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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

#311

Post by 5555624 »

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.

I'll write a check if charged a fee not to write one. A few years back, I lived in an apartment building that added the 3% processing fee if you paid by credit card and 1% to pay electronically from your checking account. I'd write a check and just drop it off when walking through the lobby. (They eventually dropped the charge for one's checking account.)

The only check I routinely write now is to the gas company. They use Western Union as their payment processing vendor and WU charges $2.95. It's petty, but it's easy enough to write a check.

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

#312

Post by lmm »

nolok wrote: post #270
zodiakzz wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I never sign anything the same way twice, and my signature is always just a random scribble. Is that legal? o.O

It is, but it means parent will lose any contractual dispute ever on the signature proof part. Here is how it goes in a dispute. You have A saying B signed a contract, and B saying he didn't. It's A's job to prove he did first, and he indicate there is a signature on there, and it's B's. So now it's B's turn, and he needs to show it isn't his (if he does, then A become accused a making a false, and will need to prove…

> To do that, B needs to prove that he usually signs a different way, so he provides other signatures everywhere to show it. Since parent signs differently everywhere, he cannot show that he has a regular signature that doesn't match the one on paper.

How often does that work? Presumably a fraudster would copy B's signature from a receipt out of their trash or something (a priori they have no way of knowing that B signs differently every time); how likely is it that someone going to that effort would not get a signature that's a "good enough" match compared to B's normal signature, however careful B is about always signing the same way?

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

#313

Post by bantunes »

Jolter wrote: post #287

I found it odd that Mastercard would say "[...] it has been wanting to make the change for years, but held off until cards embedded with computer chips became common." Whose responsibility is it to make those cards more common, if not Mastercard's? In Sweden, cards have only been issued with chips since the early 2000s, and consequently merchants only very rarely use signature purchases. Why they didn't push this soo…

It might be that non-chip CCs had long expiry dates and only now they're being replaced?

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

#314

Post by leephillips »

skookumchuck wrote: post #269
khedoros1 wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You weren't taught to write it as "Four-hundred and 23/100", and then "$400.23" in the little box?

I meant $400 23/100 in the little box on the right.

Never in my life seen a check written this way.

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

#315

Post by criddell »

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…

I'm visiting London this summer (I'm from Texas).

Normally, I pay for everything with American Express. Would you recommend I get a different card for London? I wonder if there's a US card that support chip and pin?

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

#316

Post by alkonaut »

Jolter wrote: post #300
alkonaut wrote: post #281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I had to leave the store, buy a pen, sign the card and re-enter the store. That's exactly what I did too. And yes, this was when visiting the UK. I had no idea the strip on the back of the card was for comparison, never seen it used elsewhere. Would be interesting to hear the person who thought that the signature-comparison thing was a good idea explain how they were thinking.

It's because in some countries, not everyone has an ID card on them at all times. (Backwards, I know, but them's the breaks...)

That's why we have PINs. If not everyone can be asked to get ID, and not every store can be asked to get chip+pin gear then stores should still not pretend to do some identification charade based on doodling.

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

#317

Post by astura »

Uehreka wrote: post #164
jghn wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What? In my experience Apple Pay is faster than other payment methods. In what way do you see it as slower?

It might be faster if it works. If you try it and it doesn’t work and the cashier tries to help and then you have to go back to using a credit card anyway, it’s slow and people get annoyed. If that reliably didn’t happen, things would be fine. Unfortunately, payment processing in the US (or at least in Maryland where I live) is a mess: - Point-of-sale devices are frequently broken, with post-it notes taped over the c…

The most bizarre one is at a Subway I go to once in a while: they have signs all over saying they accept Android Pay, but when I go to use it the phone vibrates like it worked but the terminal replies "insert chip," or maybe it's "chip required." The cashiers claim it works for other people though. I tried it several times over a year just to see if it was a one-off error, but it always did the same.

I really like Android Pay/mobile payments when they work, the only problem is, I stopped really using it because the success rate is so low. The card readers seem like they aren't that strong, have difficulty sensing the phone, and when it does sense it there seems like a lot of weirdness/try agains. I tried to use it once at a vending machine and I just couldn't figure the thing out, the payment went through but when I selected something nothing happened. Credit card worked fine though.

It was so unimportant when I got a new phone I ended up getting one without NFC.

Oh, I'm pretty sure the “CHIP READER DISABLED” thing is just the merchant didn't set up their account with chip enabled, not any problem with the hardware itself.

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

#319

Post by marbletiles »

criddell wrote: post #315
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…

I'm visiting London this summer (I'm from Texas). Normally, I pay for everything with American Express. Would you recommend I get a different card for London? I wonder if there's a US card that support chip and pin?

You'll find a number of places that don't take American Express, so have an alternative with you. If you have Apple or Android Pay, that'll cover you for most purchases under £100 (under £30 in some places with outdated tech).

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

#320

Post by krisdol »

sitepodmatt wrote: post #181
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 the expectation of tips disappear next.. Whilst there's no way I'd ever subscribe to current mentality of tipping 10% when unhappy and 15-20% when happy I'm not sure I'd want to remove tipping entirely. It should be exceptional times when one tips, i.e. really got above and beyond - not just doing their job.

There is no expectation of tips in Japanese restaurants. Adding a tip there is often confusing if not insulting. I’m not so sure you’d really miss the practice if you ate there.
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