Mastercard is determined to promote digital payments and that is why it has announced a measure that in the United States and Canada is really important: will no longer require the buyer's signature when making a payment using their credit and debit card. Although this may seem somewhat absurd in countries like Spain, where the signature of the receipt is practically extinct, in those two countries it is still in force.
And there are purchases in which even making the payment through Apple Pay, with the consequent identification of the buyer by means of their fingerprint, they must then identify themselves by means of their signature, and the seller check that this signature corresponds to the one on the credit card that has been used. Soon that will be history.
The objective of a buyer signing a receipt was none other than to verify, by the seller, that the signature matched that of the credit card. When this was something routine in Spain, does anyone remember that the seller ever checked the signature? With current identification systems, the most widespread the fingerprint of mobile devices, it does not make any sense that the signature is still used. In the United States there was the redundant situation that even identifying themselves by fingerprint some purchases (more than $ 50) require the buyer's signature.
In Spain the experience with Apple Pay is very different. After almost a year using Apple Pay with my iPhone and Apple Watch, the vast majority of merchants with a contactless dataphone allow the use of Apple Pay, even if they do not specify it. Only on a few occasions have I been asked to enter the PIN into the dataphone, and I only remember a couple of times very early on when I had to sign the receipt. The inclusion of CaixaBank in Apple Pay and the promises of other entities such as N26 before the end of the year, together with the already presence of Santander and Carrefour PASSwill help the expansion of Apple Pay in Spain to reach a much more general public.
It is seen that you have not been to a movie theater, not only do you have to sign the receipt if you do not also ask for your ID. And contactless? Hahaha, almost a utopia, less than 1% of cinemas have them and you still have to sign the receipt and show your ID