bill you.

“But we don’t want our privacy invaded just because a clerk makes a mistake,” Holstein says.

Holstein argues that in many cases, protection against bad imprints is not the real reason merchants want that information anyway. As it turns out, he says, many retailers collect addresses and phone numbers of customers and sell them to direct-mail specialists or use them for in-house marketing purposes. You could find yourself getting a slew of unwelcome junk catalogues or phone calls from fast-talking salespeople.

“The heart of this problem is that the credit card has become a form of national ID card . . . used in ways for which they were never intended and which in some cases are specifically prohibited by credit card companies,” Holstein says.

Holstein notes that Visa, MasterCard and American Express ban merchants who accept their cards from refusing a sale to a customer solely because that consumer declines to provide a home phone number or other personal information.

Also, you must provide your address and home phone to the card issuer when you apply for credit, so there really is no need for the retailer to request this information, Holstein argues. And if the merchant follows proper procedures, it should be guaranteed payment by the card company anyway.

Areias also has introduced legislation that would ban this practice in California, modeled after legislation in New York.

HOW TO DEAL WITH RETAILER RULES What recourse do you have if a sales clerk insists on writing your credit card number on your personal check, or your phone number on a credit card sales slip?

The Bankcard Holders of America offers the following tips:

* Talk it over. Ask the clerk--or the store manager--why the store requires this unnecessary information. Explain your rights and explain how they are subjecting you to potential fraud or an invasion of your privacy.

* Suggest a compromise. If all the store really wants is backup ID, suggest that the clerk write on your check the expiration date of your credit card--but not the card number itself--as verification that you presented a credit card.

* Get a Consumer Action Card. This card, along with a pamphlet, outlines your rights and can be presented to a clerk at time of purchase. It’s available for $1 from the Bankcard Holders of America, 560 Herndon Parkway, Suite 120, Herndon, Va. 22070.

* Complain. Report the store by writing to Visa, MasterCard or American Express.

“When people stand up for their rights, in most cases the managers will waive the policy,” says Elgie Holstein of Bankcard Holders of America, noting that some 50,000 people have already written to request his group’s Consumer Action Card. Merchants, he notes, once were hesitant to give consumers the carbons from credit card sales slips--until enough consumers complained.