Where Can I Use My Subway Gift Card

Openbucks: Purchase Digital Goods Online With Subway Giftcards (And More)

It's sort of ridiculous how huge gift card programs are — Americans spend some $100 billion on them each year, and they're now offered by myriad physical stores and online companies (like Zynga) alike.

Ane reason why they're and so popular is that they requite people who can't get credit cards — similar, say, millions of teenagers — a way to purchase appurtenances online. Thing is, gift cards tend to exist pretty restrictive, equally they by and large can only be used at i chain.

Openbucks, a startup that's launching at the TechCrunch Disrupt Battlefield, is looking to change this: they're creating what they're calling a 'universal payment network', that lets yous use gift cards to buy goods and services online — in other words, you could utilise your Subway gift menu to rent a movie, or buy some virtual goods.

To do this, the company is partnering with brands — they have six to start, including Subway, CVS, Circle Grand, Sports Authority, Hess and CITGO. If you buy one of these souvenir cards and head online to a supported site, yous can use the menu to purchase digital goods. You can spend whatever value was stored on the bill of fare — there's no exchange rate that depends on where y'all bought information technology. Y'all enter the number on your gift carte, hit submit, and yous'll get a receipt for the transaction, just like if y'all had used a credit card.

The difference, of grade, is that it isn't a credit card — it's a gift card that whatsoever one tin can buy with cash at one of the supported retailers. Retailers benefit because of increased foot traffic (teens will head over to Subway or CVS to buy gift cards so that they tin purchase things online), and online services will heave the number of users they're receiving coin from.

Right at present a diversity of gaming companies, similar Mochi, Gaia Online, and BigPoint, are accepting these cards equally payment, and the company plans to extend this to more digital goods in near future.

TC: Not certain I become the why. Why do I utilize my Subway carte, why would I get 1 to pay for games online?
A: Vast bulk of U.s.a. teenagers tin't buy online hands. They accept to ask permission, and we want to bring freedom by offer a bill of fare that isn't issued by a bank — anyone can walk into a store and pick a carte.

BG: Two huge thumbs up, I would invest.
SM: There's something so simple and genius about it. An anonymous way to pay for whatsoever they desire. I worry about hard goods, might have threft or fraud.
A: These cards are like cash, there isn't a gamble of fraud

Disclosure: TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington has a awaiting investment in the company via CrunchFund.

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