What is a Signature card?

People can mean a few different things by “signature card.” But most commonly, it refers to Visa Signature credit cards. And in that sense “Signature” describes the types of benefits the card provides. Not rates, rewards and fees, though Visa Signature Cards do tend to be rewards cards with no preset spending limit for people with good or excellent credit. Rather, “Signature” means that cardholders have access to the Visa Signature Concierge as well as special offers and experiences.

In many other respects, however, Visa Signature credit cards are actually quite diverse. They’re issued by dozens of different banks and credit unions. Many are affiliated with specific airlines, hotel chains, or other companies/organizations. And they offer quite different terms. For example, both the Amazon.com Credit Card and the Aeromexico Visa Signature® Credit Card are Visa Signature cards.

That said, “signature credit card” could also refer to chip-and-signature credit cards. These smart cards have an embedded computer chip but still require you to sign for purchases, as opposed to entering a code with a chip-and-PIN card.

In that sense, and with the rise of digital wallets, the term could also come to mean any credit card that requires you sign to complete a transaction.