• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, October 21, 2013

American Express is launching a new program that will allow customers to pay fares in New York City taxicabs using card rewards points. The service, which relies on VeriFone Systems payment technology, could eventually allow AmEx card holders to pay using rewards points at stores that use VeriFone’s POS technology.

The current offering involves only New York City taxis, which have served as a proving ground of sorts for new mobile and digital payment services in recent years. Square last year announced a test replacing the existing taxi TV and card payments tech in 50 cabs with its own mobile payments product.

American Express called its partnership with VeriFone in New York taxis, “an initial proof of concept that enables a convenient option using Membership Rewards points." VeriFone is estimated to be used in about 80% of the top 200 big box retailers in the U.S.