Visa will remove the signature requirement on your credit and debit cards from April

Recently, Visa has announced that it will begin to eliminate the signature requirement for EMV payments (Europay MasterCard VISA) starting next April starting in the United States and Canada.

Goodbye to signing on our card purchases

The change announced by Visa will apply to credit and debit cards of the chip and signature type, and also to contactless or “contact less” payment solutions such as Apple Pay, Samsung Pay or Android Pay when they are found. linked to a Visa credit or debit card. According to Visa, this measure is primarily intended to provide a smoother, more agile and faster payment experience for merchants and cardholders alike.

For many years, customers have been required to sign the receipt at the time of making a purchase in a store in order to verify that we are the holders of the debit or credit card with which we are carrying out the transaction. The merchant cashier is supposed to verify that the signature on that receipt matches the signature on the back of the card, however, the reality is that this process is practically never carried out. In fact, how many of us haven't even signed our card from behind?

Currently, even when using Apple Pay, signing may be required for purchases over $ 25 in the United States. However, with EMV technology and other more modern protections, Visa has decided to begin to completely eliminate this requirement, thus placing itself in line with Mastercard, American Express and Discover.

In other countries, such as Canada, the signature requirement is much less common since customers insert our chip card in the payment terminal and verify our identity by entering the four-digit PIN code.