Sign! AKA print full name in block letters

[matsuki]

The latest installment of never ending story of "signatures" here...

New responsibility, new expense account, new credit card to go along with it. Things have definitely gotten better in regards to the applications and such but there is always that last 5 or 10% that needs to be handled by snail mail. I got that letter today and, being a credit card, they were asking for my 自署記入and had a handy letter included that it could not actually be a signature（サイン）but a clearly legible,non-stylized (example was kanji) printing of your name. I could be wrong but this is for checking against your signature when you make purchases? (Even though it explicitly states it cannot be a signature?) Of course the back of the most recent cards I have all actually say "ご署名・Signature" but I think this is the first time I remember being asked for 自署記入 in this way when applying for a new card? Seeing as how cashiers don't check ID and most transactions lately ask for your pin or nothing at all, I simply complied as directed but is this going to come back and bite me in the ass somehow when I actually sign for a credit card purchase?

[Taro Toporific]

...is this going to come back and bite me in the ass somehow when I actually sign for a credit card purchase?

Depends.

As as 50-year customer of AMEX, I just call up the AMEX-Japan hotline (in the language of God/Charlton Heston and tell them to do whatever I want. They. Cannot. Say. No.

Ditto for SMBC private banking (PRESTIA)...

On the other hand, the assholes at Mizuho Bank ,where I have been a customer for more than 30 years, just ignore me and bite me in my ample ass all the time.

[Grumpy Gramps]

I have mostly given up on this, just ask "what do you want, a real signature or just my useless name". On a credit card, which I might use in the foreign land, I would likely insist.

I can just imagine that American cashier looking at the back of your credit card and seeing that neatly printed name of yours,
"Yeah right"; she'd think......
"When I hear that whistle blowin, I hang my head and cry", you sing.