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> The customer must sign the transaction on the ipad screen with finger (even harder with iphone). it's very hard to check that to the signature on the back of the card.

In my experience, signing works really well. Also, in Sweden nobody checks the signature. I don't even bother signing my card, and I can't understand how anybody can read the signature on the card. I think it's happened once that someone's wanted to check my signature against the card.



I guess that checking the signature is a US thing, in the UK, Switzerland and Spain if you don't pay with a chip & pin card they ask for ID, and that works pretty fine security wise.


In my experience, checking the signature just doesn't happen in the US. In fact, most of the time you seem to be given your card back before you even give them the signed receipt.

Checking the signature was the norm in the UK before chip-and-PIN.


I wrote "please ask for ID" instead of signing. In 4 years, I was asked to show An ID exactly on once.



> Checking the signature was the norm in the UK before chip-and-PIN.

Yeah, I think it was in the UK they wanted me to sign the card, since I hadn't done it already. This was before chip-and-PIN. Oh well...


Except for car park payment machines in the UK - which seem to accept your card and don't ask for a PIN or a signature.


very true, i guess there might be exceptions due to average transactions sizes. 5 GBP for parking might not compare to a 3,000 GBP Louis Vuitton purse


Also parking is not very interesting for people with stolen cards. They want cash or something they can sell.


My American sister pays with a chip-and-pinless credit card when she visits the UK. She has to swipe and sign, but I've never seen anyone ask for ID.




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