Hi,
I work for a major mail order retailer and on several occasions I have assisted Jewish customers with orders. On these orders women have given me all the product information and I have gone over costs, shipping, delivery, etc. When it is time for them to give me the credit card information, they give the phone to their husbands. Why? I am Jewish myself, Reconstructionist temple, but have no idea why this occurs. I have also done some cursory research about Orthodox sects but still can't find any information. Is there some issue about men handling all the money/finances? In some cases these are clearly women with jobs, so I am very curious. Can anyone assist?

In my house, my wife pays for more things than I do and my father used to engage in the bi-weekly ritual of handing the still sealed paycheck to my mom. I tried that but my wife is as uninterested as I am. I'm sure than in some cultural groups (both Jewish and not) the husband is in charge of the finances and may keep track of which credit card to use. In my neighborhood, I have never heard of such a thing.

Like yourself, I don't come from a Orthodox background. However I can't think of any mitzvot related issues. My guess is that the fiscal family responsibility just happened to be the husband's in these cases. One possibility is that the cards could have the husband's name on it, but the wives are also signers.

I think you are just finding some families where the husband handles the credit card, most likely you will find this happens within any culture group

Thank you for all the quick replies. I understand what all of you are saying, but in the four years I have been doing this, only Jewish husbands have done this. Several of my coworkers have also had the same thing happen. Perhaps this is a practice in the most othodox of households?

Unless you want to say that your clientele is exclusively the most ultra of orthodoxy (and if so, you should increase your client base) then it would be tough to pin this as a Jewish thing. I speak as an orthodox Jewish rabbi when I say this, by the way.

Sorry, Rabbi. I have had many husbands call me to tell me to remove their wives' names from our mailing lists, ie no more catalogs, but I can tell you that this practice, having husbands give credit card info, has only happened with Jewish customers. As it concerns the company's client base, it spans across all socio-economic levels, it is a major mail order company.

Then you haven't called any orthodox communities with which I have ever been affiliated. And by the way, is it standard operating procedure to ask a phone customer his religion?