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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

#491

Post by kd5bjo »

yalooze wrote: post #330
criddell wrote: post #315

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

All stores still accept signature payments. Although not everywhere accepts AMEX due to the higher merchant fees.

Make sure the back of your card is signed, though, and make sure to sign your receipt the same way. I had more store clerks questioning my signature on a 1 week trip to London than in a decade of using a CC in the US.

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

#492

Post by quickthrower2 »

mulmen wrote: post #152
aviaro wrote: post #139

It's high time. Nothing irritates me more than a cashier asking for my signature.

Really? Nothing ?

Nothing irritates me more than people taking idioms literally, with the exception of discussions where strictness/correctness is required (e.g. engineers building a bridge, court proceedings, etc.)

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

#493

Post by CodeTheInternet »

Somewhat related, instead of signing the back of your credit card write "ASK FOR ID". Many merchants that otherwise wouldn't ask but look at the back instinctively tend to ask when they see it. I reinforce the behavior by thanking them. The only problem I've encountered is some USPS offices refuse to run a card without a signature on the back.

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

#494

Post by bigger_cheese »

Sean1708 wrote: post #419
bigger_cheese wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also Australian used to using Paywave. I traveled through Europe in January. My card was accepted without issue in most countries. There were a few countries like Greece where I need to use Pin. Outlier was in the UK where I had to sign and show photo id, which I found strange.

> Outlier was in the UK where I had to sign and show photo id How long ago was this? Signatures haven't been a thing here for well over a decade. Also is Paywave just contactless? Because we've also had contactless for a fair while.

January this year, had to sign twice once at a Restaurant near Earl's Court and once buying tickets for Tower of London.

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

#495

Post by anitil »

jandrese wrote: post #475
RHSeeger wrote: post #334

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Came here to say this. The "spelled out" amount takes priority if there's a conflict in the two values. Also worth noting, it doesn't need to be in cursive. I spent all my life struggling with writing in cursive on checks (because it's pretty much the only place I ever do it). One day, someone told me I could print it (it just never occurred to me that this was acceptable) and I've been much happier ever since (durin…

I'm down to 4 checks per year now. City and County taxes, twice per year. For some reason the local government still uses a credit card processor that adds 3% on top of whatever you pay, and when you're talking about property tax that's painful. The stamp is much cheaper. I've been printing the amount for years now, as my cursive was never terribly legible to begin with and has decayed from lack of use. The whole poi…

Is this hyperbolic or do they actually add 3% on to your amount? If so that is just disgusting. I can understand it from ticketek or similar, but from a government body?

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

#496

Post by maxerickson »

anitil wrote: post #495
jandrese wrote: post #475

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm down to 4 checks per year now. City and County taxes, twice per year. For some reason the local government still uses a credit card processor that adds 3% on top of whatever you pay, and when you're talking about property tax that's painful. The stamp is much cheaper. I've been printing the amount for years now, as my cursive was never terribly legible to begin with and has decayed from lack of use. The whole poi…

Is this hyperbolic or do they actually add 3% on to your amount? If so that is just disgusting. I can understand it from ticketek or similar, but from a government body?

They are charged with collecting the given amount of tax, not the given amount minus a fee.

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

#497

Post by Maultasche »

hackeyed wrote: post #379
criddell wrote: post #368

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

Might check some of the credit unions you can join. I know at least FirstTech uses chip and pin for their credit cards.

I can confirm that. I specifically signed up for FirstTech for their Chip and Pin cards. Their Mastercard is quite good for traveling and has Chip and Pin.

It was great when I was traveling in Iceland where pretty much every transaction was made with my card. It's a regional credit union, but I only had to visit a branch in person one time to change the PIN on my card.

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

#498

Post by photojosh »

SketchySeaBeast wrote: post #413
criddell wrote: post #368

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

I recently traveled to the states from Canada and was amazed at the number of places that didn't even have the infrastructure for chip & pin - I was at a popular tourist spot and it was all iPads & Square Readers.

Weird. The Square readers we have in Australia support both chip-and-pin and contactless (+pin for purchases > $100). Were they only using the cheaper audio-jack swipe readers in the US? (Not allowed here any more)

I've been using Apple Pay recently, and one annoyance I had was that one store when I paid (for a >$2k purchase) didn't ask for my PIN... it asked for a signature. And then of course I was meant to present my card for verification. And I couldn't... what?

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

#499

Post by FireBeyond »

walshemj wrote: post #341
rypskar wrote: post #309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What I have been told is that they want the tips in cash to not leave a trail for tax authorities to see. If they get the tip in cash they don't report it as income, if the tip is added to the card it get registered as tip and tax have to be paid. So basically tip is not only a way to get around paying the workers a livable salary but also a way to avoid taxes

Its mainly to avoid the employer keeping the tip for them selves

Eh - you only have to read forums to realize that it's a lot more to do with the taxes.

I have heard more BS excuses from servers on forums: "The government demands we pay tax on these tips, even when we don't get them". No, the government recognizes you're in a cash-heavy industry, and would like you to document things. If you do, you pay tax on the tips you get, not the default amount. Quick way to get banned from said forums? Ask if they are sure to supply documentation when they get tips above and beyond that amount to the IRS.

They also like to claim that "20% is cheap, you should be aiming for 25%"... eh.

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

#500

Post by _delirium »

htgb wrote: post #304
arghwhat wrote: post #284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

DK never even had credit card signatures. Our systems support it for foreigners, but I was so confused the first time I saw that. Everyone uses NFC credit cards now (and if the amount is over ~$40 or a daily limit has been reached, with pin). For us, chip and pin is basically deprecated, and no one has used magnetic strips in a decade.

In Sweden, signatures are available opt-in, but many stores get confused if you press the button for it. –"The system says 'signature needed', was that intentional?" It _is_ practical though, if you forget your pin code and need to pay something. It used to be very common in bars/clubs too, at least before contact-free cards, to speed up the payments.

In the UK, I don't think you can opt to sign instead of enter a PIN if it's a PIN terminal and your card has a PIN set. Only if it doesn't have a PIN (as with American cards) will it then automatically ask for a signature. Isn't allowing the user to opt to just bypass the PIN a bit of a security hole?

There are a handful of places in the UK that don't have PIN terminals at all and do classic swipe-and-sign transactions, though. The one I encounter most commonly is the onboard cafe car on Great Western Railway trains.

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