COUPONLESS REWARDS IN RESPONSE TO A TRANSACTION

• US 20160328735A1
• Filed: 07/21/2016
• Published: 11/10/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 07/18/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc. (American Express Company)
• Original Assignee: American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc. (American Express Company)
• Inventors: ALONI, RUTH L., AXELROD, BENZION T., BOWMAN, JEAN L., FUNDA, JACK J., POLON, JONATHAN S., TIKU, SRIPRIYA V.
• Granted Patent: US 10,453,088 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/10 specially adapted for electronic funds transfer [EFT] systems; specially adapted for home banking systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0222 During e-commerce, i.e. online transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0226 Incentive systems for frequent usage, e.g. frequent flyer miles programs or point systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0234 Rebates after completed purchase
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0236 Incentive or reward received by requiring registration or ID from user
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0238 at point-of-sale [POS]

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.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

authorizing, by a computer based system, a transaction with a merchant based on transaction information, in response to a user initiating the transaction with the merchant using a transaction account,

wherein the transaction account is registered with a rewards program;

accessing, by the computer based system and in response to the authorizing, a plurality of offers associated with a plurality of merchants;

selecting, by the computer based system and in response to the accessing, a subset of the plurality of offers associated with the merchant;

determining, by the computer based system and in response to the selecting, that the transaction information qualifies for a reward based on offer parameters, in accordance with a first offer of the subset of the plurality of offers; and

applying, by the computer based system, the reward as a credit to the transaction in the transaction account.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising creating, by the computer based system, the offer for the rewards program.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the offer is based on offer information and merchant information from a merchant.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising defining, by the computer based system, the offer parameters associated with the offer.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising registering, by the computer based system, the transaction account with the rewards program.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising linking, by the computer based system, the transaction account to a reward program identifier that indicates that the transaction account is associated with the rewards program.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the transaction account is accessed by an offer distribution engine that is configured to distribute the offers from an offer database to the transaction account.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the offer parameters include an attribute of the transaction account, the transaction information, a type of the offer, and a rule.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the offer parameters include a rule, and wherein the rule is at least one of a predetermined rule or a dynamic rule.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising indicating, by the computer based system, a monetary value of the reward as a separate entry within a statement associated with the transaction account, wherein the separate entry is associated with a transaction record of the transaction.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the applying the reward as a credit to the transaction in the transaction account occurs at least one of at the point of sale, or during a settlement operation.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising linking, by the computer based system, the reward with the transaction information associated with the transaction and based on the the transaction account being registered with the rewards program.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating, by the computer based system, a record of the reward associated with the transaction account used to conduct the transaction, wherein the record of the reward is associated with a charge associated with the transaction information corresponding to the transaction.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising associating, by the computer based system, an indicator of the amount of the reward as the monetary value with an indicator associated with the transaction information that qualified for the offer on a statement associated with the transaction account.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising displaying, by the computer based system, an indicator of an amount of the reward on a statement in connection with the charge corresponding to the transaction.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the reward is at least one of a discount, a rebate, loyalty points, a merchant sponsored offer or a monetary value.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the transaction information relates to at least one of authorization information, payment information, settlement information, dispute information or acquirer information.

18. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving, by the computer based system, the amount of the reward from a merchant account in response to the transaction information qualifying for the offer.

19. A system comprising:

a network interface communicating with a memory;

the memory communicating with a processor; and

the processor, when executing a computer program, is configured to perform operations comprising;

authorizing, by the processor, a transaction with a merchant based on transaction information, in response to a user initiating the transaction with the merchant using a transaction account,

wherein the transaction account is registered with a rewards program;

accessing, by the processor and in response to the authorizing, a plurality of offers associated with a plurality of merchants;

selecting, by the processor and in response to the accessing, a subset of the plurality of offers associated with the merchant;

determining, by the processor and in response to the selecting, that the transaction information qualifies for a reward based on offer parameters, in accordance with a first offer of the subset of the plurality of offers; and

applying, by the processor, the reward as a credit to the transaction in the transaction account.

20. An article of manufacture including a non-transitory, tangible computer readable storage medium having instructions stored thereon that, in response to execution by a computer-based system, cause the computer-based system to perform operations comprising:

authorizing, by the computer based system, a transaction with a merchant based on transaction information, in response to a user initiating the transaction with the merchant using a transaction account,

wherein the transaction account is registered with a rewards program;

accessing, by the computer based system and in response to the authorizing, a plurality of offers associated with a plurality of merchants;

selecting, by the computer based system and in response to the accessing, a subset of the plurality of offers associated with the merchant;

determining, by the computer based system and in response to the selecting, that the transaction information qualifies for a reward based on offer parameters, in accordance with a first offer of the subset of the plurality of offers; and

applying, by the computer based system, the reward as a credit to the transaction in the transaction account.