No PIN or sig required for foreign purchase

chattychappy

twist-and-shout wrote: »

Some shops offer it in the UK now for participating banks.
It's called 'contactless cards' where any transaction that is under £15 can be swiped so no pin and no sig.

Yep, but this wasn't a contactless transaction. (They've been using contactless cards here for a while and there is a separate pad.) Here the contactless thing works on the basis of a separate stored value (a bit like TFL's Oyster card in London) which can be on a CC. Not sure if that's how it works/will work in the UK.

Fiddlestick

qmpete wrote: »

Again it was a small transaction (about 20 CAD), but if someone got hold of the card, they could quickly run up a very large balance in small transactions if there is no verification required.

There will be velocity checking and limits set.

After a certain number of transactions within a set time period the card will either decline or prompt for verification again.

exel1966

dmg24 wrote: »

The same applies in the US - amounts below a certain amount (which seems to vary between shops) do not require a signature or PIN.

Most US stores have a $25/50 floor limit where the signature isn't required.
It was specifically set up a number of years ago now for fast food outlets due to the number of consumers who choose to pay this way.
The yanks are still a long way behind though when it comes to certain technologies i.e PIN.