CONSUMER SPECIFIC CONDITIONAL REWARDS

• US 20080082418A1
• Filed: 09/27/2007
• Published: 04/03/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 09/29/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Visa USA, Inc. (Visa, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Visa USA, Inc. (Visa, Inc.)
• Inventors: Bodington, Shaun, Patel, Karteek Hasmukh, Fordyce, Edward W.
• Granted Patent: US 10,121,152 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/14
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0207 Discounts or incentives, e.g. coupons or rebates
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0234 Rebates after completed purchase

Abstract

A set of conditional rewards are associated with a consumer. Thereafter, notice of a reward is given for each of the consumer'"'"'s transactions upon one of the consumer'"'"'s accounts that satisfies one of the conditional rewards in the set. The set may be selected by the consumer, or by the issuer such as when the issuer uses a transaction history of purchases made on the consumer'"'"'s account to determine the set of conditional rewards that would match a past purchasing trend of the consumer. A Globally Unique Identifier, unique within a plurality of transaction processing systems, can be associated with the consumer and used to match the transactions to a corresponding conditional reward.

Claims

1. In a transaction processing system in which a transaction handler processes a plurality of transactions each characterized by a merchant and a consumer engaging in the transaction upon an account that an issuer has issued to the consumer, wherein the merchant submits the transaction to an acquirer for processing by the transaction handler who requests the issuer to obtain payment for the transaction from the consumer, and wherein the issuer forwards the payment to the transaction handler who forwards the payment to, the acquirer to pay the merchant for the transaction, a method comprising:

receiving a selection of a subset of a plurality of conditional rewards from the consumer, wherein each of the conditional rewards in the subset represents a value to be given to the consumer upon a satisfaction of a condition for a particular said transaction conducted by the consumer upon one or more said accounts issued by the issuer to the consumer; and

sending a notice to the consumer of each said satisfied condition.

2. The method as defined in claim 1, further comprising replacing the subset of said plurality of conditional rewards with a second subset thereof received from the consumer, wherein thereafter each said notice to the consumer corresponds to each of the conditional rewards in the second subset.

3. The method as defined in claim 1, further comprising:

associating a Globally Unique Identifier (GUID) that is globally unique across multiple said transaction processing systems to;

the consumer;

identifiers respectively corresponding to the one or more said accounts upon which the particular said transaction can be conducted; and

the subset of said plurality of conditional rewards;

sending the GUID, the identifiers, and the subset of said plurality of conditional rewards to the transaction handler; and

receiving a notification from the transaction handler corresponding to each determination of each said satisfied condition in the subset of said plurality of conditional rewards.

4. The method as defined in claim 3, further comprising the issuer receiving the GUID, addressed from the transaction handler, prior to associating the GUID.

5. The method as defined in claim 3, further comprising the issuer deriving the GUID from a predetermined algorithm.

6. The method as defined in claim 3, further comprising:

issuing to the consumer a first portable consumer device having information from which the GUID can be derived, wherein the first portable consumer device can be used by the consumer to conduct the particular said transaction; and

issuing a second portable consumer device from which the GUID can be derived when used to conduct the particular said transaction while invalidating the use of first portable consumer device in favor of the second portable device.

7. The method as defined in claim 1, wherein the issuer issues the one or more said accounts so as to successively invalidate the chronologically prior said account in favor of the chronologically next said account for use by the consumer to conduct the transaction.

8. The method as defined in claim 1, further comprising receiving from the consumer instructions to automatically and periodically pay a payment respectively corresponding to a periodic said transaction periodically conducted by the consumer with one said merchant upon a valid said account of the one or more said accounts.

9. The method as defined in claim 1, wherein the issuer performs at least one of the receiving and the sending.

10. The method as defined in claim 1, further comprising receiving a fee corresponding to each said notice.

11. The method as defined in claim 1, further comprising sending a second notice to the consumer of each of the conditions that is unsatisfied.

12. The method as defined in claim 1, wherein the consumer is selected from the group consisting of:

an account holder of the account;

a joint account holder of the consumer account;

an individual;

a company; and

an employee within the company having rights to use the consumer account in the transaction.

