The dying arts of Skilled Penmanship and Illegible Scrawl alike have taken savage beatings today with major news that the use of signatures authorising ill-advised impulse credit card purchases will no longer be a thing you can do in 2014. Sorry, pens, your ilk are no longer welcome here; sorry, the rush of empowerment that comes with signing away your paycheque on a reckless whim, you’ve been relegated to a time in the past, a time immemorial.
The decision comes courtesy of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) who, according to Inside Retail, have granted authorisation to Visa and MasterCard to abolish the use of signatures for purchases over $100 in an attempt to tackle instances of payment fraud:
“From July 1, 2014 consumers will be better protected by needing to enter their PIN for credit and debit card transactions to be approved.
It is expected that Australia’s 14,000 cafes and restaurants, their staff and customers will be affected the most by the changes, with customers to have to leave their seats [sic] to pay for bills at the cashier using their four digit PIN code.” That is, unless those 14,000 venues have implemented mobile payment terminals.
Fuck standing up though; bring me all of the stationery [cue tenuous stationery GIF]:
via Inside Retail
