You May Not Have to Sign Your Credit Card Receipt Ever Again
You might as well save your John Hancock for autographs, because the days of using your signature on credit card receipts are quickly coming to a close.
This month, all credit card companies will no longer require signatures for purchases made with a card that has a security chip, Fox News reported.
You know, that little metallic square on the front of your card that you’re never sure whether to insert or swipe when you get to the register? That’s the one. It’s going to save you and the cashier time looking for pens.
The chip system has been used in Europe for many years, but was only widely introduced in the U.S. about two years. The chip is considered more secure than swiping a magnetic strip: Chip-enabled cards have reduced in-store fraud by about 70% since being introduced, according to Visa.
Signature-based transactions, however, do very little to keep people from stealing your card to go on a shopping spree.
“We assign a value to the signature. We think there are some sort of legitimacy to signing a receipt,” analyst Robert Barba, at Bankrate.com, told Fox News. “The reality is it’s just not a robust form of security.”
It’s even possible that facial recognition, fingerprints, retinal scans, voice recognition, or even Bitcoin could replace today’s credit card security measures. Some experts think that tech innovations like mobile pay with smartphones and watches could even replace credit cards completely.
In the meantime, just remember your PIN.
