What is a card signature threshold?

Point of Sale (POS) Glossary

A card signature threshold is an amount a transaction must exceed to trigger requiring a customer to sign for a transaction. Amounts under the threshold would not need a signature. Visa, Mastercard, Discover, and American Express all ended their requirements for signatures at point of sale terminals in the United States in 2018.

Customers appreciate checking out more quickly without a signature, and it also helps to reduce contact that could spread disease. Since many cards are now NFC (near-field communication) enabled, requiring a signature would reduce that technology’s convenience.

Outside of the U.S., there are still some requirements for signatures, and a U.S. merchant may also decide to require signatures at their business. If a merchant chooses to enable a card signature threshold in their POS system, they may set it at whatever amount they want.