Originally Posted by
JEFFJAGUAR
99.9% of the time, unless you shop at Walmart, your card will almost surely be swiped. In many cases, for amounts under $50, you will not be asked for a signature. If you use self service gas (petrol) pumps, you may be asked for your zip code in which case you will be up the creek without a paddle although UK postal codes are the same as Canadian postal codes and some Canadians have discovered a work around (the numbers in the middle of the postal code I think).
This would be an interesting test case if you can report back. Not all gas stations ask for a zip code. I think another workaround is sometimes entering 00000 or 99999. I wouldn't want to try too many times considering your bank or the station's system might shut you down.
I rarely have someone verify that the signature matches (or is even anything close to the name printed on the card). In contrast, I noticed during my recent trip to Australia that the cashiers tried to turn into handwriting forensics experts. I think this has a lot more to do with the fact of how liability is passed on to the merchant. Right now it's mostly the card issuers that eat the cost of a fraudulent transaction. However, in countries that have switched to EMV, you would assume the card present fraud has been reduced substantially. Therefore if someone is using a physically stolen - not cloned - valid card, it's in your interest to pay more attention to the signature.