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MasterCard Has Finally Realized That Signatures Are Obsolete and Stupid (fastcompany.com)
An anonymous reader shares a report: For years, credit card companies have relied on an illegible squiggly line as the frontline of defense against credit card fraud. Customers are forced to use a pen (how retro!) to scrawl their signature on bills at restaurants and sign digitally at cash registers -- as if somehow in the age of chips, PINs, biometrics, and online fraud alerts, a line on a page is still a great tool against fraud prevention. Personally, I have been known to sign on the dotted line with a doodle of a piece of tofu and no one has ever stopped me, because signatures mean very little in this digital age. Companies are finally seeing the light. Starting in April 2018, MasterCard cardholders will no longer be required to sign their name when they purchase something using their debit or credit cards. The company has been moving away from requiring signatures for a few years now, with only about 80% of purchases (typically over a certain dollar amount) requiring a signature these days. MasterCard did some digging, though, and per its press release, realized that most of their customers "believe it would be easier to pay and that checkout lines would move faster if they didn't need to sign when making a purchase."
Foreigners visiting the US have to go inside to pay for gas because our gas pumps required the billing ZIP code when paying by credit card. So be aware and pick the less sketchy looking places to fill up because you're going to be forced to go inside to pay.
For Canadians there is a trick to that: just use the 3 numbers in your Postal Code, plus 00. EG: postal code V1Z 2A3, use zip 12300. I tried that a few months back at dozens of stations, works great. Not sure about other countries though.
It was also used as "proof" if there was a dispute. For the same reason people sign legal documents. A PIN is in no way comparable. It is not intended to be an asbolute authentication, but to prevent or stop casual theft or fraud.
I had a credit card for several years that had my signature and photo on the front, so that it could be compared to my face and signature. I liked using that one, I rarely had to dig out additional forms of ID with my picture.
My friend would not sign his card, but instead write "please ask for photo ID". That way a signature was never used as authentication. Not foolproof, as he said sometimes cashiers never even loook at the back of the card to do any form of verification (probably because people have gotten used to treating these things like cash).
Having worked retail... I would argue no one checks it, because the customers keep trying to do their own thing relentlessly.
We were trained to NOT accept "Please Ask for Photo ID" and every other weird combination they came up with. But customers would insist on that, or insist on not putting anything on the back of their cards, or would even use their spouse's card, or their friend's card, or or or or or or... Meanwhile... You have a line building up behind the precious snowflake with the exception and everyone screaming at you "What's the big deal?"
So you finally just start waving everyone through.
Don't get me wrong, I'm sure some people always waved them through. But there's no right answer when you're trying, because it seemed like every single individual had some damn exception they're trying to push on you.