Taco Bueno Signs up for Cards Throughout Its System

Carrollton, Tex.-based Taco Bueno Restaurants Inc. has become the latest quick-service restaurant chain to begin accepting credit and debit cards. Paymentech L.P., a Dallas-based transaction processor owned by First Data Corp. and Bank One, announced today it will provide processing services for card acceptance at all 124 Taco Bueno locations, which are in Texas and Oklahoma, under a multi-year agreement. The chain is expanding card acceptance after a 12-store pilot that started a year ago showed the company could get higher average tickets on cards. The rollout to the remaining stores began about two months ago. Research by Visa U.S.A. shows that a card transaction in a fast-food outlet generally runs 30% higher than a cash transaction. Card volume in the fast-food industry has tripled in the past two years, to about $13 billion, but this still represents only about 10% of all spending in these restaurants.