It used to be back in the day that whenever you made a purchase using your credit card that you would have to sign the receipt to acknowledge the purchase, as well as proving that you are who you say you are. However these days things are changing and according to Mastercard (via MacRumors), signatures will soon be completely eliminated.
The company has announced that starting in April 2018, customers in the US and Canada will no longer have to sign their receipts for both debit and credit card purchases. According to Linda Kirkpatrick, an Executive Vice President at Mastercard, “Our secure network and state-of-the art systems combined with new digital payment methods that include chip, tokenization, biometrics, and specialized digital platforms use newer and more secure methods to prove identity.”
It should be noted that there are many markets around the world where signatures are no longer required for credit/debit card purchases. Instead contactless payments are becoming increasingly common for smaller purchases, and for larger purchases, customers are instead required to enter a PIN which is more secure than a signature which can be easily forged, or if the cashier does not bother to check against it.
It is also expected that this could result in faster purchases using platforms like Apple Pay, where there are certain instances where a signature is still required for purchases over $50 in the US.
