ATM Cards Let Carl’s Jr. Dish Up Burgers, Bucks : Plastic Money: Restaurant chain joins growing list of businesses using electronic systems. Officials believe it’ll greatly help sales.

Carl’s Jr. customers will soon be able to order a burger, fries and a side order of cash.

Anaheim-based Carl Karcher Enterprises on Tuesday became the first major fast-food chain to approve the use of automated teller cards at most of its restaurants.

As the electronic system is installed over the next year in the chain’s 423 California restaurants, customers will be able to use plastic money--namely, bank debit cards from four major California banks--to pay for their food purchases.

And patrons can trot off carrying more than just a bag of burgers. Carl’s Jr. will allow patrons to receive up to $40 cash back with their purchases.

By accepting automated teller machine (ATM) cards, Carl’s Jr. is joining a growing list of retailers--including gas stations, supermarkets and convenience stores--allowing customers to use plastic money.

Just about every major competitor--including McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Arby’s, Jack in the Box and Burger King--has tested or researched the use of bank cards. But most of them have small pilot programs that either issue scrip redeemable for food or accept credit cards, which involves interest payments.

Carl’s Jr. is “way ahead of everyone” in developing the use of bank cards, said Carolyn Levy, a restaurant analyst with Shearson Lehman Hutton. But in the already bloated fast-food market, “everyone is desperate to increase customer counts--so there’s no question that the rest will leap in if it works for Carl’s,” Levy said.

Carl’s Jr. decided to adopt the ATM system after a two-year test at more than 120 Carl’s Jr. stores in San Diego and Northern California.

At those stores, customers pay 10 cents per transaction to pay for their Chicken Clubs and Famous Stars by sliding a bank card through a card reader. A debit card allows payment to be electronically transferred from the customer’s bank account to Carl’s Jr.

So far, the ATM systems seem to have given card carriers a bigger appetite. Customers who use debit cards spend an average of 50% more at Carl’s Jr. than before, said Bob Altman, a company vice president. Overall sales are up at the test sites, too, but Carl’s officials declined to provide numbers.

Carl’s Jr. officials believe that purchases made with ATM cards will account for up to 7% of the chain’s transactions within two years--and eventually more than 10% once drive-through customers can use plastic money (which the system currently doesn’t allow).

That’s for an investment of roughly $2,000 per restaurant to install the systems--which Altman estimates will be paid back within the first 18 months of operation.

The system, through Wells Fargo Bank’s Interlink system, accepts ATM cards from Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Security Pacific and First Interstate. But starting next spring, the Wells Fargo system will expand to add the state’s major savings and loan associations and larger credit unions.

The system will be added at all 423 company-owned Carl’s Jr.’s in California, with the chain’s 60 franchisees having the option of joining. The 48 stores in Arizona, Nevada and Oregon are not included.