Anyone who knows about credit cards knows that American credit cards can generally be paid by signature. After the introduction of credit cards in China, credit cards will also be brought to China in the form of signature consumption. Many people regard avoiding password trading and signing with a stroke of a pen as "chic". Moreover, because some banks have launched the "lost card protection" service, which is also aimed at signature consumption, these cardholders wishful thinking that credit cards can be guaranteed and prefer to use signature consumption. As everyone knows, these users don't understand why the United States uses signature consumption, and the domestic card security environment is not suitable for signature consumption. Let's take a look at the story behind this.

Credit cards are all paper from the date of their birth and do not have the function of payment. They are only issued to cardholders as card issuers and as an identification of special merchants. Although American Express first used plastic cards in 1959 to improve the fragility of paper cards, because computer technology was not widely used in the 1960s and 1970s, credit cards could not be traded online on POS machines as it is today. Although the card pressing machine was invented later, it only changed the information recorded manually into mechanical records, which saved the trouble of manual copying, but the credit card is only proof of identity, and the card grade is used as the difference of credit grade.

In fact, the essence of a credit card is to show that the cardholder has a credit certificate from the beginning, and the signature is the cardholder's authorization and payment confirmation, that is, the bank is authorized to pay the merchant within the cardholder's credit range. This is related to the importance attached by the state to the signature.

First of all, European and American countries attach great importance to the legal effect of signatures. In Europe and America, personal signature has a strong legal effect, and the signature represents a person's legal attitude. For example, all kinds of documents and contracts are signed for confirmation, and there is no so-called "official seal" system in China. The so-called corporate seal is generally only used as an organizational logo, and its effectiveness is subject to signature and seal.

Secondly, there are a large number of personal checks used in the United States, and the check also confirms the holder's willingness to pay through signature, and establishes a perfect signature authentication system. So after the credit card appeared, it also followed the habit of checking.

Third, the responsibility for signature recognition lies with the institution. Bankers and businessmen in Europe and America have a strong sense of identifying signatures. Otherwise, if the signature obviously does not match, the organization is likely to bear the responsibility of stealing, which makes the security risk control measures related to the signature more mature.

In the United States, the Lending Truth Act stipulates that if a consumer's credit card is used without authorization, the legal liability of the cardholder is at most $50. Specifically, a credit card must be a card that the cardholder has accepted for use, an unauthorized use that occurred before the cardholder notified the card issuer, and a card that has been or may be used without authorization due to loss, theft or other similar acts.

It is precisely because the sound legal system in the United States provides a strong guarantee for cardholders to use cards. Card organizations such as VISA, MasterCard and American Express, as well as card-issuing banks or institutions, have perfect processing procedures for stolen cards and stolen cards. Cardholders don't need to worry about being stolen after losing their cards. Just call the card issuer after losing or stealing the card, and the rest is what the card issuer is worried about. More importantly, because the personal credit system is very perfect, most people will not make fun of their own credit. Even so, for some large purchases, merchants still have to check the identity certificate to confirm the cardholder.

It is precisely because of the sound security of credit cards that IC card migration in the United States is not active. However, since June 10 this year, the US government has required all merchants' POS terminals to support the EMV standard, otherwise, in case of credit card fraud, the merchants will bear the losses. The United States lags behind many other countries in bank card security. One reason is that the magnetic stripe credit card fraud in the United States was much lower than that in other countries more than a decade ago.

At present, in the process of completing IC card migration abroad, password+signature verification method is used to conduct transactions. However, due to deep-rooted traditional habits, even if the IC card migration is completed, it only reduces the risk of the card itself being copied and stolen, but cannot prevent the risk of credit card theft and online payment. In use, signature is mainly used.