06.04.07

KFC Takes Credit Card

Posted in Payment Gateway at 12:41 pm by admin

It’s amazing, it never occurred to me that KFC (Malaysia favorite Chicken Dish) will accept credit card payment, partly due to the fact that there’s latency in the process of credit card payment due to the need to – slotting in your fancy card, back-and-forth authorization, signing your big name plus signature authentication etc etc which will significantly slow down the paying process. That’s why most of the hypermart nowadays have an express lane cater for 10 items or below and they only TAKE CASH!

This photo is taken at Mid Valley KFC Outlet.

I cannot reason the logic on why would KFC, as a FAST FOOD restoran want to accept credit card payment. Isn’t cash the king? Can it really offer all-the-chicken-lovers a faster and smoother buying process? Can it cut down the queue time during peak?

On the other hand, I can totally understand why VISA/MASTER/JCB would love KFC (or McD, A&W etc) to do so, if you are observant, you probably will realize that in your daily transaction, food (referring to small amount transaction volume aka our normal meal) is where the credit card has the least significant presense. Most of us just pay for our normal meal by CASH! Especially very true for fast food as the name implies, you want the food FAST!

So If this experiment works well, it could contribute significantly to their bottom line even they capture only a small percentage of the amount as we are talking about billions of dollars of transaction every year over all these fast food chains! And best of all, super low chargeback & fraud risk, well, please tell me who will want to dupe a meal? It’s an insult itself for credit card fraudster to dupe on low value stuff as they too have self-respect and it cannot justfiy the cost!

Anyway, I think they are pushing this mastercard paypass service. But It’s not obvious to me whether they are accepting ONLY MasterCard Paypass or VISA WAVE. Both are contactless and works just like our ingenious Touch and Go (MyKad anyone?). They claimed it’s faster than cash transaction (Oh… is it?) as no signatures required and there is no need to hand the card to the cashiers. This contactless technology is specially designed to beat the queue, but can it really live up to the expectation?

Heck, who cares, sometimes we still prefer to carry cash. We suggest you to carry at least a stash of 10K and above as if you are being robbed, you are assured a front page coverage on the major news media and it can effectively pressure the police to investigate and put your case as top priority while claiming your-one-day-celebrity fame. Think 10K cash hanging at your pocket is a lot? Go ask Steve Wozniak

So, anyone tried to pay using their credit card in KFC? How’s the experience like? Please don’t do it while hungry kids and aunty are queuing along the line.. because they cannot understand why would anyone want to use a plastic paying for some chicken body that cost only RM6.80??

Well, bottomline is, if the experiment works well, you might be finding every hawkers store will start accepting credit card soon.

Can read Mandarin?
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