Signing Credit Card Slips

[StanSoph]

Your are out at the local Borders Books browsing. You find a couple of books to purchase. They get rung up, you hand over the Visa and the clerk puts the slip in front of you to sign. Do you pull out your FP and sign?

[Dan Carmell]

No--if the slip is carbonless paper. Those carbonless slips have a coating that clog the nib very qickly--I won't use even a cheapo pen on this--it is too much work to clean the nib.

 

But I have to admit that in general, I don't use a FP to sign credit card receipts. Too much bother!

 

best, Dan

[Cloud]

I'm not sure there is enough pression when using a FP to actually have something to show threw the paper.

 

http://www.penexchange.de/english/klassike...chschreib.shtml

 

With the following pen, i think it would be no problem to write on carbon copies.

 

http://www.pentrace.net/east/trident/index.html

 

Hehehehe

[Violet]

Wow! Sounds like a great pen. Never seen anything quite like that...thanks for sharing the link with us.

 

Vi

[Roger]

No--if the slip is carbonless paper.  Those carbonless slips have a coating that clog the nib very qickly--I won't use even a cheapo pen on this--it is too much work to clean the nib.

 

But I have to admit that in general, I don't use a FP to sign credit card receipts.  Too much bother!

Same here, Dan. There isa time to put aside our pride and preference and accept the clerk's offering of the Bic!

[sonia_simone]

Yes, thank you! Fascinating!

[Ringtop]

I read on Richard Binder's site somewhere that those infernal thermal paper credit card slips would clog fountain pen nibs, and for me, that's just another reason to despise them. We recently converted to the thermal paper on our cc machines where I work, and the paper has other hateful qualities as well. A dap of butter or syrup renders the printing invisible, and we have a lot of both. I've noticed that the thermal receipts that my post office gives out fade to invisibility within a few months, which makes me wonder how people use receipts like these for tax purposes.

 

A manifold nib, as I understand it, was designed to write effectively on carbon copies. I know you can find this in the Esterbrook line, and surely for some modern fountain pens as well.

 

Ringtop (Vida) --off to write some letters.

[Johnny Appleseed]

Well, I do try to sign them with a fountain pen when it isn't too rude. Since CC slips are such a small portion of my writing I don't find them much of a problem, and it's easy enough to clean out the nib (I don't use a Parker 51 for CCs). Half the time I am carrying a recently restored pen that still needs some nib smoothing anyway.

 

For 2-part carbonless forms, any mildly stiff nib is enough to go through to the second copy, and that is usually the customer copy anyway. A triumph nib or most modern "nails" will do the job.

 

Depending on whose on the other side of the counter it can be a great way to do "outreach" to the non-fp world. I have gotten into conversations with a few people after using an FP to sign, and even made a pen sale that way (in a very cool coffee house. . .)

 

John

[Richard]

As I've said on the page showing what pens I'm carrying, thermal credit card receipts do indeed clog FPs. That's why I have my modernized Eversharp CA in my Piquadro. For the record, however, a good flex nib can overcome the paper's nastiness by depositing sufficient ink to wash out the coating faster than it can accumulate. The resulting signature can also be tattoed (temporarily, of course) in mirror image on the sales clerk's thumb. I do actually warn a clerk when the receipt is wet enough to be messy.

[JimStrutton]

Well I am pleased to report that the advent of Chip & Pin in the UK and much of Europe has done away with the need to sign the damn things anyhow

 

The only time you get asked to sign now is if the machine has gone on the blink and can't read the chip on your card.

 

However, there is a need to remember even more 4 digit numbers than ever What with two credit cards, one personal, one business and two bank debit cards from different banks, I have mental gymnastics everytime I get to buy something

 

I am not a number

 

Jim

[london]

Too right Jim,

 

I also have a flat where the main entry door uses a four digit code. I even had to ring the Mrs once before to remind me what it is!

 

Back to the original question, even though its much less of a requirement in the UK these days. I go with the 'too much bother' answer as well and just accept whatever dodgy biro is thrust at me. Curious how many of them never work though eh?

 

And I am a number apparently, with a very common name in a large organisation, I'm known as Mark Smith 6. And one of the PAs insists on calling me that every time I see her. I'm very good friends with Mark Smith 2 as well, as we have to keep forwarding emails to each other when people get it wrong.

 

- Mark

[Dawn]

I never bother to use a FP either, I grab the bic, sign and go

 

Dawn

[meanwhile]

Slip signing has almost vanished in the UK - we use a chip and PIN system instead (ie you enter a secret number code to confirm purchases). If this hasn't happened in the US yet, I can't imagine it's very far away - another blow for fountain pen liberation!

