Subway has inked a deal with Softcard to offer NFC-based mobile payments in its 26,000 locations starting Oct. 1, making it perhaps the biggest mobile payment retail program to date in the United States.
As part of the deal, Softcard users will get $1 back on each purchase more than $1 made with the American Express Serve card through the end of the year. The launch has been in the works since 2013; earlier this year, Subway piloted the program in Salt Lake City.
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Softcard, which recently changed its name from ISIS to avoid confusion with the Islamic militant group, is a joint venture between AT&T Mobility, T-Mobile USA and Verizon Wireless. This is the group's biggest deal to date, a rep says. Softcard launched a similar program with Jamba Juice in November.
Starbucks launched a successful mobile payment program in early 2011, but this one appears to be larger; Starbucks' store count is slightly lower at around 21,000.
Subway, the No. 2 fast food chain after McDonald's in terms of revenue, will also use its NFC readers to process Apple Pay transactions when that technology becomes available, also in October. McDonald's will also accept Apple Pay.