What happened here?
I bought something at the store and paid with my debit card. I never got prompted for my PIN, and the cashier didn’t ask me to sign anything. So, what’s the deal?
Some stores don’t bother with a signature for small purchases. The cost of the fraudulent activity is less that the cost of slowing everything down to get a signature.
That is fairly common. I can’t remember which stores do that around here but there are a few. I think they treat it like a credit card with no signature required because a signature is of limited use anyway in case of fraud.
Do debit cards function differently in the US? Or is this more of a pre-paid card?
It is impossible to pay with a debit card up here without entering a PIN, no different than using your card to withdraw money from an ATM. And signatures are never used for debit cards.
In the US, most debit cards can be swiped as if they were a credit card. If it has a MC, VISA, etc, logo, then it can act as a credit card, too.
The main difference is that the money is not automatically debited from the account, but is rather logged and then processed later, which can get you in trouble. IANAbanker, but this is what I know.
Some stores prefer this, as credit card transactions are faster (customer doesn’t have to fumble with a PIN pad). When I worked at Staples in college (office supply chain), we would process all debit cards as credit unless directed otherwise by the customer.
Here’s a description of the Canadian Visa No Signature Required Program:
http://www.visa.ca/en/merchant/pdfs/merchant_nosignature.pdf
Makes sense. As far as I can tell the signature serves at least two purposes.
A) Fraud prevention. Someone steals your card and you go to the store where something was bought and find the signature that doesn’t match to use as proof
B) Merchant protection. If your real signature is on a receipt it is pretty hard to argue that you didn’t mean to purchase something. So when someone comes back in saying they didn’t buy x, y, and z, you can show them their signature.
Case A never happens, and Case B probably isn’t worth it for smaller purchases.
Several places around here don’t ask me to sign for purchases under $25. I thought it was weird at first but I’ve gotten used to it.
Thanks, all!
Yep, exactly. And it’s very convenient in the fast food drive-through line.