13. The method as defined in claim 1, wherein notice include instructions on how to redeem the conditional reward.

14. In a transaction processing system in which a transaction handler processes a plurality of transactions each characterized by a merchant and a consumer engaging in the transaction upon an account that the issuer has issued to the consumer and has classified into a category, wherein the merchant submits the transaction to an acquirer for processing by the transaction handler who requests the issuer to obtain payment for the transaction from the consumer, and wherein the issuer forwards the payment to the transaction handler who forwards the payment to the acquirer for paying the merchant for the transaction, a method comprising:

selecting from among a plurality of conditional rewards, a plurality of sets of conditional rewards, wherein;

the conditional rewards each represents a value to be given to the consumer upon a satisfaction of a condition for the transaction that the consumer has conducted upon the account; and

each set of conditional rewards are associated with the corresponding respective category of a particular said account;

informing the consumer that the category of the account has changed into a new category;

receiving a subset, selected by the consumer, of the set of conditional rewards associated with the new category of the account; and

sending notice to the consumer of each said satisfied condition for the subset of the set of conditional rewards associated with the new category of the account.

15. The method as defined in claim 14, wherein each said category is based on a characteristic selected from the group consisting of:

a frequency of the transactions upon the account within a time period;

a risk analysis of the probability of the consumer reneging on making future payments toward future transactions conducted on the account based on the frequency of successful settlement of payments of past transactions on the account;

an analysis of inventory purchased in past transactions on the account;

the account being a credit account;

the account being a debit account;

the account being a charge account;

the account being a prepaid account;

the account being a reloadable account;

the account being a commercial account; and

a combination thereof.

16. In a transaction processing system in which a transaction handler processes a plurality of transactions each characterized by a merchant and a consumer engaging in the transaction upon an account that an issuer has issued to the consumer, wherein the merchant submits the transaction to an acquirer for processing by the transaction handler who requests the issuer to obtain payment for the transaction from the consumer, and wherein the issuer forwards the payment to the transaction handler who forwards the payment to the acquirer to pay the merchant for the transaction, a method comprising:

deriving, from a frequency of past said transactions for an inventory within a time period, a plurality of conditional rewards each representing a value to be credited to the consumer upon a satisfaction of a condition for a particular future said transaction for the inventory conducted by the consumer upon the account; and

sending notice, addressed to the consumer, of each said satisfied condition.

17. The method as defined in claim 16, further comprising:

repeating said deriving to determine a change in the frequency and a corresponding change in the plurality of conditional rewards wherein thereafter the notice corresponds to the change in the plurality of conditional rewards.

18. The method as defined in claim 16, further comprising informing the consumer of the plurality of conditional rewards, wherein the issuer performs at least one of the deriving, the sending notice, and the informing the consumer.

19. The method as defined in claim 16, wherein the deriving is a step selected from the group consisting of:

associating, for each said conditional rewards, the value with a value of a good or service that had been purchased in one of the past said transactions;

associating, for each said conditional rewards, the value with a discount on one said particular future said transaction for the purchase of a good or service that had been purchased in one of the past said transactions;

associating, for each said conditional rewards, the value a free good or service that had been purchased in one of the past said transactions;

associating, for each said conditional rewards, the value with a discount on future travel expenses to a destination corresponding to travel expenses to the destination of one of the past said transactions;

associating, for each said conditional rewards, the value with a discount on a future purchase at one said merchant corresponding to a past purchase from the one said merchant of one of the past said transactions; and

associating, for each said conditional rewards, the value with a discount on a future purchase of a food item at one said merchant corresponding to a past purchase of the food item from the one said merchant of one of the past said transactions.

20. In a transaction processing system in which a transaction handler processes a plurality of transactions each characterized by a merchant and a consumer engaging in the transaction upon an account that an issuer has issued to the consumer, wherein the merchant submits the transaction to an acquirer for processing by the transaction handler who requests the issuer to obtain payment for the transaction from the consumer, and wherein the issuer forwards the payment to the transaction handler who forwards the payment to the acquirer to pay the merchant for the transaction, a method comprising:

receiving a Globally Unique Identifier (GUID) that is globally unique across multiple said transaction processing systems and associated to;

a selection of a subset of a plurality of conditional rewards from the consumer, wherein each of the conditional rewards in the subset represents a value to be given to the consumer upon a satisfaction of a condition for a particular said transaction conducted by the consumer upon one or more said accounts issued by the issuer to the consumer; and

identifiers respectively corresponding to the one or more accounts;

receiving a plurality of said transactions upon the one or more accounts sufficient to derive therefrom;

the GUID; and

each said satisfaction of the condition for the particular said transaction conducted by the consumer upon one or more said accounts issued by the issuer to the consumer; and

sending a notice of each said satisfied condition.

21. The method as defined in claim 20, further comprising sending a second notice of each said condition that is unsatisfied.

22. The method as defined in claim 20, wherein the notice includes a description of at least one of:

the condition reward;

a date of the transaction;

a time of the transaction;

an identifier of the merchant;

a tally on how often the condition has been satisfied within a window of time; and

a profitability of the issuer in providing the conditional reward to the consumer.