Fast food chain McDonald's is to begin accepting MasterCard's contactless payments card scheme, PayPass, at select restaurants in the US.
Participating restaurants in Dallas and the New York metropolitan area will implement the PayPass system later this year, with additional locations to be added in 2005.
Paypass cardholders will be able to pay for purchases by tapping or waving their card on or near a specially equipped terminal that uses a radio frequency (RF) chip to complete a payment transaction. Verifone Omni 7000 card-readers will be installed in restaurants to handle payments made with Paypass cards.
McDonald's says it currently accepts cashless payment options at more than 4500 restaurants in the US and expects to increase this to 8000 by the end of 2004.