TomR wrote:

But, I also hate to admit that I am also thinking of just caving in
on the store card game. I think (but I am not sure) that I can give
them all the same phone number and some innocuous mostly bogus
personal info and never carry one of their stupid cards. Instead, I
see people just giving their phone number and saying they don't have
their card with them. I happen to have a separate low-cost phone
line that I can use for that, and its a line that I never actually
answer and mostly just use for outgoing calls.

If you give them a real phone #, they've got you identified. If you ever pay
with plastic, they've got you.