LOYALTY REWARD SETTLEMENT SYSTEM AND METHOD
First Claim
1. A method for operating a loyalty program within a financial infrastructure managed by a transaction processing entity that processes transactions conducted between customers and merchants, wherein loyalty points are issued by a point issuer and awarded to a customer for conducting transactions with a merchant, the method comprising:
- establishing qualifying aspects of transactions that give rise to loyalty points;
assigning a value to each loyalty point;
receiving, at a loyalty host within the financial infrastructure, a packet of transaction information defining a transaction between the merchant and the customer;
identifying qualifying aspects of the transaction from the packet of transaction information;
determining loyalty points to be awarded to the customer from the identified qualifying aspects of the transaction;
awarding the loyalty points to the customer; and
based on the awarded loyalty points and on the assigned point value, electronically transferring an amount from an account of the merchant to an account of point issuer.
7 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A acquirer system used for credit card transaction processing includes a loyalty server to manage issuance of loyalty points as transactions are processed and to provide settlement features. The loyalty server uses loyalty qualifying criteria and assigned point values stored in an associated database. When points are awarded, the loyalty server records the value of the points and electronically transfers amounts from an account of a merchant to an account of the loyalty point issuer. The merchant may be multi-tiered, with the point value allotted between a central merchant organization and individual retail stores.
-
Citations
30 Claims
-
1. A method for operating a loyalty program within a financial infrastructure managed by a transaction processing entity that processes transactions conducted between customers and merchants, wherein loyalty points are issued by a point issuer and awarded to a customer for conducting transactions with a merchant, the method comprising:
-
establishing qualifying aspects of transactions that give rise to loyalty points; assigning a value to each loyalty point; receiving, at a loyalty host within the financial infrastructure, a packet of transaction information defining a transaction between the merchant and the customer; identifying qualifying aspects of the transaction from the packet of transaction information; determining loyalty points to be awarded to the customer from the identified qualifying aspects of the transaction; awarding the loyalty points to the customer; and based on the awarded loyalty points and on the assigned point value, electronically transferring an amount from an account of the merchant to an account of point issuer. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30)
-
-
15. A system for operating a loyalty award program, comprising:
-
a POS device for collecting transaction data when a customer conducts a transaction with a merchant; transaction processing server that receives the transaction data and processes the transaction; a loyalty server for receiving the transaction data and awarding a predetermined number of loyalty points to the customer for conducting the transaction; a database associated with the loyalty server, and storing a point value representing the value of each point awarded by the loyalty server to the customer, so that the loyalty server can calculate a monetary value of the awarded points; and a financial server for transferring the monetary value of the awarded points from an account of the merchant to an account of a point issuer. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25)
-
Specification