Just (don’t) sign here
According to cardweb.com, “VISA has added five major merchants to its ‘No Signature Required Program’ for certain transactions less than $25. 7-Eleven, Clearview Cinemas, Dairy Queen, Domino’s Pizza, and Sonic Drive-In have joined the program.” This means that if you go to one of those places and buy something using a VISA debit or credit card that’s under $25, they’ll just give you the receipt and be done with it. No signing necessary.
While this may be convenient (speeding up wait times & reducing hassle), it also makes it even easier to spend money without thinking about it. For the (many) people that just check their account balances online and don’t otherwise balance their checkbooks, those little purchases will seem even less significant. You won’t even have to look at the receipt long enough to slap a signature on it if you don’t want to.
But they are hardly insignificant. According to CardData, small purchase transactions are expected to top $60 BILLION for 2006. I can’t even really comprehend what one billion is, let alone 60. That’s already up more than $50 billion from the year 2000. I’m probably beating a dead horse here, but the little things really do matter. $60 billion worth of mattering.
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October 4th, 2006 at 9:49 am
The merchants in the food court where I work have already adopted their own version of this policy – they don’t make you sign for your stuff because it’s not worth it to them to take the time and save all the receipts, so they are probably just willing to eat the $6.87 or whatever you paid for your sandwich and drink. Plus most of the people eat there at least once a week so it’s unlikely anyone would ever contest a charge.