Originally Posted by
kebosabi
My guess:
1. A vestigial remnant of the times when graphology was considered solid science
2. It's more a of "we always have done it this way, changing it will cause mass confusion so therefore we have to keep it this way" (like the imperial measurement system and the reluctance to adopt the metric system)
3. Banks think the American cardholders are too stupid
4. Instead of signature being a mode of authentication, it's more like an agreement to promise to pay later via a signature (much like signing a contract; hence the words "I acknowledge blah-blah-blah" on the credit card slip)
5. All of the above
Probably #5. Actually I'm not sure #4 has any standing in law. After all, when you sign elecgtronically, there's no statement of what you're signing to unless it's buried in the legal terms and conditions you receive with your card or agree to when applying for the cards.
In any event too, many many merchants have abandoned signatures for purchases under a certain amounts. In NY, the grocery chain Waldbaums which either owns or is a subsidiary of A&P doesn't bother with signatures for under $50 while a couple of competitors I shop at always ask for signatures for any amount. Walmart does not ask for signatures under $50. The post office I believe uses $25. Fast food places like Mickey D might be $20 as I remember. Pay at the pumps never to the best of my knowledge ask for signatures but of course filling up a car now in the USA can easily run to $80 or more. But they use zip code verification. (And btw in a way isn't that just as bad for visitors to the country as pin verification is for Americans at merchants who insist on a pin yet their pos terminals cannot handle online pins). NYC transit metrocard vending machines also use zip code verification and since I don't think they take cards at the fewer and fewer station agents that are still open, that can leave a toujrist upp the creek without a paddle if they don't have a zip code tied in to their plastic cards (although debit cards have pins). Just some examples (does 00000 work for foreign credit cards which do not tie into a zip code?)
Yet the funny thing is that when I use either a magnetic strip or c&s card in Great Britain at least in those places I frequent in London, the clerk always makes a pretense of checking signatures and I think once I was told my signatures didn't match and they asked for id something I'm always reluctant to furnish but I did on that occasion. Also one time at a Boots in London I used a non pin card and was told their policy was to ask for ID on a relatively small purchase (certainly less than £10) and I went into one of my temper tantrums that it was illegal according to mc and visa regs (which I am not sure of course apply outside the USA as there are provisions that local laws take precedence over their regs and even here some states have unwisely, very unwisely from an identity theft perspective, passed laws prohibiting mc/visa from stipulating that merchants cannot fail to complete a purchase if a customer refuses to show his ID (and thereby opening up the way to identity theft). In any event, the manager came over and gave me the usual bs ("it's for your protection, sir."). And I said, "No it takes away one of my protections." He muttered under his breath, checked the signature against the signature on the card and let it go through. That wass the last time, however, they ever asked me to show id at that particular Boots.
I see, though, Kebosabi san that you're pretty resigned that it's going to be c&s in the USA which I am too!