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Comment by fredophile | Hacker News Reader

I'm travelling in Europe right now and I can tell you that signatures are definitely still required with the chip. The only exception is if I use the one card I have with contactless payment.

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You normally use a pincode. I cannot remember the last time I had to sign anything anywhere in EU when paying with a chip card.

US chip cards require a signature in Europe virtually 100% of the time, even on low-value transactions that would be under the signature threshold in the US.

However, using contactless avoids signatures 99% of the time. I think I had to sign once on my last trip at a contactless terminal.

That's actually my main use for Apple Pay. It's easier in Europe as a way to avoid having to do the signature thing (which the cashier is often not prepared for) with my US chip card. But it only works up to $30 or so.

What do you mean with it only works up to $30? I pay bills of several thousands with Apple Pay without pin or signature - I am from EU, but I expect them to work the same.

Per Apple Support (US page): United Kingdom You might not be able to use Apple Pay for purchases over 30 GBP.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207435

I've almost exclusively just tried to use it in the UK and this has been my experience at convenience stores.

Jeez, that really limits Apple Pay. I don't carry my CC because I have Apple Pay.

I had assumed the restriction was more widespread but it seems to be (mostly) a UK thing for some reason. (Though France as well I see.) I hadn't really looked into it because I almost always have a card with me in the US--given how many places don't take Apple Pay--and most of my European travel is UK.

ADDED: Apple's support page mostly says "Your mileage may vary." I haven't tried to do larger purchases more than once or twice when they didn't work because I don't want to be the guy holding up the line fiddling with payment options. I don't know if I got unlucky or if it's the norm.

Wow, yeah, I've never had that issue with NFC on the card, using my Garmin watch, Apple watch, iPhone, etc, most places I've traveled (Canada, Norway, NZ, Aus, continental europe.. Germany and their weird credit card hatred notwithstanding)

Most modern terminals (i.e. with a contactless option), should be able to use chip and pin for US cards, no signature required. That's probably why they do not require signatures.

I think that the majority of terminals in EU have the contactless option - at least in Denmark all non contactless terminals have been phased out.

Most US cards simply don't have PINs (or the card owner doesn't know the pin). I had to ask to assign one to a CC before I traveled, but then, it was never requested. I just had to sign.

Signatures are optional for US cards

https://www.creditcards.com/credit-card-news/signatures-soon...

Strangely enough, it seems that this applies to mostly transactions in North America, for some reason.

That being said, an individual payment terminal can be configured to require a signature and it might take a while to switch over. The first day they were optional my grocery store got rid of them on their terminals, even for high value transactions, which I appreciated and commented on.

Especially with pads, signatures as a verification mechanism are just silly in this day and age. Maybe some people actually sign legibly but most of us just do a scribble. (My signature on the back of my credit card is equally illegible so, in the rare occasions when someone does a compare, I've never had an issue. Fortunately, they do seem to be on the way out though I do typically have to sign a slip in Europe and Asia when using a US chip card.

Yeah, I don't even sign my cards. If the merchant looks at the signature line, they just hand it back to me. I've never even been asked for ID.

I have been asked for ID once or twice. (I think you sometimes get young clerks who were told to do something and they haven't figured out no one takes that "rule" seriously.)

Chip and pin is very uncommon in the US. It took forever just to get to chip and signature.

I live in Europe (Sweden, Germany and Switzerland) and I have never needed to sign when paying with card (i.e. the chip – never used the magnetic strip). Perhaps its because you have a foreign card?

This is because US Cards have a Chip but no PIN. So the signature is the only "security measure". I've all but stopped using my US Cards for this reason unless the terminal supports contactless through apple pay

Correct, it’s only for Americans traveling abroad. It’s because our credit cards (finally) have chips but no pin. Apparently chip/pin would cause too much friction in the purchasing process or some nonsense like that?

For American cards they are, but not for most people in Europe.

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