[gambiting]

I have both British and Polish debit and credit cards, Visa and Mastercard(Visa Classic credit cards), I've used them in Spain, Germany, Netherlands, France, Spain and Portugal, and literally never had to sign for them, be it in shops or restaurants.

I'm not saying there aren't cards that need signing,but I've literally never seen any.

[the_af]

My experience is the opposite: I've never used a PIN.

I've done some reading and now I believe it depends on the country which issued the card (as opposed to the country where you're using the card). So if you have a card issued in the US and Latin America, you probably won't asked for a PIN -- because you don't have one -- and instead you'll be asked for id and your signature. If you have a card issued in Europe, you'll be asked for a PIN.

Interesting. A PIN seems safer than a signature to me, or possibly the combination of chip + PIN, but it simply doesn't get used where I live.