Originally Posted by
STS-134
One interesting thing is that I used my USAA M/C in China several times, but most of the time, I don't remember being asked to enter a PIN. Is it possible for the terminal to default to signature if the transaction is below a certain amount?
This is a guess (based on the fact that the only foreign chip cards I've used in China have either signature or PIN in the CVM list for purchases, but not both) but China seems to be online PIN. Since it's at the bottom of the USAA card CVM list then it has to be that it prefers signature over offline PIN, thus it just asks you to sign. You'd know what type of PIN it's asking you for since it specifies- either it asks for 联机密码(online PIN) or it asks for "Offline PIN:" in English.