Mastercard has announced that after April 2018 they will no longer require signatures at checkout for any credit or debit purchase in the U.S. and Canada. They claim that currently over 80% of in store transactions in North America already do not require a signature at check out. Mastercard is the first credit card payment network to announce a plan to phase out the signature requirement. I classify the signature requirement as security theater, it makes people feel safe but does little to actually prevent fraud. You don’t have to believe me:
“Signature is worthless as a form of authentication,” – Walmart senior VP and assistant treasurer Mike Cook
Even if I sign as complete scribble it’s rare for the purchase to be declined. The next logical step would be to require a PIN be used, as this has been proven to reduce fraud rates along with the EMV chip requirement.
View Comments (37)
Throw me an extra 0.5% rebate and I'll tap in a PIN all day long.
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This won't even be news to most people. I don't think anyone will start using a MasterCard more because they don't need to sign. Most transactions don't require a signature anyways, I think it's under $25 or something, which is most people's POS transactions. I think a chip and PIN would be more annoying and take longer. God knows why it takes so long when I stick it in there and now I have to do a PIN? I don't really care one way or the other because another 4 seconds of my life is no big deal, BUT these are the things the average Joe gets really pissed about.
This will be so much better in Europe. It is such a hastle to sign. Usually I have to use debit at machines because there is no signature options. Also, supposedly Mastercard has better foreign transaction fees but all my foreign transaction fee free cards are Visa.
What's a good Mastercard with no foreign transaction fees?
This is getting worse, I don't really care if they said signature is worthless, but it would hold them off at checkout. Now they can just run faster :D.
My mom have a Discover card and they just send the new card with everything printed at the back, all in one place. How convenient for the fraudsters to take a picture and use it. It make the card look nicer in the front as there is no name. Maybe these CEO don't know how massive it is a fraud and scam in Asia compare to the US as more and more people traveling over there now.
Only issue I see with pin is that issuers tend to wipe their hands clean of any responsibility regarding fraud when it's charged via pin.....
I seriously hope they make it a chip and pin card instead.
No signature, no pin. Yup. This will be a fun card to use outside of USA.
As a consultant who implements retail systems - I can say that there usually isn't any verification of the signature scribbled on the pin pad.
Eliminating the signature requirement is a good idea because, as folks say, it's currently just a joke. I do wonder why our chip credit card transactions in the USA are slower than in other countries (and significantly slower than the old system where you slid your card through the reader).
It's a no-brainer to go to chip and pin, and I'm skeptical that people would ditch their credit cards just because they had to punch in 4 numbers. It's often weird overseas when I'm the only customer who doesn't have a pin and has to sign. I try to remember to stick a pen in my pocket so the clerk doesn't have to go look for one.
Should be interesting to see how service industries respond to this change when it comes to tipping. Will we finally include tipping in the prices like Danny Meyer (Shake Shack founder) has been pushing in his restaurants or will we finally get card readers at the table like Canada and Europe? Or will we keep the same process but without a signature?