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Comment by untog | Hacker News Reader

I used Square Wallet where I could, because if I used my card I had to sign on the iPad screen, which was always kind of awkward.

But I don't really know why I had to do that - in plenty of other places I can charge ~$5 without signing. And the software was controlled by Square. So effectively, Square Wallet helped me solve a problem that Square caused in the first place.

Now I have Google Wallet enabled for tap payments on my phone. Every time I use it I feel like I'm living in the future. Except I can only use it in Duane Reade.

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Not sure if this is why Square required you to sign, but rates for covering fraud are affected by whether you have customers sign or not for credit cards.

Whats the theory behind this? Many people (myself included) just scribble on the receipt because its inconvenient. Merchants never have a problem with this, meaning it could easily be someone who stole my card signing that receipt. Why does this unverifiable, meaningless "signature" change fraud rates?

If a business claims to collect signatures but doesn't save the receipts/signatures, they'll find it harder or impossible to contest chargebacks. So if nothing else it makes it slightly less likely that banks will eat the charge.

I've always wondered about this myself as I'm not familiar with dispute resolution for something like this. However, it seems like part of the resolution if an establishment has cameras it seems like they can pull up the frames for the time displayed on the receipt, and present that as evidence that you signed (scribbling shouldn't matter). If it wasn't you in the video then it could be fraud or a friend/relative using your card.

I've only seen investigations for online orders, digital purchases, etc. and not for a restaurant-type setting so it would be interesting to know if video can be used.

Oh, I know. It just begs the question of why Square is different from everyone else in that regard.

One of the things that drives me nuts is that Chip-and-PIN drove all the Canadian retailers to buying fancy new payment terminals that are NFC-enabled -- but Google Wallet NFC isn't available in Canada.

Whereas down here in the states we're lucky if Walgreens, McDonald's, and Old Navy will take NFC payments.

Tapping to pay with credit cards that support PayPass is still pretty hit and miss in Canada. A rough survey of people I know who've used it puts it's success rate at around 50%. The cashier often shrugs and says, "yeah it hasn't worked for a while," or "I've never actually seen anyone try to use that." I've just given up. Most people seem to prefer the security of being forced to enter a PIN over the small gain in convenience. From a messaging perspective it was pretty confusing for credit card companies to introduce two replacements for magstripe+signature at the same time, one with way more security, and another with almost none.

That seems to be how a lot of NFC implementations in the US have gone too. My understanding is that people gave up on trying to line their phones up correctly on the NFC parking meters installed around SF. I would love to know if that's not true.

The thing I find most awkward is that I have to click "No Tip" every time I order something.

Same here. You can bet that's by design.

It benefits the merchant if you have to sign because that's also the place where you can choose to leave a tip. It sounds much nicer to hear "here is my iPad, please sign" than "here is my iPad, please click the button for your desired tip".

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