Stuart Zullo 
The days of signing to pay for something on your credit card are now over, as banks around Australia have made the move to replace signatures with personal identification numbers (PINs) from today (Friday, August 1).
Apparently many Australians aren’t prepared for the switch however, so if you haven’t arranged a PIN for your credit card yet then you may find that it no longer works, so you will need contact your card issuer right away!
If you really would prefer to continue signing instead of typing in a PIN code for your credit card, banks will be issuing signature-preferred cards for people who, for mental or physical reasons, will struggle to remember a PIN or use the terminal keypad. These cards will have a different built-in verification code allowing customers to sign rather than using a PIN, but these do need to be organised with your bank.
The reason that Australian banks have decided to use PIN codes instead of signatures is to help improve credit card security, with credit card fraud costing banks millions and millions of dollars every year. We’re sure most will also agree that when they do sign for their credit card, it is rarely checked anyway, so by using a PIN code instead there should in theory be much less cases of fraud.
So for all of those who don’t have a PIN code for their credit card, contact your bank ASAP and you will hopefully be able to arrange for a PIN to be issued right away.
What are your thoughts on using a PIN instead of a signature? Do you think it will help reduce credit card fraud?