Discover Joins Mastercard in Eliminating the Signature at Checkout

Discover announced it will no longer require signatures at the point of sale for credit/debit card transactions beginning in April 2018. Mastercard made a similar announcement in October with the same April 2018 timeframe for implementation.

The card networks are quick to point out that they have the security framework in place to ensure all transactions are valid without the signature requirement.

“With the rise in new payment security capabilities, like chip technology and tokenization, the time is right to remove this step from the checkout experience,” said Jasma Ghai, vice president of Global Products Innovation at Discover.

Anything that makes checkout take less time sounds good to me, experts have said the signature doesn’t do anything to enhance the security, regardless.

With Mastercard and Discover going this route, we can only guess the pressure is on Visa and Amex to do the same. A larger question is whether individual retailers will take steps to eliminate the signature requirement from the checkout process. Once all networks don’t require it, they’ll be quicker to do so, but so long as it’s only Mastercard and Discover, I can see that being an issue.

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AllenB
AllenB (@guest_532406)
December 8, 2017 01:38

The signature requirement is so pointless. I just draw a wavy line and cashiers have never cared. I wish we would use a PIN for all credit cards. The Target Red Card credit card uses chip and PIN. The Target credit card is one of the credit cards I bring with me for international travel because of the PIN. I can buy metro tickets with it at a kiosk.

TZ
TZ (@guest_532358)
December 7, 2017 23:31

Could this be the end of tipping in restaurants?

Mike
Mike (@guest_532385)
December 8, 2017 00:29
  TZ

The receipt will probably still contain a signature line, but only to authorize the tip (but I doubt they’ll tell you that).

William Charles
Admin
December 18, 2017 22:54
  TZ

Doubt it, even in countries with PIN + chip tipping is still possible

Maria
Maria (@guest_532270)
December 7, 2017 18:44

“Anything that makes checkout take less time sounds good to me, experts have said the signature doesn’t do anything to enhance the security, regardless.”

Please proofread.

Bil M
Bil M (@guest_532255)
December 7, 2017 18:06

I agree that a signature is very ineffective at stopping card fraud. However,there is a difference between MasterCard/VISA eliminating the requirement for a signature and Discover/AMEX. The former merely run networks that payments travel on while the latter also issue the cards and are, therefore, bearing the fraud losses. MasterCard and VISA bear NO fraud losses. In fact, they are still paid their transaction fees on the fraudulent transactions It is the banks and credit unions that issue the cards that take all the losses, yet the networks can make decisions like this about whether a signature is required. It was VISA and MasterCard that decided the US would operate under chip & signature instead of chip & PIN like most of Europe. The networks feared that many consumers in the US were too dumb to remember a PIN and that would cut into their revenue from completed transactions. Smart move on their part since they don’t get hit with fraud losses.

Time Traveler
Time Traveler (@guest_532237)
December 7, 2017 17:24

In other news…Visa spent a year developing a signature sound

https://www.cnbc.com/video/2017/12/07/visa-spent-a-year-developing-a-signature-sound-report.html

The “Closing Bell” crew discusses Visa’s signature sound, which the company spent a year developing, that will be used on their payment app.

Duke I.
Duke I. (@guest_532212)
December 7, 2017 16:39

10 years from now the industry will do away with physical cards and send the new account directly to Apple Pay after verifying your smart phone upon approval.

Bruce
Bruce (@guest_532694)
December 8, 2017 15:09

You have to have a populace that has almost completely adopted digital wallets to eliminate physical cards, I don’t think that will happen within 10 years. The adoption rate is increasing, but you have to reach critical mass to do away with that and I don’t see that happening until the boomer generation is much smaller as they are laggards in terms of technology adoption.

MSer
MSer (@guest_532203)
December 7, 2017 16:27

Signatures are complete and utter waste of time. I can count on one finger in the last decade anyone as ever checked my signature. I haven’t used my signature once – it’s just a line and a quick tap of the accept button. When I see people laboriously signing their full name, it’s like being stuck behind assholes who still write checks.

Get with the program Visa and Amex!

Maria
Maria (@guest_532271)
December 7, 2017 18:45

+1.

Maria
Maria (@guest_532272)
December 7, 2017 18:46

+2 for check writing. Don’t these people have debit cards? What’s the deal?

Cruella
Cruella (@guest_532372)
December 8, 2017 00:08

Those people are just really, really old-timey old.

Let’s be respectful. They won’t be around forever..

Evan
Evan (@guest_532201)
December 7, 2017 16:24

Yes, signatures really do nothing for security. Nowadays I usually just draw a squiggly line, or a smiley face as my signature or something like that.

Philip
Philip (@guest_532229)
December 7, 2017 17:04

Same. I’ve signed my purchases before as Steve Jobs, the band Creed, and a handful of other things. I believe I also read an article once about a guy that drew a picture of a whale for his signature and even tried signing his name with the word “Unauthorized” and all transactions were charged as normal.

Flea
Flea (@guest_533023)
December 9, 2017 13:14

Yes, a reporter from the New York Observer/Village Voice or something like, did something similar a few years ago, and it made a great impression on me. He went all over the city, even to Walgreens-level national chains, and signed anything and everything with the e-pen at the POS. He signed his own name to his partner’s/coworker’s card (willingly offered for the experiment) on which he wasn’t a signatory; he signed “Mickey Mouse”; he drew a straight line for his signature; etc.

ZiggyZ
ZiggyZ (@guest_532191)
December 7, 2017 16:15

Only time a merchant will require ID is if they have reason to believe there may be fraud or a chance of a fraudulent transaction. They do have the right to prevent fraud, as fraud impacts the merchant the most. However, to ask for ID for every single transaction they process is counterproductive.

Ayden
Ayden (@guest_532179)
December 7, 2017 16:07

Eliminating the signature requirement does nothing for cardholder security. It doesn’t even shift liability between issuer and merchant.

I’m willing to wager it’ll be at least another decade before the US adopts chip-and-PIN, and by then it’ll already be obsolete.