Is it okay for merchants to collect personal data from its customers? When is data collection become too much for comfort? A merchant can indeed collect personal data from a customer if the credit card is used by the owner as a kind of deposit or as a cash advance. In certain circumstances, the personal data can be collected incidentally but related to the credit card use. One example might be the need to get the address where that product purchased will be shipped.

When paying via credit cards

A merchant can also ask a customer who purchases goods or services by using his credit card to provide proofs of identification such as a driver license or State ID. If such identifications are unavailable, then any other form of ID with a photograph can be requested by the merchant from the customer. However, it is not legal for the merchant to write or take any data or information from such documents.

Likewise, a merchant may record the driver's license number of the card owner as well as the number of ID card on the form of the transaction if the card owner pays with his credit card but was not able to provide it. To cite a clear example is when you are at a store and forget your credit but needed the charge an item to your account.

If the customer owns a credit card from companies such as VISA and MasterCard, then they would not have so much hassle of data collection from merchants as they are not allowed by these card companies to require them to provide additional personal data when utilizing their signed credit cards.

Customers using checks

A merchant can request and even record the card number of a customer who is paying in check if the check is utilized as a kind of deposit or a form of payment on the card account. The merchant may also request for the number of the credit card if the check is solely used to obtain any amount of cash.

However, there are also instances when personal data cannot request and collect by merchants on customers paying through check. A merchant who accept a check for payment cannot ask the customer to provide his card or even record the number of the card. He cannot request the customer to sign any statement of agreement allowing the credit card of the customer to be charged of the check amount in case of a bouncing check. Also, the merchant cannot communicate with the card issuer to inquire if the credit amount available to the customer can cover the check amount.