MasterCard® PayPass™ Expanding Acceptance with SUBWAY®
- As of Q1 2012 SUBWAY® will accept MasterCard® PayPass™ contactless payments in over 7,000 of its US-based restaurants.
- Acceptance points will be equipped with compatible devices. According to MasterCard, this initiative is once again motivated by time saving issues. Also, Customers are increasingly interested in new technologies, including contactless ones, at the expense of cash and cheque payments.
- They will no longer have to sign for transactions below 50 dollars, sparing even more time.
- MasterCard also explains that almost 100 million cards and PayPass-compatible devices had been issued by Q2 2011, making this payment option available with 341,000 merchants worldwide (fast-foods, retailers, airports, stadiums, vending machines, taxis, etc.).
- SUBWAY®, subsidiary of Doctor's Associates Inc., seems to have been seduced by alternative payment solutions. It has been taking part in several innovative pilot tests. Since end 2010, it has been proposing FaceCash mobile prepaid option in some of its Californian restaurants (see November 2010 Insight).
- The retailer asserts its commitment to propose m-payment and expands its payment offer. This announcement fellows MasterCard’s investment in Google Wallet through PayPass technology and SUBWAY®’s partaking in this initiative.
- SUBWAY is also the largest fast-food chain in the world (before McDonald’s) with 33,800 stores. This announcement shown that contactless payment has grown these past months, even if this acceptance agreement only applies to the US for now.