The fun part is that that signature doesn't seem to do anything. It used to be that occasionally the cashier would check it against the signature on the back of the card (years ago), but now they never do that. They seem to have stopped asking to see my ID in the last few months as well... so now I can just swipe my card (or presumably someone else's card that I "found") and draw a smiley face on the signature pad, and that's it.
Recently, an engineer I work with (I work for Simple) asked if we could add an image of the signature to transaction metadata in our web and mobile applications. I thought it was a neat idea, so I started asking around, but was dismayed when I found out that the whereabouts of electronic signatures was completely unclear.
Can any network or point-of-sales people tell me if the signature is being transmitted? Stored? Analyzed?
The two things that helped were 1) being patient, and 2) carrying a pen.
The thing that didn't help was having a British accent and an American credit card...
I have a Wells Fargo credit card that has a chip in it, I just haven't bothered to try yet.
Has anyone else seen these readers?
It feels very odd going to the US where you have to sign with a pen when paying by card (rather than chip-n-pin).