(MONEY Magazine) – Your April Money Monitor report, "Fully 95% of Merchants Flunk Our Credit-Card Test," brought back some personal memories. I'm not surprised that your reporters were able to use each other's cards -- and even sign one charge slip "Daffy Duck." A few years ago, the bank that handled my Visa account decided to require a photo of the cardholder on the card. My wife received a card with her picture on it, but there was a mix-up and my account was canceled. Before I could straighten out the mistake, I had to take a business trip. I traveled alone all over the country carrying my wife's card with her name and picture on it. I used the card at hotels, in restaurants, in stores. I signed my own name, and never once was I questioned. I would go so far as to say to the clerk: "Isn't this a good picture of me?" Invariably, the clerk would accept the card without comment. The only way to address this problem is to make merchants responsible for checking signatures and the identities of card users. If merchants are at least made to share liability for fraudulent card use they will be more careful, and we will all benefit from lower credit-card costs in the long run. Allan P. Gray Rockville, Md.

Like you, I thought that my signature on charge slips wasn't being checked against my credit card, so I decided to test my suspicion. At six feet, six inches, with red hair, I am easy to distinguish in a crowd, but for a number of years, I have had great fun signing myself as Richard Nixon, Bill Clinton, George Bush, Boris Yeltsin, Michael Jackson, David Letterman, Elvis Presley and even Madonna. I have yet to be questioned. Bill Smith Crested Butte, Colo.

I used to work for a large department store, and I will admit to not checking credit-card signatures. There was every reason not to, from our point of view. ^ Raises were based on sales, and management would do anything for a customer who shouted loud enough. The $5.50-an-hour clerk on the fioor had no reason to invite fiak from anyone. Tracy H. Zoeller Louisville