[Sparky]

I use the FP first.... to make a point that FP's are still around.... so we're not forgotten.

[saintsimon]

The Pilot Custom 742 and 743 lines offer the special PO nib, which is a modern manifold.

 

See Ujuku's japanese online shop

 

The nib choices

 

and the PO manifold nib itself (pic by Ujuku):

http://ujuku.jpn.ph/KAIMONO/pen/5f_12.jpg

Edited August 11, 2006 by saintsimon

[Cloud]

These are the reason why I carry either a rollerball or a ballpoint. First the ink is permanent... Unilke many ink I use in fountain pens, second clogging isn't an issue because we chage the cartridge... and there is less problem with the paper/ink absorbance.

 

(3 reasons for a rollerball/ballpoint)

1- write name on exam

2- sign crdit card receipt

3- when there is no more ink in all the fountain pens I carry for the day.

[Goodwhiskers]

Thermal paper for credit card slips is annoying with FPs, and unfortunately for that one FP usage it's taking over around here. I understand the attraction for merchants and business equipment companies, though: faster, quieter printing; fewer moving parts; and no ink ribbons or ink sponges to replace.

 

If the paper isn't thermal, and if one of my stiffer FPs with Noodler's Black or Luxury Blue is in my shirt pocket, sometimes I use my FP.

 

Wandering off on that interesting (for me) tangent of smart-chip credit/debit cards:

Machines that read them are still rare in the USA and will probably remain rare for several more years. I've seen a few of them around here, mostly at the points of sale of a small handful of large-corporation merchants, but I don't know which functions to expect the machines to provide. The only smart-chip card I carry is the cash card for FedEx Kinko's copy machines. The explanation I've read is that our wireline telephone networks are widespread enough and reliable enough (and enough money has been sunk into their installation!) that most banks, business equipment companies and merchants here are satisfied to keep issuing, providing equipment for and accepting non-smart-chip cards.

 

Back on topic: Usually, it's just faster to use the ballpoint pens the cashiers extend toward me along with the receipts.

[saintsimon]

... The only smart-chip card I carry is the cash card for FedEx Kinko's copy machines. The explanation I've read is that our wireline telephone networks are widespread enough and reliable enough (and enough money has been sunk into their installation!) that most banks, business equipment companies and merchants here are satisfied to keep issuing, providing equipment for and accepting non-smart-chip cards.

 

...

Steve, I believe those explanations given can't be taken seriously. The fixed line and mobile phone networks are quite mature in Western Europe. Credit Card were used without PINs in Europe untill recently, as bank card (mostly with mandatory PINs) readers are ubiquitous anyway.

 

Actually in Germany I never had to use a PIN for any Credit Card untill now. PINs are not yet common in all European countries.

 

As the issuing Credit Card companies are the same around the World (Master Card, Visa, Amex, Diners etc), I think they use some countries as test markets for the introduction of the much safer PIN system to combat fraud , before they roll that out to the huge North American market.

[Goodwhiskers]

Saintsimon: Good points. Perhaps centralization is the difference. Most individual European countries have more physical centralization of telecom and finance systems than the USA has, so would the participation of fewer chiefs in the decisions let technology upgrades happen faster?

[saintsimon]

Saintsimon: Good points. Perhaps centralization is the difference. Most individual European countries have more physical centralization of telecom and finance systems than the USA has, so would the participation of fewer chiefs in the decisions let technology upgrades happen faster?

I think the telecoms a not playing a decisive role here, their lines exist 'anyway'. The financial institutions and the shops are those who have to make investments if PINs are used for credit cards. In smaller countries, simply less folks have to be convinced to invest. With CC fraud, the financial institutions are those who suffer losses, while shops may still get their money, so the later may be reluctant to make investments anywhere in the world.

 

In Germany and other Euopean countries, the CC is not the dominant electronic payment method at points of sale, as the standardized bank cards (formerly 'Euro Cheque' cards, now called 'Maestro' cards) with PINs is the usual way for everybody with a bank account - the PIN infrastructure exists in principle. These bank cards work Europewide for payments or withdrawing cash from machines.

 

The only disadvantage of bank cards is the almost immediate effect on your bank account, while credit cards are charging only once per month. The only places where you really need a credit card here are car rentals, which almost never accept bank cards. On the other hand there are a lot of shops, and even major supermarket chains, which do not accept credit cards.