Signatures are becoming obsolete amid advancing payment technology

In brief: Payment and risk assessment technologies are increasingly making the need for a signature at a point of sale obsolete, which is fortunate, as many of our John Hancocks have become illegible. Yet for reasons that go beyond logic, they are still necessary in certain situations.

In a world increasingly dominated by digital transactions, the once-ubiquitous practice of signing credit card receipts is becoming obsolete. Major credit card companies like Visa, Mastercard, Discover, and American Express officially dropped the signature requirement for charges in 2018. When they did so, it marked a significant change in how financial transactions were conducted. But you'd never know it based on how often you are still required to sign a receipt.

The move away from signatures is largely due to advancements in fraud prevention technology. Credit card companies now rely on sophisticated risk-scoring systems to detect potential fraud. These systems analyze each ...