In 1990, the California legislature passed a law protecting a consumer's privacy when paying by credit card.  This law prevents retailers from collecting personal information on credit card transactions and then using it for their own marketing purposes or selling the data to direct-mail specialists.  Ten years after the law was passed, merchants continue to collect personal information from credit card transactions.

Consumers need to be aware of what information a merchant is and is not allowed to collect when paying by credit card.

A Merchant is NOT Allowed to:

• Write personal information, including your address and telephone number, on the credit card slip.

• Use forms with pre-printed spaces for personal information.

A Merchant is Allowed to:

• Collect personal information for cash advance transactions or when a credit card is used as a deposit for goods or services.

• Collect  personal information when required by contractual obligation or obligated by federal law.

• Collect personal information for an incidental special purpose such as for shipping, delivery, servicing, installation and special orders.

• Ask a consumer to provide reasonable forms of I.D. such as a CA driver's license, CA state I.D. card or other form of photo I.D. (But again, the merchant may not write any information from the I.D. onto the credit card sales slip).

• Record driver's license number or I.D. number IF the cardholder does not show the credit card number to the merchant (e.g., when paying by credit card over the phone).

If you have been asked by a merchant to provide you name and address to be written on a credit card transaction slip or otherwise find a merchant to be using your personal information in a way you find intrusive, you can get more information regarding your rights and remedies by sending an e-mail to CALPIRG.