Anonymous

London

unemployed

I worked in Iceland a few years ago and all the debit/credit cards there have a coloured photo on. They check the photo not the signature.

Icelandic bank cards are also used as a form of official ID. The cards have your date of birth on them, your ID number aswell as the coloured photo. Therefore if you lose your bank card then you have lost your official ID which means you cannot things varying from the very official like interact with government departments to hire videos.

I have a Royal Bank of Scotland card and this has a black and white photo on it. The vast majority of shops I go into only check my photo properly not my actual signature. Shop assistents have actually said to me many times that having my photo on my card makes their life easier.

Having worked in a shop myself you are aware that you have to allow for a slight variation on the signature that someone signs on the card to what they sign on the receipt. This means it's very hard to work out if the card is stolen, and most stolen cards that are uncovered are due to the shop assistent's gut instinct.