Financial transaction system with consumer reward and net settlement

• US 7,516,883 B2
• Filed: 07/14/2003
• Issued: 04/14/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 07/17/1998
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Pluris Savings Network LLC
• Original Assignee: Pluris Savings Network LLC
• Inventors: Hardesty, Laurence D., Nelson, Stephen G.
• Primary Examiner(s): Frech; Karl D.
• Application Number:
  US10/619,304
• Publication Number:
  US 20040083183A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,101 Days
• Field of Search: 235/380, 235/382, 235/375, 235/379, 235/383, 235/361, 705/35
• US Class Current: 235/380
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/04 Payment circuits
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/24 Credit schemes, i.e. "pay after"
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/342 Cards defining paid or billed services or quantities
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/367 involving electronic purses or money safes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/387 Payment using discounts or coupons relating to marketing G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/4037 Remote solvency checks
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/02 Banking, e.g. interest calculation or account maintenance credit or loans G06Q40/03
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 7/08 by coded identity card or credit card or other personal identification means without personal verification means G07F7/02

Abstract

A financial transaction system in which a participant may make a purchase of goods or services from a merchant using an access device such as a payment card. Upon approval, the transaction is routed for net settlement of all funding to a Program Manager that applies logic to the transaction to calculate a merchant funded loyalty reward to the participant and administration and bank association fees. The bank association funds the merchant'"'"'s account net rebate and other fees. The participant'"'"'s rebate, if in cash, is placed in an investment account which may be interest bearing and is distributed upon the occurrence of an event such as retirement. The rebate provides the participant a convenient way to save money while also providing business benefits to the merchants.

Claims

1. A financial transaction system in which a cardholder is issued a qualified payment card by an issuer through an association and which may be used at a plurality of benefit sponsors each benefit sponsor having an acquiring bank, which, when used, entitles the cardholder to a cash rebate, said system comprising:

(a) providing an acquirer authorization processor;

(b) providing an acquirer'"'"'s billing settlement processor;

(c) providing a cardholder investment account;

(d) routing a card purchase from a benefit sponsor to the authorization processor upon presentation by a cardholder;

(e) transmitting authorization to the benefit sponsor;

(f) applying logic to qualified transactions to calculate marketing fee and rebate amounts;

(g) transmitting settlement adjustment amount to the association with calculated fees and amounts;

(h) funding purchasing by transmitting funds to the merchant acquiring account less fees and rebates;

(i) concurrently with (h) crediting rebate amounts to the cardholder investment account; and

(j) paying merchant marketing fees to the association.

2. The system of claim 1 where the merchant sponsored rebate is captured by an organization during interchange for deposit into the cardholder'"'"'s investment account.

3. The system of claim 1 where the cardholder registers a unique card number with a third party administrator.

4. The system of claim 1 where the cardholder register their unique card number with a bank owned association.

5. The system of claim 1 where the cardholder registers a unique card number with a publicly traded association.

6. The system of claim 1 where the merchant registers a merchant ID with a third party administrator.

7. The system of claim 1 where a merchant registers their merchant ID with a payment card processing company.

8. The system of claim 1 where all qualified or eligible transactions are identified by a third party administrator.

9. The system of claim 1 where the loyalty logic is applied against a database of participating cardholders and participating merchants.

10. The system of claim 1 where a merchant marketing fee is applied and calculated against a database of participating cardholder and merchants by a third party administrator.

11. The system of claim 1 where the cardholder and merchant marketing fee is captured by an association as a settlement adjustment and Merchant Marketing Fee is credited to the third party administrator and the cardholder rebate or discount is credited to the cardholder'"'"'s investment account.

12. The system of claim 1 where data mining occurs for qualified transaction is done by a third party administrator.

13. The system of claim 1 where the data mining occurs for qualified transactions and is done by a bank owned association.

14. The system of claim 1 where the merchant marketing fee includes the cardholder'"'"'s investment savings deposit.

15. The system of claim 1 where the cardholder elects to participate by registering a payment card information in conjunction with opening a FDIC insured savings account via a global telecommunications network.

16. The system of claim 1 where the cardholder elects to participate by registering a payment card information in conjunction with establishing an investment account with a financial services company.

17. A financial transaction utilized by a plurality of participants and participating benefit sponsors comprising:

(a) issuing each participant an access device;

(b) establishing an account for the participant under a unique account number, such that the account is an investment account;

(c) means for approving the transaction and transmitting approval to the benefit sponsor;

(d) means for processing information regarding a purchase and transmitting said information for processing such that a rebate may be calculated and funded by the benefit sponsor; and

(e) net settling the transaction by concurrently funding the participant'"'"'s purchase, paying administration fees, transferring a rebate amount to the investment account and paying the benefit sponsor a net amount.

18. The financial transaction of claim 17 wherein the access device is selected from the group consisting of credit cards, debit cards and SMART cards.

19. The financial transaction of claim 17 wherein the rebate amount is first transferred to a fiduciary to be held until the value in the participant'"'"'s account reaches a predetermined value at which time it is transferred to the said investment account.