Another credit card company has joined the lot to get rid of credit card signatures. American Express has announced that they will no longer require signatures for credit card purchases starting April 2018. The company now joins Discover and MasterCard in getting rid of signatures.
Jaromir Divilek, an executive VP at American Express, said that the company is making the changes because its “fraud capabilities have advanced so that signatures are no longer necessary to fight fraud.” American Express also cites advances in contactless payments, popularity of online shopping, and “advanced machine learning algorithms” to help prevent fraud much more efficiently as opposed to using signatures.
There is one important thing worth mentioning here. Unlike other companies that are doing away with signatures, American Express is making the move to do away with signature globally, not just in the US. Current American Express policy states that customers don’t have to sin for purchases under $50 in the US, under £30 in the UK, or $100 CAD in Canada.
American Express has joined the group to get rid of signatures. That only leaves Visa as the last major US card company that has yet to announce any similar change to their system.
