FULL STORY: Remember when you were young and your parents or grandparents would actually put a little effort into their signature? Do you still do that?
A random new poll asked, “When you make a credit card purchase and are offered a space to sign, what do you typically do?”
68% say they sign an actual signature . . . 19% draw a line or scribble . . . 3% leave the space blank . . . and 2% say they just “do something else.” It’s unclear what THAT would be.
Not surprisingly, older folks are more likely to use an actual signature.
Some Boomers might blame this on cursive not being emphasized in schools . . . but I think the REAL killer was those HORRIBLE “signature screens” at checkout counters, which would turn your signature into scribble no matter what.
This is coming up now because there have been some articles online asking if signing for transactions is being PHASED OUT COMPLETELY.
If you think about it, the times when you’re asked to sign have been declining rapidly over the past five years . . . ever since the credit card companies stopped requiring signatures in 2018, because they don’t even look at them anymore.
They have other ways of detecting fraud . . . and are able to reach out to you immediately on your phone . . . so signatures are really just there to make YOU feel more secure. Or, when they want you to leave a tip.
Of course, there are still “official” documents that require people to have a signature . . . but even that doesn’t seem as important and special as it once did. Especially since you can pretty much do anything online with DocuSign.
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