Chip & sign vs. chip & pin in London
 

I won't be heading across the pond until next year, but want to see if I need to start calling the credit card companies to get new ones issued. I have read somewhere that most merchants in London use chip & pin. Is chip & sign still an option at most places? All of my cards have chips, but none are pin-enabled. Also, is it a safe assumption that smaller "Mom & Pop" stores are usually cash only? TIA.

LAX

Chip & Sign really isn't a thing here at all. It may be an option, but it's something that most merchants won't have heard of. However, if a merchant is directed by the terminal to check signature or swipe card, that's usually what they'll do.

Almost everywhere takes cards now - even some buskers have started. Smaller shops may impose a lower spending limit or occasionally a transaction fee. I barely use cash these days.

Perhaps a more likely reason for the delay will be in finding a pen!

Request a pin # for your chip/signature card if one has not already been assigned. Therefore in those instances in which you will need to enter a pin, you'll have it.

That said, I have found that I have had to sign the slip when at grocery stores and restaurants. I have never had an issue in which an employee didn't know what to do. I was last in London in April

Chip and pin is pretty much universal in developed countries except for the U.S.A. and contactless is ubiquitous in the U.K. and Canada.

While contactless and chip and pin are most prevalent, I've often had visitors from the US and the machine will tell the merchant a signature is required. I've never seen it be a problem for any of my US friends.

I've made several trips to London and a number more to Scotland over the last 20 years. In 1998, the use of a credit card in small towns was almost unheard of but I had no issues in Edinburgh and Aberdeen. Commerce has evolved so that when I went to Scotland in 2016, I only had issues using a credit card at one gas station in a small town to the north of Aberdeen. As others have noted, London can be negotiated almost cash free nowadays. For my last several trips to the UK, Ireland, Paris, and Rome, I've withdrawn less than 50 pounds/euros at the beginning of the trip and always have cash left over. And most of the time, the clerk at a store or the server at a restaurant has a pen handy for us backwards Americans and our chip and signature cards.

Visa and Mastercard backed credit cards are much more widely accepted than Amex, particularly in smaller shops and discount shops

This was actually more of an issue 10 years ago or so when the rest of the world all went Chip and PIN. Now, most European merchants (yes, London is in Europe), have adapted to dealing with backward Americans and their antiquated credit cards.

If you have a chip and signature card, most likely you'll insert the card into the reader, the reader will say to remove it and you'll be asked to sign a receipt. We do have chip and signature cards here, mainly for people who specifically request one because they don't think they can manage a PIN.

As others have said, you can live cash free in the UK mostly, with some notable exceptions.

I realised when my replacement card came for one of my cards that the the last card had now expired and I had hapilly used it for several years with never having signed the back

Seriously, what is the deal with the US having the chip and sign jazz? For such a supposedly developed country, it seems a little primitive. Yes, it makes for a good back up option (lord knows I've been saved by chip and sign on occasion), but being as common as it is seems...well...odd, in my opinion.