Soon, you can skip signature on many credit card sales
The checkout lanes at your favorite stores should soon move more quickly, thanks to an industry move away from signing for purchases.
Major credit card companies Mastercard, Visa, American Express and Discover are eliminating the need for shoppers to sign receipts for credit and debit sales beginning April 14.
That means most merchants in the U.S. or Canada can decide whether or not to require signatures. Some merchants have already ditched signatures for some purchases, but beginning in two weeks the credit card companies are collectively ending requirements for customers’ autographs.
Mastercard was the first major credit card to announce plans to end signatures. Its own research found that “merchants and consumers would like to see the payment process streamlined and that a majority of people believe it would be easier to pay and checkout lines would move faster if they didn’t sign when making purchases,” said Linda Kirkpatrick, executive vice president of MasterCard’s U.S. market development division.
Currently, customers are only required to sign for Mastercard purchases of more than $50. As a result, more than 80% of Mastercard’s store transactions in North America already do not require a signature, Kirkpatrick says.
The encryption within the EMV chip, which began rolling out three years ago, has helped buttress robust security, as have other steps taken by credit card companies and the underlying payment networks in which banks participate.
Within weeks of Mastercard’s announced plans last year, Discover, American Express and Visa also got on board to end the requirement of a signature. Visa will require merchants to either have EMV chip or contactless chipenabled readers to opt out of signatures.
Eliminating the signing of receipts will make the checkout process more efficient not only for shoppers, but also for retailers, says Laura Townsend, senior vice president of operations for the Merchant Advisory Group, which supports the industry move.
Not all merchants will quit requiring signatures overnight, but most will move toward that, she says.
Other outlets such as rental car companies and restaurants may continue to require signatures. “If you think about a sit-down restaurant, they may go ahead and give the receipt to the customer anyway to get a tip. So from an operational standpoint, they probably won’t change,” Townsend said.