Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

nytimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

271–280 of 541 posts

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

#271

Post by tialaramex »

Reason077 wrote: post #261
dbetteridge wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Australia, pretty much everyone accepts BPay which is an online direct payment system or direct bank to bank transfers. These both take < 3 business days

Even waiting one day is pretty poor when it comes to funds transfer times, let alone three! It's a significant burden on commerce, businesses, and individuals to be without their funds for that long. And a big win for greedy banks who boost their balance sheets and profits by holding all those "in transit" funds. In the UK, the "Faster" payment system, introduced about 10 years ago, means that the vast majority of ba…

What's fun is that last I looked the banks still didn't have any actual technology to support this feature. The rules they're obeying explain how the feature works for customers, but the implementation is left for them. And so their actual implementation is blind trust, settlement for the transactions happens at the old rate, hours or days later. The balance updates happen instantly for end users, but if any of the banks is engaged in fraud, that won't be detected until it's probably too late.

I expect this seems like a great cost-benefit trade, right up until a multi-billion fraud wipes out one of the banks, and then suddenly they'll be really excited about something better than "cross your fingers" as a resolution mechanic.

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

#272

Post by hellweaver666 »

Hydraulix989 wrote: post #260
azinman2 wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Visit Japan and you’ll hear ATMs play a little tune as they hand you money. The sound design everywhere you go is amazingly and thoughtful. America can be way too brutalist.

The Zojirushi rice cookers also play you a song after they are done making you rice.

My Samsung washing machine plays a little ditty when a wash cycle completes. It's actually kind of annoying! :D

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

#273

Post by billysielu »

This is really about who's responsible if someone else uses your card. The point of chip-and-pin was to shift responsibility for card security to you. If your card is used in a chip-and-pin scenario it must be your fault for not keeping the pin secure. Nearly every chip-and-pin device has a CCTV camera pointed at it, so it's impossible for you to avoid someone seeing your pin.

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

#274

Post by jamiethompson »

alkonaut wrote: post #230

I once saw a cashier compare the signature on the back of the card (There is a little field for "signature" on the back of credit cards) - to the one I signed. When I noticed I hadn't signed my card he said he couldn't accept my purchase, so I had to sign the card first, then he could compare the signature...

In the UK cards still have a signature strip on the back and if a merchant notices you haven't signed your card they legally have to refuse to accept it.

I rarely remember to sign my cards and this tripped me up one time last year when trying to return something to a store which I'd bought online with my credit card.

I had to leave the store, buy a pen, sign the card and re-enter the store.

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

#275

Post by Jolter »

Double_a_92 wrote: post #248
sitepodmatt wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When paying by card you can still stick a few pounds or dollars in the sleeve. Even when CC receipts had the open Tip: ____ line most times I would zero it and leave a cash tip when a tip was in order, off the books, not % skimming to cover merchant fees etc..

> When paying by card you can still stick a few pounds or dollars in the sleeve. That would seem cheesy af to me. Like "Here have some money you poor thing!"

Isn't that what a tip is?

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

#276

Post by hadrien01 »

rollthehard6 wrote: post #244
jimnotgym wrote: post #240

In the UK cards moved to 'chip and pin' in 2006! Fraud in a 'customer present' scenario is very low at our stores. The last fraud in fact was a foreign card that didn't support chip and pin. I can't believe Visa and MasterCard have not made it mandatory world wide... ...except card fraud lossed are recharged to the merchant so perhaps they don't care? Out of interest there is a special exception for disabled people w…

And even earlier in other EU countries I imagine, as I was in Luxembourg in 2001 and used pin to pay in supermnarkets with my UK card.

Yes, I think it was way earlier than 2006. In France, every card in 1995 had chip and pin.

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

#277

Post by glenneroo »

Hydraulix989 wrote: post #260
azinman2 wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Visit Japan and you’ll hear ATMs play a little tune as they hand you money. The sound design everywhere you go is amazingly and thoughtful. America can be way too brutalist.

The Zojirushi rice cookers also play you a song after they are done making you rice.

If we could only get them to work with microwave makers (or recently inductive "portable" single heating plates) in the US/Europe. New microwaves are IMHO the worst, why does every microwave seem to have a different UX? I often end up just picking the least-button-pressing method in lieu of recommended temp/time settings to avoid diving into multiple sub-menus. Am I the only one who can't stand those beeps? The finished repeated triple-beeps are the jarring cherry on top.

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

#278

Post by glenneroo »

beedogs wrote: post #148
sleet wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The American banking system is still basically at the level of the horse and buggy. Inter-bank transfers are next to impossible. Here in Australia, I can just give out my bank account number freely -- the worst you can do to me with that information is send me money.

Likewise in most if not all of Europe.

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

#279

Post by jamiethompson »

marssaxman wrote: post #124
Mindless2112 wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For Visa, the merchant should require your card to be signed because a card with no signature is invalid. Other credit card companies are probably the same. > Unsigned Cards > While checking card security features, you should also make sure that the card is signed. An unsigned card is considered invalid and should not be accepted. If a customer gives you an unsigned card, the following steps must be taken: > • Check…

I stopped signing credit cards several years ago, as an experiment; how long will it take someone to notice? I'm still waiting.

I never do either. It happened to me last year. Possibly only because the guy was a trainee and was literally going by the book though.

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

#280

Post by te_chris »

gst wrote: post #136
coldcode wrote: post #67

I took my new chip enabled CC to Germany 3 yrs ago and paid for a train ticket with it. The clerk said "ugh an American card" and had me sign some random piece of paper. I felt like an antique.

Most European cards use Chip & PIN with pin preference: If the terminal supports it the card will ask for a chip instead of a signature. Chip-based signature transactions are only used as fallback if the terminal doesn't support pins (which is very uncommon). Unfortunately most US cards don't use a pin code at all. There are a few issuers that provide you with a pin code, but even in those cases there's typically a s…

In Europe/UK they just bring the card machine to your table.
Post reply on HN