Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/04/10/credit-card-companies-will-no.html
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5 Likes
Bout fucking time! I’ve been saying they’re a farce for many years. What’s ridiculous is that headshots on cards were never mandatory. I had a Citi card starting in 1990 with a photo, they phased them out a few years back. It all shows that they’ve never been serious about security, since they just pass it along in the form of high rates. The joke’s on them in my case, since I pay the balance every month.
7 Likes
Congratulations on catching up to the rest of the world.
I can’t remember the last time I signed a credit card receipt. Chip and Pin have been ubiquitous for ages.
18 Likes
So what about some people with disabilities, who struggle to remember a PIN but can write a signature by muscle memory?
I know someone in this situation.
9 Likes
We still don’t have PIN. Chip, yes. PIN, no.
And yes, that makes the chip security pretty much worthless.
11 Likes
They already don’t need a signature. I got thrown out of a bar back in the 1980s and they had no problem processing my credit card.
I just realized - My mother was the last generation to learn Palmer penmanship. Will my son be the last generation to be able to produce a signature?
9 Likes
Oh good. I’ve been signing “Moo” for years just to see if anyone cares.
Spoiler alert: No one cares.
13 Likes
“Hey, I know a way to increase our profits! …Don’t worry, just look at how Wells Fargo got away with a slap on the wrist.”
3 Likes
I’m a smily face kinda guy myself.
7 Likes
It seems to me it was at least ten years ago that I read a lengthy and creative yarn about the futility of signing the back of a credit card, as explored by a merry prankster. I wish I could find that rant – I think little doodles got involved pretty early. (I thought it was one from Cockeyed.com , but it didn’t turn up there just now.)
2 Likes
Pretty sure that was the Cockeyed guy. Eventually he wrote like a musical staff with a little tune on it.
2 Likes
I imagine we’ll just see more of what’s currently happening - you just stick your card in a machine, and that’s it. When I go shopping, I can never remember which stores require the signature and which don’t - the card goes into identical machines, but some don’t require anything more than that.
2 Likes
Except it’s not. The implementation in the US has been chip and sig, not chip and pin, so I guess now it’s just chip?
2 Likes
Been using chip and PIN in Canada for at least a decade. Small transactions don’t even require the card to be inserted at most retailers - tap the reader/keypad and the transaction’s automatically logged. About time the US decided to catch up.
4 Likes
And most of my cards still don’t have the chip. The one that has gotten the chip has proved extremely problematic.
I never figured the signature was there for the register clerk to actually verify, but for proof if the card holder ever disputes authorizing the charge.
4 Likes
See above.
Meanwhile, a lot of banks still use fax machines to transfer signed documents rather than email.
3 Likes
Healthcare services too, at least here in Canada. Drives me crazy.
2 Likes
Most merchants I know have disabled the chip reader and gone full swipe because it takes longer, and is confusing. Not to mention every goddamn terminal requires different behaviors.
Apple Pay is brilliant
