Card payment with PIN or signature: That’s what’s behind it

The bank card has become an indispensable means of payment. When shopping, it is increasingly replacing cash and at the checkout it says “Please enter your PIN” or “Your signature, please”. But why can’t customers actually choose?

What consumers need to consider when paying by card

Anyone who has not already switched to mobile payment via smartphone or smartwatch will often use a bank card, giro card or EC card (as the old term goes). If you haven’t heard of one or the other, don’t worry: behind the different names there is one and the same thing – the card you use to access your bank account, but not the credit card.

Especially during the pandemic, the giro card has become indispensable for even more customers when shopping – and since then it has finally been accepted in many more shops. but who actually decideswhether we have to enter the PIN or sign it at the checkout? The short answer: the dealer and chance.

PIN or signature? The dealers have the last word

If you take a closer look, the hidden process becomes a bit more complicated: Because whether you are asked to enter your PIN or sign it always depends on the shop in which you want to pay Dealers can choose. But what is the difference?

When paying by PIN, your Account debited immediately (Source: savings bank), the retailer receives the money and can (almost) rule out later problems. That’s why it can also happen that you receive an error message at the checkout via PIN payment if you have less credit available (and no overdraft facility). However, the account balance is not communicated.

If, on the other hand, you are asked to sign, you are giving the seller permission to pay the amount at a later time to be debited from your account by electronic direct debit (ELV). This also works if you are (too) tight on cash. The problem for the retailer: Nobody knows whether you can pay or, to put it bluntly, buy on credit. In addition, direct debit payments are easy for you to reclaim.

If you want to know nothing more about giro cards, you should find out about mobile payment functions. You can see the most important things in brief in our Video:

PIN wins: That’s why customers are signing less and less

For retailers, everything speaks in favor of the PIN – it’s simply more secure. But the service costs: dealers usually pay around 0.2 percent of the purchase value to the relevant bank. The solution: many supermarkets, retail shops or restaurants switch back and forth between the two systems. As a rule, the PIN query predominates, which means that there is secure income. The signature is used less often, but you can save something here.

So if money should be tight at the end of the month, as a customer you could come up with the idea of ​​paying with a signature and thus delaying the debit. However, this only works if you know stores where you can only reliably pay by ELV.

By the way: If you pay contactless with the debit card via NFC, you often don’t even have to enter the PIN. This makes the payment method particularly fast. To be on the safe side, you have a minimum amount here, so that you still have to enter the PIN for larger purchases. The limit is usually 50 euros. Nevertheless, if you have activated contactless payment, you should have your card blocked particularly quickly if you lose it.