The UCF SmartCity® Card moves off-campus - McDonald's are first to accept

In an exciting development that sees the UCF Card move off-campus, McDonald's is now accepting the University of Central Florida (UCF) smart card for all payments in their fast food restaurant across from the campus.

The UCF Card uses the SmartCity® multi-application technology for its college smart card scheme. Not only is the UCF card the required form of identification for all students, it gives access to most sporting events, the opportunity to move cashless through campus using the smartchip technology and the availability of the three separate purses at vending machines, copy machines, health center, restaurants, many computer labs, the UCF Bookstore and many other on-campus merchants. UCF Card holders load their cards with value on-campus or over the Internet, allowing quick and easy card reloading by students or their parents.

McDonalds is a top favorite with UCF students and has been an immediate success among UCF Card holders, keen to spend their SmartCity® value at off-campus locations. "We put up the sign to say that we would accept the UCF Card and installed the card terminals, and from the first day we were busy with UCF Card holders. Accepting the UCF Card here is a big hit with the UCF students" said John Petrakis, owner of the first McDonald's to accept the UCF Card.

For Tammy Kidder, UCF's Card Services Manager, the addition of McDonald's is the first in a list of off-campus sites to be offered to UCF card holders. "We believe that this is an important addition as students live throughout the whole city, not just on-campus, so facilitating their use of the card off-site is equally important".

Kieran Timmins, CEO of SmartCentric (the developers of the SmartCity® solution), is very excited at this development. “Delivering off-campus functionality, along with Web Revalue, represents a major step forward for SmartCity® and UCF. SmartCity® UCF Cards may shortly be used in all eight McDonald's restaurants in the UCF area, as well as a growing list of other interested merchants."