(by Ameli Berksman)

McDonalds’, Wendy’s, Jack in the Box and other quick-serve restaurants (QSRs) start using signature-less and PIN-less card transactions. The first store to commence was Starbucks last spring.

Applying credit or debit cards will boost transactions up to 35 per cent as plastic card users usually pay more for meal, approximately in between $2 and $4 extra money. QSRs are predicted to issue their own version of Starbucks’ stored-value card, particularly since bank- or mall-issued stored-value card consistently have fee structures carrying no extra costs and serving as a suitable budgeting means for fast-food purchases.

QSRs will be able to offset fees for card acceptance within the increased foot traffic in stores as usual card sales are higher than cash transactions. This can lead to plastic cards having bigger sales percentage. Burger King, for instance, is going to facilitate 4 per cent of sales with the help of credit card transaction. Card acceptance will be used by QSRs as a differentiator.