Does having your picture on a credit card help?

Undoubtedly you have seen advertisements from institutions like Bank of America that put a picture of you on your credit card. It is touted as an extra layer of security and will make sure that an observant merchant will not allow someone else to use the card. So, does it work?

The short answer is not really. As a consumer think about how many times a merchant asks to see your card or ID. It’s probably not too many. How many times does a merchant actually physically take a card and swipe it? Not too many and if they do watch them to see if they actually look at the card. They probably don’t. With the new EMV cards the customer dips the card so the merchant never handles it. Now as a merchant how often do you handle a customer’s card? What good is that extra layer of security if it never gets used properly?

Just to be clear we are not talking about the credit cards that allow you to customize a credit card with a personal photo. These open up other security flaws as thieves can garner information about you by just looking at the card.

Now certainly having your photo on the card itself gives it a bit of extra personalization and the consumer may feel more secure in using it. It may be a false sense of security. The POS terminal doesn’t care if there is a picture on the card, it only cares about getting the signature or the correct PIN. The ATM doesn’t care about it as long as the right PIN is entered. Your e-commerce platform does not care about a picture, it only cares that the correct information is entered.

While having your photo on your credit or debit card sounds like a good security feature it is not really doing anything to stop identity thieves. After all if they steal one a computer is not going to stop them from using it and neither is a self-checkout POS terminal that is common with many retailers. There are far too many ways to get around it that it is almost not worth having. Think about it, if it worked wouldn’t others follow Bank of America’s lead on this?