My cards don't even have signatures on the back. A few places have checked for it, said I need to sign the back, I said, "that's nice." -- But for the most part, places don't check the back of the card.
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Mastercard, Discover and Amex Ending Signature Requirement for Purchases Tomorrow, Visa to Follow Later This Month
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I don't get this... Contactless payment (where you tap to pay) is limited to £30 and every 10 or so payments, a PIN is requested for security purposes.
So what you are saying in the US, is that a cloned card can be used with no signature? Or a stolen card can just be used with no comeback on the thief, for any amount of money? Not sure about that one.
Maybe it means - for cards that have chips / Apple Pay. / Google Pay etc - a signature is no longer required. Standard mag cards still need one?
......and to think they own nuclear weapons..........
WalMart Pay is an example of a QR-based payment solution. It’s goofy and REALLY slow as you have to open the app, wait for it to load the store info, authenticate with WalMart pay, and then scan the code. Really awful workflow.
https://www.walmart.com/cp/walmart-pay/3205993
They claim it’s faster than reaching for your wallet. BS. It’s just as slow as reaching for your wallet and your wallet doesn’t require the extra steps!
Better solutions are already here. Time to consolidate, simplify, and make more secure/efficient.
The US has absolutely 0 security when it comes to using credit cards. We have no pin number like you do. We sometimes are forced to scribble some unreadable "signature" but nobody ever tries to verify it (and doing so would be impossible since few are capable of actually recreating their real signature on a crappy electronic screen with a fake pen). I don't remember the last time someone looked at the back of my credit card to verify the signature. It's been maybe 20 years since someone did that to me.
The whole chip thing over here was only about preventing hackers from gaining tons of credit card numbers by hacking store databases and whatnot. It had nothing to do with preventing a thief from using a stolen credit card.
I believe the banks fought the inclusion of PIN numbers since they thought there would be a significant number of Americans that wouldn't be able to remember the 4 digit number (probably a fair assumption) and including it would cause delays, loss of sales and bewilderment among the sheepeople.
I'm so glad the signature is finally going away since it was totally worthless anyway. I've been signing with an "X" for I can't remember how long and nobody cares.
I always wondered what the real reason for the Second Amendment was. You really do need to be armed to protect your plastic in the US!
The original purpose of a signature was to determine who had to eat the charges on a fraudulent charge. If there was a signature (even if it didn't match the card) the bank had to absorb the cost. If there was no signature then the merchant had to.
The belief was that if the merchant was at least checking, then there would be less fraud.
But as more and more transactions happened where there was no way to obtain a signature (called card-not-present transactions) it became more difficult to prevent fraud and so things like the 3-digit code were developed or requiring you to know the billing zipcode.
Also, places like Starbucks decided that it wasn't worth the hassle of keeping all those little slips of paper to catch a few $5 frauds, and those things started us down the path.
Here is an interesting quote; "Remember, this is really just an accounting game. And as long as they can produce something that shows they have a signature, that they made an effort to verify the authenticity of the cardholder, they can push the expense back at the bank. So, those electronic-signature readers, which, as you point out, do virtually nothing to prove that that's really you with the card, all they're doing is saying, bank, this is your problem."
It appears that banks now realize that the added hassle of requiring signatures outweighs any protection that they were getting, especially with bio-activated contactless payments and chips, etc.
The belief was that if the merchant was at least checking, then there would be less fraud.
But as more and more transactions happened where there was no way to obtain a signature (called card-not-present transactions) it became more difficult to prevent fraud and so things like the 3-digit code were developed or requiring you to know the billing zipcode.
Also, places like Starbucks decided that it wasn't worth the hassle of keeping all those little slips of paper to catch a few $5 frauds, and those things started us down the path.
Here is an interesting quote; "Remember, this is really just an accounting game. And as long as they can produce something that shows they have a signature, that they made an effort to verify the authenticity of the cardholder, they can push the expense back at the bank. So, those electronic-signature readers, which, as you point out, do virtually nothing to prove that that's really you with the card, all they're doing is saying, bank, this is your problem."
It appears that banks now realize that the added hassle of requiring signatures outweighs any protection that they were getting, especially with bio-activated contactless payments and chips, etc.
Weird when I was in Miami last year everyone told me nah this isn’t working here or this is disabled here
Yeah, that is indeed the real reason. I always found that funny because virtually every American carrying a credit card in their wallet also has a debit card... with a pin number that they are capable of remembering. Oh boy how I love our country, lol.
Is this related to how when uyou use Apple Pay, then you always have to select credit or debit? Everywhere I go I have to do this. The unveiling video made it seem
like that was a thing of the past.
like that was a thing of the past.
