Family Plan Promotional Offer Sharing

• US 20130159072A1
• Filed: 12/16/2011
• Published: 06/20/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 12/16/2011
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: PayPal, Inc. (PayPal Holdings, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: eBay Inc.
• Inventors: Vadhri, Srinivas
• Application Number:
  US13/328,180
• Publication Number:
  US 20130159072A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/14.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0215 Including financial accounts
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0236 Incentive or reward received by requiring registration or ID from user

Abstract

Promotional offers are shared among members of a group, such as members of a family plan for cellular telephone billing and/or mobile device data billing. The promotional offers can be presented by a merchant at a point-of-sale during checkout. A payment server can have a memory that store account information for a plurality of customers. The account information can include an indication as to which group a customer belongs. A processor can receive an indication of a desire of a customer to purchase an item, access an account of the customer, determine from the account information to which of the groups the customer belongs, and determine identifications of other members of the group. The processor can facilitate communication of an offer to the other members of the group.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a memory storing account information for a plurality of users, the account information including an indication as to which group of a plurality of groups a user belongs, wherein each of the groups contain a plurality of users;

a processor operable to;

receive an indication of an offer provided or to be provided to a user;

access an account of the user;

determine from the account information to which of the groups the user belongs;

determine identifications of other members of the group; and

facilitate communication of the offer to at least one of the other members of the group.

2. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein facilitating communication of the offer to other members of the group comprises communicating the identifications of the other members of the group to a mobile device of the user.

3. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein facilitating communication of the offer to at least one of the other members of the group comprises automatically communicating the offer to the at least one of the other members of the group.

4. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein all members of the group share a cellular phone/data plan.

5. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the group is a family.

6. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein the communication of the offer is facilitated to a predetermined subset of the other members of the group.

7. The system as recited in claim 1, wherein a list of members of the group to whom the offer is to be communicated is stored in a cloud.

8. A method for providing an offer to members of a group, comprising:

storing account information for a plurality of users in a memory, the account information including an indication as to which group of a plurality of groups a user belongs, wherein each of the groups contain a plurality of users;

receiving, electronically by a processor of a payment system, an indication of an offer provided or to be provided to a user;

accessing, by the processor, an account of the user;

determining, by the processor, from the account information to which of the groups the user belongs;

determining, by the processor, identifications of other members of the group; and

facilitating communication of the offer to at least one of the other members of the group.

9. The method as recited in claim 8, wherein facilitating communication of an offer to at least one of the other members of the group comprises communicating the identifications of the at least one of the other members of the group to a mobile device of the customer.

10. The method as recited in claim 8, wherein facilitating communication of the offer to at least one of the other members of the group comprises automatically communicating the offer to the at least one of the other members of the group.

11. The method as recited in claim 8, wherein all members of the group share a cellular phone/data plan.

12. The method as recited in claim 8, wherein the group is a family.

13. The method as recited in claim 8, wherein the communication of the offer is facilitated to a predetermined subset of the other members of the group.

14. The method as recited in claim 8, wherein a list of members of the group to whom the offer is to be communicated is stored in a cloud.

15. A non-transitory machine-readable medium comprising a plurality of machine-readable instructions which when executed by one or more processors of a server are adapted to cause the server to perform a method comprising:

storing account information for a plurality of users in a memory, the account information including an indication as to which group of a plurality of groups a user belongs, wherein each of the groups contain a plurality of users;

receiving an indication of an offer provided or to be provided to a user;

accessing an account of the user;

determining from the account information to which of the groups the user belongs;

determining identifications of other members of the group; and

facilitating communication of the offer to at least one of the other members of the group.

16. The non-transitory machine-readable medium as recited in claim 15, wherein facilitating communication of the offer to the at least one of the other members of the group comprises communicating the identifications of the other members of the group to a mobile device of the user.

17. The non-transitory machine-readable medium as recited in claim 15, wherein facilitating communication of the offer to the at least one of the other members of the group comprises automatically communicating the offer to the other members of the group.

18. The non-transitory machine-readable medium as recited in claim 15, wherein all members of the group share a cellular phone/data plan.

19. The non-transitory machine-readable medium as recited in claim 15, wherein the group is a family.

20. The non-transitory machine-readable medium as recited in claim 15, wherein the communication of the offer is facilitated to a predetermined subset of the other members of the group.

21. The non-transitory machine-readable medium as recited in claim 15, wherein a list of members of the group to whom the offer is to be communicated is stored in a cloud.