Loyalty Incentive Program Using Transaction Cards
First Claim
1. A method for providing loyalty incentives to a card member customer, comprising:
- receiving a record of charge for a purchase made with a participating merchant by a card member customer;
using the record of charge to determine whether the purchase by the card member customer qualifies for a rebate credit in accordance with a discount offer from the participating merchant; and
if the purchase qualifies for the rebate credit, then providing the rebate credit to an account of the card member customer.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A system and method provide rewards or loyalty incentives to card member customers. The system includes an enrolled card member customer database, an enrolled merchant database, a participating merchant offer database and a registered card processor. The enrolled card member customer database includes transaction accounts of card member customers enrolled in a loyalty incentive program. The enrolled merchant database includes a list of merchants participating in the loyalty incentive program. The participating merchant offer database includes loyalty incentive offers from participating merchants. The registered card processor receives a record for charge for a purchase made with an enrolled merchant by an enrolled card member customer and uses the record of charge to determine whether the purchase qualifies for a rebate credit in accordance with a discount offer from the enrolled merchant. If the purchase qualifies for a rebate credit, the registered card processor provides the rebate credit to an account of the enrolled card member customer. The system provides a coupon-less way for merchants to provide incentive discounts to enrolled customers.
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Citations
21 Claims
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1. A method for providing loyalty incentives to a card member customer, comprising:
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receiving a record of charge for a purchase made with a participating merchant by a card member customer;
using the record of charge to determine whether the purchase by the card member customer qualifies for a rebate credit in accordance with a discount offer from the participating merchant; and
if the purchase qualifies for the rebate credit, then providing the rebate credit to an account of the card member customer. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
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15. A method for operating a loyalty incentive program, comprising:
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receiving a list of participating merchants;
receiving a list of participating card members; and
upon receiving from a merchant a record of charge corresponding to a purchase by a card member customer;
debiting an account of the card member customer by the amount of the charge, comparing a merchant identification contained in the record of charge with the list of participating merchants, and comparing a card member identification contained in the record of charge with the list of participating card members, if the card member is a participating card member and the merchant is a participating merchant, then determining whether the record of charge qualifies for a rebate credit, and if the record of charge qualifies for a rebate credit, then providing the rebate credit to an account of the card member customer. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17)
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18. A method for operating a loyalty incentive program, comprising:
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soliciting participation of a merchant in the loyalty incentive program;
receiving an offer from a participating merchant;
soliciting enrollment of a card member customer to the loyalty incentive program;
providing the offer to an enrolled card member customer;
receiving information relating to a purchase by the enrolled card member customer in accordance with the offer from the merchant;
calculating an amount of a discount in accordance with the offer; and
providing the amount of the discount to a transaction account provider so that an account of the enrolled card member customer can be credited in the amount of the discount. - View Dependent Claims (19)
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20. A system for operating a loyalty incentive program, comprising:
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an enrolled card member customer database having identification information of accounts associated with card member customers enrolled in the loyalty incentive program;
an enrolled merchant database having identification information of merchants enrolled in the loyalty incentive program;
a merchant offer database having identification information of discount offers provided by the enrolled merchants; and
a registered card processor to receive a record of charge associated with a purchase, to determine from the enrolled card member customer database whether the purchase was made by an enrolled card member customer, to determine from the enrolled merchant database whether the purchase was made with an enrolled merchant, to determine whether the purchase qualifies for a rebate credit in accordance with a discount offer from the merchant offer database, and, if the purchase qualifies for a rebate credit, to provide the rebate credit to an account of the enrolled card member customer. - View Dependent Claims (21)
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Specification