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I have a new credit card. (The physical object is new; the account is not.) Having called the automated service to activate the card (that's a plausible security thing: it checks that you're calling from the registered home phone number [1], and doesn't take a lot of time or effort), I turned the card over, picked up a ballpoint pen, and signed in the usual place.
After doing so, I realized that my signature was hard to read, and thus to check, because it's blue ballpoint (one of the two standard colors) on a strip that has, for reasons that I am inclined to classify as security theatre, the word "VISA" printed, over and over, in alternating blue and orange [2]. If I'd looked first, I might have used a black pen, which would have made it hard for me to read the three-digit security code, which is printed on that strip in black. The strip itself is long enough for my name (my surname is ten letters long), but anyone signing a name longer than "Kim Oh" or maybe "Pat Lee" is likely to be writing on or below the security code. (A longer first name, or a letter like "t" or "l" in the surname would increase the chance of collision.)
The easy fix for this would have been to move the security code all the way to the right edge of the signature strip. Or to use, say, green and orange if they felt they had to print "VISA VISA VISA" all over the signature strip.
Looking at the card it replaced, and my other credit card, I see that the blue and orange seems standard. The location of the security code is not; my other card does in fact have it flush right.
[1] Yes, there are ways to spoof your outgoing number, but it at least requires a hypothetical thief to know what that number is.
[2] Even if cashiers are still checking signatures, as few do, they're probably not going to be looking for that design (note that cashiers in most places are pressured to check people out as fast as possible), so it doesn't actually prevent a thief from peeling off and replacing the signature strip. It certainly wouldn't be difficult to get a color printer to produce something close enough to fool a casual observer.
After doing so, I realized that my signature was hard to read, and thus to check, because it's blue ballpoint (one of the two standard colors) on a strip that has, for reasons that I am inclined to classify as security theatre, the word "VISA" printed, over and over, in alternating blue and orange [2]. If I'd looked first, I might have used a black pen, which would have made it hard for me to read the three-digit security code, which is printed on that strip in black. The strip itself is long enough for my name (my surname is ten letters long), but anyone signing a name longer than "Kim Oh" or maybe "Pat Lee" is likely to be writing on or below the security code. (A longer first name, or a letter like "t" or "l" in the surname would increase the chance of collision.)
The easy fix for this would have been to move the security code all the way to the right edge of the signature strip. Or to use, say, green and orange if they felt they had to print "VISA VISA VISA" all over the signature strip.
Looking at the card it replaced, and my other credit card, I see that the blue and orange seems standard. The location of the security code is not; my other card does in fact have it flush right.
[1] Yes, there are ways to spoof your outgoing number, but it at least requires a hypothetical thief to know what that number is.
[2] Even if cashiers are still checking signatures, as few do, they're probably not going to be looking for that design (note that cashiers in most places are pressured to check people out as fast as possible), so it doesn't actually prevent a thief from peeling off and replacing the signature strip. It certainly wouldn't be difficult to get a color printer to produce something close enough to fool a casual observer.
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