Visa has announced that start this April, the company is getting rid of the requirement of signatures on credit card purchases made in North America. Previously, American Express, Discover and MasterCard announced that they are doing away with signature requirements. Now that Visa is on board, all four major credit card companies in the US are removing signature requirements moving forward.
Like other credit card companies, Visa claims that the improved security brought by the recent issuance of EMV chips, and other security improvements, makes it so that signature aren’t really a necessity anymore.
Looking at Visa’s post that announced the change, the company is removing the signature requirement for merchants who have switched over to chip readers or completely contactless payments. Businesses that have yet to upgrade will still be required to obtain signatures. It’s also worth mentioning that Visa is only making the signature requirement optional. If a business still wants to obtain signatures, they can still choose to do so.
