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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

#361

Post by JoeAltmaier »

gambiting wrote: post #360
nmeofthestate wrote: post #357

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've never had a meal out in the UK (with different people, family, work, etc) where a tip wasn't left, unless possibly when service was really bad.

Sure, and I leave tips the vast majority of the time too - but I've had situations where I had no cash on me, the card machine didn't accept a tip, so I just left without feeling bad about it, it's not a big deal.

Not to you I guess. The server has only a very fixed opportunity to get tipped in a shift. To miss out on one is actually significant. Not to mention depressing.

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

#362

Post by sourcesmith »

05 wrote: post #350
bernardlunn wrote: post #344

America is so stuck in legacy tech. Nobody checks signatures. Strong Factor Authentication requires min 2 of 3. India is leapfrogging to biometrics using Aadhar. Europe is current with chip and pin. America is in quill pen stage

Chip and pin isn't current; CDCVM is. Some european countries are still lagging on that front.

Having to buy your own till is progress?

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

#364

Post by chiph »

bernardlunn wrote: post #344

America is so stuck in legacy tech. Nobody checks signatures. Strong Factor Authentication requires min 2 of 3. India is leapfrogging to biometrics using Aadhar. Europe is current with chip and pin. America is in quill pen stage

Yeah, I'm not going to support biometrics. The very last thing I want is to have the data identifying my iris pattern stolen.

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

#365

Post by gambiting »

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #361
gambiting wrote: post #360

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, and I leave tips the vast majority of the time too - but I've had situations where I had no cash on me, the card machine didn't accept a tip, so I just left without feeling bad about it, it's not a big deal.

Not to you I guess. The server has only a very fixed opportunity to get tipped in a shift. To miss out on one is actually significant. Not to mention depressing.

And what am I supposed to do about it?

My point is - in US not tipping felt like being an absolute asshole, to a point where people would be upset - they grew up in a culture that values money above all else and not being tipped is I don't know, an equivalent of being spat in the face? In UK I've never felt that way. I've had perfectly good meals that I didn't tip on, just like I did in France, Spain or Germany and it never felt like the server expected a tip. They might be a bit disappointed that they didn't get one, but that's their problem. I'm disappointed about a lot of things but that doesn't mean I'm entitled to them.

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

#366

Post by astura »

lopmotr wrote: post #171
u801e wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

>Surely you can do internet banking transfer to the recipient's bank?

No, there isn't really a "standard" to do this.

As far as bills go, each company has their own billpay system. Small businesses pretty much all take credit or debit cards now. If they don't you pay by check. I pay my property taxes with a check because if you do an electronic payment with their system they want you to pay like a $3 fee. Buying a house requires you to get a cashier's check.

You can do "billpay" online with your bank, but if their systems aren't "hooked up" to the other party's systems the bank will mail a physical check to the other party. None of it is instant or even fast.

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

#367

Post by rsync »

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.

"The clerk said "ugh an American card" and had me sign some random piece of paper. I felt like an antique."

Don't feel so bad - remember that we invented the credit card.

Also the phone.

And the Internet.

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

#368

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 was just looking for a chip-and-pin card that I (as an American) could get for traveling to the UK and apparently there really isn't much out there. I think all of the US cards that support chip and pin prioritize signature over pin.

I also found this Visa page explaining that PIN isn't used in the US because it's too expensive:

https://usa.visa.com/visa-everywhere/security/the-cost-of-pi...

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

#369

Post by astura »

eganist wrote: post #151
post_break wrote: post #141

Can we also standardize the noise the machine makes when the transaction is a success? You know that sound "ENGHH ENGHH ENGHH" that is somehow a positive sound? It's like an alarm clock sound. Why is it not a positive "Ding!" And some will say well it's to remember your card. Well if that's the case, how about force the POS system not to print the receipt until the card is pulled? Or better yet, why does the card hav…

Some places have done this. E.g. Safeway/Vons/Pavilions vs. Trader Joe's, one of them has a neutral sound, the other has that error-sounding notification. I believe the latter is the generic notification sound and vendors who customized their solutions post-chip swapped it. I just can't remember which is which right now.

I always thought the angry noise was so you didn't leave your card behind.

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

#370

Post by ghaff »

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…

Exactly. If I'm in the grocery store, I know that I can take my credit card out of my wallet, insert it into the machine (or swipe it), maybe scrawl a wiggly line, and remove the card all in about 10 seconds. Alternatively, I can fiddle with my phone, get it to recognize me, hope it works, etc. which--even if it doesn't always take longer--is certainly less deterministic while the person behind me is probably going through their own version of the internal sigh I have when the person in front of me is fiddling with some non-routine payment method.

About the only time I use Apple Pay is when I'm traveling to Europe because it tends to work faster than when I have to do the non-standard (for there) chip and signature.

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