Softcard today announced that Subway will start accepting Softcard NFC-based mobile payments.
Beginning Oct. 1, more than 26,000 Subway locations nationwide will allow customers to pay with their mobile devices. In a few months after the initial launch, the Subway Cards Rewards Program will be integrated with Softcard.
From now until the end of the year, Softcard users paying with the American Express Serve card will get $1 back on every Subway purchase over $1.
Subway is the largest restaurant chain in the U.S. and the more than $12 billion in sales it did in 2013 was second only to McDonald’s.
Softcard, a mobile payment joint venture from AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile, says it’s now available on more than 80 devices across all three carriers. The company’s NFC and SmartTap technology is now available for mobile payments in more than 200,000 retail locations.
NFC technology for mobile payments recently got a high-profile boost when Apple finally relented and built it into its new iPhones. Along with NFC, Apple announced Apple Pay, a mobile payment application leveraging the iPhone’s secure element to make purchases via NFC and the iPhone’s Touch ID.
Softcard this summer made headlines when the company changed its name from Isis in order to avoid confusion with the Islamic militant group operating in Iraq and Syria.