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Credit Card Signatures Are About to Become Extinct in the U.S

nytimes.com

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Re: Credit Card Signatures Are About to Become Extinct in the U.S

#171

Post by lopmotr »

u801e wrote: post #158
beedogs wrote: post #147

Heh. In 35 years Americans might finally stop writing checks, too.

I would, but there are certain institutions that don't accept any other form of payment other than check or money order. Even if they do accept a credit card payment, they add a 3% or greater convenience fee to the amount.

Surely you can do internet banking transfer to the recipient's bank? In New Zealand, we didn't used to have many credit cards so that's how you'd pay your bills, buy a house, pay small businesses, or just about anything that can wait a day.

Re: Credit Card Signatures Are About to Become Extinct in the U.S

#172

Post by __david__ »

u801e wrote: post #158
beedogs wrote: post #147

Heh. In 35 years Americans might finally stop writing checks, too.

I would, but there are certain institutions that don't accept any other form of payment other than check or money order. Even if they do accept a credit card payment, they add a 3% or greater convenience fee to the amount.

Do you find any that only take check and have to be paid in a timely fashion (like in a line at a store) to complete a transaction?

Last time I changed banks (about 6 years ago) I decided to experiment and not order any checks. Every person I've encountered who needs a check will wait for them, so I just add them to bill pay and have the bank deal with printing and mailing them a check. So far I haven't run into a situation where I was cursing myself for not having actual physical checks.

Re: Credit Card Signatures Are About to Become Extinct in the U.S

#174

Post by recursive »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #166

For a long time I would put 'see id' on the signature line of the credit card suggesting that if someone where trying to use it the vendor would ask to see identification and that would alert them if it wasn't me using the card. And then it became clear it was trivial to just print a new card and I stopped even caring about the signature. And now a squiggle is all I leave if they insist. So now I find I can get impat…

I haven't signed a credit card in about a decade. I sign the receipts, but not the cards. That's got to be thousands of transactions by now. No one cares.

Re: Credit Card Signatures Are About to Become Extinct in the U.S

#175

Post by zodiakzz »

amyjess wrote: post #120
supertrope wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's the e-equivalent of initialing every page of a contract. The cursive part is funny. Rituals change slowly. People trust moused signatures and fax machine timestamps more than RSA public keys.

If it's DocuSign, they actually let you pick your own font from a list, so you can claim it's "your" handwriting because you chose it. And it's been a while, but I think they let you mouse a signature and initials if you don't like any of the fonts. The funny thing is that for the last few years, I've been trying to make my own handwriting resemble an italic serif font as much as possible, so I actually do write like…

>I never sign anything the same way twice, and my signature is always just a random scribble.

Is that legal? o.O

Re: Credit Card Signatures Are About to Become Extinct in the U.S

#176

Post by stevekemp »

macintux wrote: post #3

Now if we could only eliminate them for everything else. Buying and selling houses is excruciating thanks to the number of signatures required. I went to a closing on behalf of my then-wife who didn’t want to deal with it; because it was her house we were selling, I had to sign all the paperwork on her behalf, which involved a signature plus some additional verbiage. My hand was in pain by the time we were finished.

Funnily enough I sold a house from a foreign country at the end of last year, and while I found the process annoying (there are always problems with buying/selling property), the number of signatures wasn't a problem.

One of the problems I came across was the number of things I had to send through the postal system. Apparently scanned documents (signed) weren't good, and using a fax machine wasn't an option either.

So I had to print forms, sign them, and then mail them - always with tight deadlines. Luckily only one piece of mail was lost en route, and it was skipped in the end.

(I also had to mail back the physical bundle of title-deeds, something I was told previously was all electronic these days. Fascinating documents though, I remember when we paid off the property we received them and there are copies of each sale contract/price details since the place was built in around 1890. First sale was for £400, then the next for £1200, and every 1, 5, 20 years it would sell for more. Went for £162,500 when I sold it. That's a huge jump from the starting price!)

Re: Credit Card Signatures Are About to Become Extinct in the U.S

#177

Post by toephu2 »

Merad wrote: post #53
skookumchuck wrote: post #17

It turns out that a signature on a bank check means nothing. Neither does the payer name on the check. Not the amount in cursive. Nor does the check paper. The only things that are checked are the digits of the amount, and the account number. The rest of the check can be complete garbage, and the check will go through and the bank will pay it. Then the banks will blame you, the account holder. I learned this the hard…

For all intents your checking account is a locker full of money that’s unlocked for the taking. The check is nothing more than an archaic means of conveying your “locker number” to someone else’s bank. I highly recommend keeping your checking account balance as low as you can, and either disable overdraft protection on it or point the overdraft protection to a credit account. The other info on the check isn’t meaning…

Where do you put your non-investment money then?

Re: Credit Card Signatures Are About to Become Extinct in the U.S

#178

Post by justinator »

combatentropy wrote: post #173

"Mikiah Westbrooks, the owner of Brix, a wine bar in Detroit, said she worried that skipping signatures will affect her workers' tips." May tips disappear next.

May a livable wage working an industry job happen right before.

Re: Credit Card Signatures Are About to Become Extinct in the U.S

#179

Post by toephu2 »

sleet wrote: post #42
skookumchuck wrote: post #17

It turns out that a signature on a bank check means nothing. Neither does the payer name on the check. Not the amount in cursive. Nor does the check paper. The only things that are checked are the digits of the amount, and the account number. The rest of the check can be complete garbage, and the check will go through and the bank will pay it. Then the banks will blame you, the account holder. I learned this the hard…

It amazes me that cheques are still used. I'm 36 and I've never issued a cheque, I think I was issued a cheque book with my first account but never used it.

It amazes me that one person thinks the environment they live in is how the entire rest of the world lives too.

Re: Credit Card Signatures Are About to Become Extinct in the U.S

#180

Post by toephu2 »

combatentropy wrote: post #173

"Mikiah Westbrooks, the owner of Brix, a wine bar in Detroit, said she worried that skipping signatures will affect her workers' tips." May tips disappear next.

Yes can we please get rid of tipping and pay waiters and staff what they should be earning? Build the price into the menu and let the market decide the price. Too expensive? You will lose customers. Too cheap? You will have lines out the door and you know you can increase prices.

The rest of the world does not tip (Europe & Asia). Only in North America is this awkward tipping practice still a thing.

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