Shopping center gift card offer fulfillment machine, program product, and associated methods

• US 8,371,502 B1
• Filed: 10/28/2009
• Issued: 02/12/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 10/28/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Pathward National Association
• Original Assignee: MetaBank (Meta Financial Group Incorporated)
• Inventors: Galit, Scott H., Crowe, Andrew B.
• Primary Examiner(s): Le, Thien M
• Assistant Examiner(s): JOHNSON, SONJI N
• Application Number:
  US12/607,780
• Time in Patent Office: 1,203 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 235/380
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising

Abstract

Exemplary embodiments provide for offer fulfillment utilizing a shopping center gift card and an offer fulfillment machine. A cardholder obtains the gift card and registers with an issuer to receive offers, discounts, and promotions electronically. The machine activates the gift card'"'"'s offer purse, a subaccount associated with an offer. The machine notifies a cardholder of the promotional offer. To redeem an offer, the cardholder presents the gift card as payment to a merchant. No coupons are necessary. No change to the merchant'"'"'s POS terminal is necessary. The machine matches, in memory, the offer purse to a standard transaction approval request. The machine determines eligibility for the promotion and updates an amount associated with the offer purse to thereby satisfy at least in part from the offer purse the standard transaction approval request. A purchase purse, another gift card subaccount, can optionally provide any remaining amount for the transaction.

Claims

1. A machine to activate an offer purse associated with a gift card, promotional offer, and cardholder and to deduct a predetermined portion of a transaction amount from the offer purse, the machine comprising:

one or more processors positioned to execute a computer program stored in a non-transitory computer medium accessible by the one or more processors, the computer program being executed to perform the steps of;

activating the offer purse associated with the gift card, the promotional offer, and the cardholder, the gift card having a bank identification number and a unique cardholder account number, and the unique cardholder account number being associated with the offer purse and a purchase purse for holding funds of the cardholder that are attributable to purchases made with the gift card;

crediting the predetermined portion of the transaction amount associated with the promotional offer to the offer purse, the offer purse holding the predetermined portion of the transaction amount so that the predetermined portion can be deducted when the promotional offer is fulfilled using the gift card;

notifying the cardholder of the promotional offer associated with the over purse and the gift card;

determining, responsive to a transaction request from a merchant when use of the gift card occurs, whether the offer purse associated with the gift card is associated with the transaction request; and

deducting, responsive to determining that the transaction request is associated with the offer purse, the predetermined portion of the transaction amount from the offer purse and a remaining portion of the transaction amount from the purchase purse.

2. A machine as claimed in claim 1, wherein the transaction request involves the transaction amount with a partial authorization flag.

3. A machine as claimed in claim 1, wherein the transaction request involves a split tender process with the gift card as an initial form of payment.

4. A machine as claimed in claim 1, wherein the step of activating the offer purse associated with the gift card, the promotional offer, and the cardholder is responsive to a receipt of cardholder registration data, the cardholder registration data including demographic information and preferences so that the promotional offer is tailored to the cardholder.

5. A machine as claimed in claim 1, wherein the steps further include:

notifying the cardholder of balance information for the purchase purse and the offer purse associated with the gift card.

6. A machine as claimed in claim 1, wherein the step of notifying the cardholder of the promotional offer available through the gift card involves a text message to a telephone number associated with the cardholder.

7. A machine as claimed in claim 1, wherein the gift card is a shopping center gift card so that sponsors of the promotional offer at least one of a group selected from a shopping center management company and a merchant having a location at the shopping center;

and wherein the promotional offer is a dynamic offer available for a predetermined duration.

8. A machine as claimed in claim 7, wherein the dynamic offer is responsive to gift card transaction activity at shopping center.

