No sig required - most credit card companies have made the move...
Bottom Line: The significance of today's date, probably comes down to three letters for most...IRS. As tomorrow's the deadline for filing taxes or obtaining an extension. But there's a change that's taken place that will last long beyond this tax filing season. The end of the need for a credit card signature. A lot happened on Friday and Saturday to reshape the need to use one when buying stuff.
On Friday American Express, Discover and MasterCard ended the requirement to use a signature when making a purchase. On Saturday Visa joined them. So just like that no silly signature required. But if you're thinking that you've made a purchase with one of those cards since Saturday and you still had to sign - so what's up with that...? You're right to be confused. While the credit card companies no longer need the signature because they've indicated that it's no longer a deterrent for fraud, most retailers aren't ready to drop it right away.
Most retailers use point-of-sale systems that have built-in software that requires that step - meaning that until a signature has been provided it won't process. For that reason there's a good chance that you'll continue to be asked for it by many retailers for the foreseeable but it literally won't be worth the paper it's written on.