OFFER MANAGEMENT AND SETTLEMENT IN A PAYMENT NETWORK

• US 20130110604A1
• Filed: 09/21/2012
• Published: 05/02/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/21/2011
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Jingit Holdings LLC
• Original Assignee: Jingit
• Inventors: Rooke, Todd A., Rogness, Joseph Jr.
• Application Number:
  US13/624,517
• Publication Number:
  US 20130110604A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/14.23
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/20 Point-of-sale [POS] network systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/227 characterised in that multiple accounts are available, e.g. to the payer
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3224 Transactions dependent on location of M-devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/34 using cards, e.g. integrated circuit [IC] cards or magnetic cards
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/36 using electronic wallets or electronic money safes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/387 Payment using discounts or coupons relating to marketing G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0215 Including financial accounts
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0222 During e-commerce, i.e. online transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions

Abstract

A payment network for facilitating transactions involves management of offers and accounts associated with a consumer. During a transaction, the payment network can associate one or more offers and accounts in settling a transaction. Once the offer and accounts have been associated with the transaction, the payment network can adjust a transaction amount and/or identify amounts to be debited for each account associated with the transaction.

Claims

1. A method of facilitating a transaction, comprising:

issuing an offer to a consumer, the offer being associated with the consumer and including at least one action for acceptance;

reserving an offer amount associated with the offer in a reservation account;

initiating the transaction between the consumer and a merchant, the transaction including the action to accept the offer and a transaction amount to the merchant;

debiting the reservation account the offer amount associated with the offer;

debiting one or more consumer accounts a consumer amount such that the offer amount and consumer amount are based on the transaction amount due to the merchant; and

crediting a merchant account the transaction amount due to the merchant.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying a merchant credit associated with the consumer;

adjusting the transaction amount due to the merchant based on the merchant credit.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the action for acceptance includes purchasing a particular good and/or service.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising;

accessing a priority list of the one or more consumer accounts indicative of a desired priority of settlement for the transaction;

debiting the one or more consumer accounts as a function of the priority list.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

debiting a first consumer account associated with one of a brand and a merchant a first amount that is less than the consumer amount;

presenting a list of a plurality of currency consumer accounts to be debited a second amount that equals a difference between the consumer amount and the first amount;

selecting one or more currency accounts from the list of the plurality of currency accounts; and

debiting the selected one or more currency accounts the second amount.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

presenting a plurality of tender settlement options to the consumer, each settlement option associated with an account of the consumer.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving transaction information identifying the consumer;

accessing a profile of the consumer using the transaction information; and

identifying the offer based on the profile of the consumer.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving transaction information indicative of a basket of goods and/or services involved in the transaction from the merchant to a payment network;

matching one or more of the goods and/or services involved in the transaction with the offer based on the transaction information.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

receiving transaction information identifying the consumer;

accessing a profile of the consumer using the transaction information;

identifying the offer issued to the consumer based on the consumer profile; and

identify the one or more consumer accounts to be debited based on the consumer profile.

10. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

identifying a second offer issued to the consumer based on the transaction information, the second offer including a value contributing to the offer amount.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

compensating a party facilitating issuance of the offer to the consumer.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving an indication that a second consumer has shared the offer with the first-mentioned consumer;

receiving an indication that the first-mentioned consumer has completed the transaction associated with the offer;

compensating the second consumer upon completion of the transaction.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving location information for the consumer during the transaction;

calculating a sales tax associated with the offer amount based on the location of the consumer and transaction information received from merchant.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying a budget for a campaign associated with the offer targeting a plurality of consumers, the budget identifying a total value for offers issued during the campaign;

determining if the budget has been reached.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

accessing a plurality of consumer profiles based on the campaign;

identifying a plurality of target consumers based on the plurality of consumer profiles;

issuing offers to the plurality of target consumers.

16. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

accessing a plurality of consumer profiles based on the campaign;

identifying a plurality of target consumer groups based on the plurality of consumer profiles;

defining a first offer amount for a first target consumer group in the plurality of target consumer groups;

defining a second offer amount for a second target consumer group in the plurality of target consumer groups, the second offer amount being different than the first offer amount;

issuing offers with the first offer amount to the first target consumer group and offers with the second offer amount to the second target consumer group.

17. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

accessing a profile associated with the consumer;

upon a request or permission of the consumer, identifying a merchant consumer account associated with the consumer and maintained by the merchant;

linking the profile with the merchant consumer account such that the profile includes information associated with the merchant consumer account.

18. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

accessing a profile associated with the consumer;

upon a request or permission of the consumer, identifying a brand consumer account associated with the consumer and maintained by a brand associated with the offer;

linking the profile with the brand consumer account such that the profile includes information associated with the brand consumer account.

19. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

associating the offer with a good and or service in the transaction that has been returned to the merchant;

crediting the offer amount to the reservation account and debiting the merchant account the offer amount.