Credit Card Companies will No Longer Require Signatures at Store Checkout Beginning Tomorrow

Mastercard, Visa, Discover, and American Express all announced a few months ago that signatures will no longer be required at store checkouts in the US beginning April 2018. These changes go into effect tomorrow for Mastercard, as per this press release. Discover and American Express are reported as making the change today as well, while Visa will institute the switch sometime later this month.

In reality, it’s up to the stores whether or not they want to collect signatures. The store might decide they want to continue with signatures – something unlikely, but the bigger issue is that the point-of-sale systems need to be updated to stop asking for signatures. I expect bigger chains to update their systems within the next month or so. Smaller stores could drag along with signatures for a while until they kick the habit.

Even payment processors could get in the way. ShopKeep and Square, two popular small business payment systems, are reported saying they do not plan to immediately update their systems to allow retailers to skip signatures, deferring until there’s a higher level of awareness about the change.

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Jack
Jack (@guest_585429)
April 23, 2018 17:18

The Frys Food store (part of Kroger), still requires signatures. No one at the store could tell me why

Vic
Vic (@guest_581507)
April 13, 2018 23:21

DP:
Northern California Safeway doesn’t require signature anymore. (It did yesterday)

My purchase of 10 Two $100 VGC went much faster than before.

Mike
Mike (@guest_581212)
April 13, 2018 09:22

Unfortunately it’ll probably take years for fast food restaurants and coffee shops to switch to no signature required since a lot of them try to guilt you into tipping them after you use your card

Dan
Dan (@guest_581360)
April 13, 2018 15:24

I went to a Chinese restaurant last night. Paid with Mastercard. They still had me sign the receipt.

Gadget
Gadget (@guest_581366)
April 13, 2018 15:39

This is covered in the DoC article… it will take months and years before some stores stop asking for it. Some may never stop. It’s not like the CC companies just throw a switch and change all the processors and stores software.

Charlie
Charlie (@guest_581186)
April 13, 2018 07:34

I want the US to adopt true chip+PIN like the rest of the world.

Curmudgeon
Curmudgeon (@guest_581137)
April 13, 2018 00:41

My local HyVee (grocery store) stopped requiring signatures for chip cards a while back for lower dollar amounts, but still asked for signatures when buying a $500 gift card.

Of course, they sometimes still ask to see the physical card and my drivers license to match them up which I think might be in violation of the credit card agreement, but I’m ok with it as long as they keep taking credit cards for VGCs. 😀

Steve
Steve (@guest_581100)
April 12, 2018 22:51

So if a store/restaurant asks for signature, am I allowed to say no?

Klemhuzzah
Klemhuzzah (@guest_580960)
April 12, 2018 19:22

I assume not having to sign only applies when your card is chipped. Which makes me wonder how long before you can’t swipe cards.

Justin
Justin (@guest_581020)
April 12, 2018 20:18

The not signing is for every transaction type – chip, swipe, virtual wallet, manual number entry, etc.

Swiping will probably always be allowed. It’s mainly related to who’s liable for fraud – the merchant or card issuer. But as you think some prepaid cards don’t even have chips, and have expiration dates many years out swiping will be around for a looooong time.

PT
PT (@guest_581292)
April 13, 2018 12:26

Look, imprints are still allowed, and they have been around practically forever.

Jeff H
Jeff H (@guest_580941)
April 12, 2018 19:05

Very sad day in CC history. Now any thief can steal your cards and use without that to disprove you made the fraud charge.

Joe
Joe (@guest_580989)
April 12, 2018 19:44

Signatures have never been able to disprove fraud solely… My signature is an “X”.

Ferris
Ferris (@guest_581089)
April 12, 2018 22:12

I don’t think you understand how things work. I work in the industry and I can tell you almost everything now is from data breaches and paying for things/giving your card # to shady websites/entities that sell your info. They then make their own cards and hit it as hard as possible. I hope your comment is sarcasm. Signatures never were worth anything.

DSP
DSP (@guest_581126)
April 13, 2018 00:17

I don’t think you understand how things work. The post you replied to was sarcasm.

P
P (@guest_580909)
April 12, 2018 18:04

I’m not even sure why merchants bother anyway when they allow a squiggly line to be used as signature.

Anon
Anon (@guest_580899)
April 12, 2018 16:58

I think this may have partially rolled out already today. Yesterday I had to sign for my OD purchases. Today, I didn’t.

Kyle
Kyle (@guest_580907)
April 12, 2018 17:34

Funny, just signed at OD today. Maybe in another decade we’ll start hearing about chip + PIN in America !