There is literally no point to using a PIN in the USA. The card owner is not liable for any fraudulent charges, and card transactions have been processed in real time for decades, so any stolen card is just disabled by the bank, making the card immediately useless, and then the bank mails you a new card. The banks also automatically flag any unusual transactions. The only thing the PIN does is make it harder to detect and prove fraud if the thief steals your PIN as well.
So if you lose your credit card and don't block it the same second you can be properly screwed? I mean, sure, no-one looked at the signature, but this is really strange solution.
How do we stop water from leaking into the boat? We fill the boat with water!
When Apple Pay was first released, that option to choose debit or credit never appeared, but over the past year, I’ve seen it much more often.
Yeah, just make everything FREE while you're at it too and then you won't need any card or phone.
The contactless systems ARE unified for REAL non-smart phone devices (e.g. my new card has it built-in; I don't need any stinking smart phone to use it, just a piece of metal in the wallet pocket to protect it from being read arbitrarily). The point is you don't use Apple Pay. You use a real credit card. Problem solved. It supports an App to use your iPhone or Android if you don't want to carry the actual card or use it with ApplePay, etc. as well.
They SHOULD require a PIN like in Europe, however. That's 100x better than a signature for security. A thief can still steal your card, but they won't know your pin and so they will be caught immediately when they try to use it. No pin = no security for stolen cards beyond you reporting it stolen. Signatures were worthless because no one checks them against the card and even IF they went to signature recognition, most of those digital pens are CRAP. You can't sign the same as a real pen most of the time so it wouldn't match anyway.
Until you can contact the bank to tell them it's stolen (or their fraud "detection" software THINKS it's stolen), the card will happily give freebies all day long to the thieves. The PIN stops this (and it's not so easy to get someone's pin). The fraud detection software SUCKS too. All it takes is a vending machine registered to a different state for the card reader next to one for where you're at. I've seen this first hand. It thinks you're charging from two different states at the same time and immediately disables your card. I dealt with one bank THREE TIMES in two days because they kept saying they fixed it and then admitted they can't circumvent their own stupid software to make it understand what's going on (another bank's card figured it out). Imagine if we went completely "cashless" and your "card" got cut up/disabled based on some bogus stupid software's fraud routine like this. The sheer FRUSTRATION at having to spend 15-20 minutes on the phone with some "supervisor" to straighten out a $1.50 apple pie all the time. It's just easier to use cash for some things.
This article isn't entirely accurate. VISA has about 75% of the market. And while the other big card brands are removing the requirement altogether, VISA is not. Signatures will only be optional of the merchant is able to take EMV payments.
So, for merchants that do not have a solution for EMV will still be required to capture the signature for VISA transactions. And since that is about 75% of their customers, it will likely be ALL customers of theirs until they have EMV enabled.
http://visacorporate.tumblr.com/post/169621606538/visa-makes-signature-optional-for-emv-merchants-in
So, for merchants that do not have a solution for EMV will still be required to capture the signature for VISA transactions. And since that is about 75% of their customers, it will likely be ALL customers of theirs until they have EMV enabled.
http://visacorporate.tumblr.com/post/169621606538/visa-makes-signature-optional-for-emv-merchants-in
I had a card where I entered, "ask for photo id" where the signature was, In all the years I had that card, NOT ONCE did I ever get asked for my photo id.
No. If your card is lost or stolen, you and notify the bank within 48 hours, your maximum liability for fraudulent use is $50. If your card number is stolen (a much larger problem, in my experience), you are not liable for any fraudulent use.
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A friend uses this method, and when I was with him, he was actually asked.
I always noticed when visiting the US that no one checked the signature on my card. Even for large purchases.
I remember when PIN came out in the UK I was at university still so over 20 years ago - feels so long in fact I don’t really recall ever signing for things !
Tap and go is my favourite though - love this [with Apple Pay too].
BTW someone mentioned visa are still requiring signatures in the US above, but here NFC chips are going into reusable coffee cups for contatless pay [all thanks to Visa.....]
Odd what goes on around the world with the same company.
I remember when PIN came out in the UK I was at university still so over 20 years ago - feels so long in fact I don’t really recall ever signing for things !
Tap and go is my favourite though - love this [with Apple Pay too].
BTW someone mentioned visa are still requiring signatures in the US above, but here NFC chips are going into reusable coffee cups for contatless pay [all thanks to Visa.....]
Odd what goes on around the world with the same company.
Of course there is, why would you say that? I used it today at drugstore with Visa card. Works on Samsung phones also, unless you mean something different.