Reading something like this is really strange to me in Australia. We&#x27;ve had chip-and-PIN for ages - August last year, signatures were phased out completely.<p>I&#x27;m paying with my phone via Commbank Tap &amp; Pay [1] and the one part of going overseas I&#x27;m not looking forward to is going backwards in banking systems &amp; technology.<p>Initially, chipped cards were (are?) slower because the approval was transmitted via dial-up (!) or GPRS. The newer terminals (that also support NFC) are using 3G and are fine speed wise. Some retailers even do batched approvals - the terminal does some kind of check and displays &quot;offline approve&quot;.<p>1: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.commbank.com.au&#x2F;personal&#x2F;online-banking&#x2F;commbank-app&#x2F;tap-and-pay.html" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.commbank.com.au&#x2F;personal&#x2F;online-banking&#x2F;commbank...</a>