Remember when you got that new bank card through the post and the first thing you forgot to do was sign the back of the card? This signature is used to protect your card and help you prove who you are, even sometimes authorising payments. The latter of these uses is something that Walmart isn’t too keen on keeping, in fact, they are taking Visa to court in an attempt to require every user to require a pin on EMV debit transactions.
EMV (Europay, Mastercard and Visas) are three groups that helped design the new chip-based system which is meant to replace the magnetic stripe systems that have been found in the US for years, even after other countries took the initiative and moved their systems across to a more secure chip and pin system.
While the new EMV system is meant to be even more secure, major card networks have stated that they would still allow users to sign away the authorisation for a payment under the new system in the hopes of helping users transition across to the new system.
In their statement, Walmart says the lawsuit is all about “protecting customers’ bank accounts, as if someone stole your card, copying the signature from the back of the card would be easy and still allow them to access and make payments with your card. With more and more users using systems like Apple Pay and contactless payments, using systems which can be bypassed by leaving your card in the machine or on your table at the restaurant seems to ask for trouble and unauthorised payments.
They should just be honest. They don’t care about “your” money. If they accept payment and the sig doesn’t match then the CC company charges it back (assuming it was a fraudulent transaction). If a PIN is used then it’s on the CC company and the retailer is safe.
I’ve been in retail for 40 years. I have worked for major retail chains. I have never been trained on how to properly verify a sig.
Also it makes the confrontation with the customer on the retailer. Try not accepting a CC payment because the sigs don’t match and be wrong. Even asking a customer for additional ID because they’ve signed differently on the receipt than the card can sometimes lead to a customer feeling like a victim and create ill will. Retailers don’t want their relationship to be threatened with the customer over something like this.
A PIN is a real easy solution. Sure, there are some individuals who struggle with PIN’s. They are few and far between though. Almost everyone has a smartphone, uses an EFTPOS card, or has an email. Those who don’t just need to get with the times. It’s like people still wanting to write paper checks. Just stop people. You are only empowering the criminals with tools to steal with.
In the end, any money the bank or retailer are out because of theft the honest people pay for. Because, they don’t have any money of their own. They only have your money. Your money gets stolen from them they are just gonna take more money from you to replace it.