9. A computer program product, stored on a non-transitory tangible computer memory media, operable on a computer, the computer program product comprising a set of instructions that, when executed by the computer, cause the computer to perform a process to notify a cardholder, associated with a gift card, of a promotional offer associated with an offer purse and the gift card and to deduct a predetermined portion of a transaction amount from the offer purse, the computer program product performing the steps of:

activating the offer purse associated with the gift card, the promotional offer, and the cardholder, the gift card having a bank identification number and a unique cardholder account number, and the unique cardholder account number being associated with the offer purse and a purchase purse for holding funds of the cardholder that are attributable to purchases made with the gift card;

crediting the predetermined portion of the transaction amount associated with the promotional offer to the offer purse, the offer purse holding the predetermined portion of the transaction amount, so that the predetermined portion can be deducted when the promotional offer is fulfilled using the gift card;

notifying the cardholder of the promotional offer associated with the offer purse and the gift card;

determining, responsive to a transaction request from a merchant when use of the gilt card occurs, whether the offer purse associated with the gift card is associated with the transaction request; and

deducting, responsive to determining that the transaction request is associated with the offer purse, the predetermined portion of the transaction amount from the offer purse and a remaining portion of the transaction amount from the purchase purse.

10. A computer program product as claimed in claim 9, wherein the transaction request involves the transaction amount with a partial authorization flag.

11. A computer program product as claimed in claim 9, wherein the transaction request involves a split tender process with the gift card as an initial form of payment.

12. A computer program product as claimed in claim 9, wherein the step of activating the offer purse associated with the gift card, the promotional offer, and the cardholder is responsive to a receipt of cardholder registration data, the cardholder registration data including demographic information and preferences so that the promotional offer is tailored to the cardholder.

13. A computer program product as claimed in claim 9, wherein the step of notifying the cardholder of the promotional offer available through the gift card involves a text message to a telephone number associated with the cardholder.

14. A computer-implemented method for causing a computer to perform a process to notify a cardholder, associated with a gift card, of a promotional offer associated with an offer purse and the gift card and to deduct a predetermined portion of a transaction amount from the offer purse, the computer-implemented method comprising:

activating the offer purse associated with the gift card, the promotional offer, and the cardholder, the gift card having a bank identification number and a unique cardholder account number, and the unique cardholder account number being associated with the offer purse and a purchase purse for holding hinds of the cardholder that are attributable to purchases made with the gift card;

crediting the predetermined portion of the transaction amount associated with the promotional offer to the offer purse, the offer purse holding the predetermined portion of the transaction amount so that the predetermined portion can be deducted when the promotional offer is fulfilled using the gift card;

notifying the cardholder of the promotional offer associated with the over purse and the gift card;

determining, responsive to a transaction request from a merchant when use of the gift card occurs, whether the offer purse associated with the gift card is associated with the transaction request; and

deducting, responsive to determining that the transaction request is associated with the offer purse, the predetermined portion of the transaction amount from the offer purse and a remaining portion of the transaction amount from the purchase purse.

15. A computer-implemented method as claimed in claim 14, wherein the transaction request involves the transaction amount with a partial authorization flag.

16. A computer-implemented method as claimed in claim 14, wherein the transaction request involves a split tender process with the gift card as an initial form of payment.

17. A computer-implemented method as claimed in claim 14, wherein activating the offer purse associated with the gift card, the promotional offer, and the cardholder is responsive to a receipt of cardholder registration data, the cardholder registration data including demographic information and preferences so that the promotional offer is tailored to the cardholder.

18. A computer-implemented method as claimed in claim 14, wherein the method further comprises:

notifying the cardholder of balance information for the purchase purse and the offer purse associated with the gift card.

19. A computer-implemented method as claimed in claim 14, wherein notifying the cardholder of the promotional offer available through the gift card involves a text message to a telephone number associated with the cardholder.

20. A computer-implemented method as claimed in claim 19, wherein the gift card is a shopping center gift card so that sponsors of the promotional offer at least one of a group selected from a shopping center management company and a merchant having a location at the shopping center;

and wherein the promotional offer is a dynamic offer available for a predetermined duration.