Loyalty incentive program using transaction cards

• US 9,430,773 B2
• Filed: 07/18/2007
• Issued: 08/30/2016
• 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: Tiku, Sripriya V., Aloni, Ruth L., Axelrod, Benzion T., Bowman, Jean L., Funda, Jack J., Polon, Jonathan S.
• Primary Examiner(s): Brown, Luis A
• Application Number:
  US11/779,734
• Publication Number:
  US 20080021772A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,331 Days
• Field of Search: 705/14.38, 705/14.34, 705/14.36, 705/14.3, 705/14.17, 705/14.1, 705/39, 705/26.1
• 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:

creating, by a computer based system, an offer for a rewards program,

wherein the offer is based on offer information and merchant information from a merchant, and

wherein the offer and the offer information are stored in an offer database and the merchant information is stored in a merchant database, and

defining, by the computer based system, offer parameters associated with the offer,

registering, by the computer based system, a transaction account with the rewards program;

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, in response to the registering the transaction account with the rewards program,

wherein the transaction account is accessed by an offer distribution engine that is configured to distribute offers from the offer database to the transaction account;

authorizing, by an authorization server of the computer based system, a transaction with the merchant in response to a user initiating the transaction with the merchant using the transaction account,

wherein the authorization is based on a first amount of credit associated with the transaction account;

reducing, by the computer based system, an amount of available credit for the transaction account by a transaction amount included with the authorization;

receiving, by the computer based system and in response to the authorizing, transaction information for the transaction from the merchant for the transaction between the merchant and the user;

identifying, by the computer based system and in response to the authorizing, the merchant as an identified merchant based on the transaction originating with the merchant;

determining, by the computer based system and from the transaction information and in response to the authorizing, the transaction date;

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 identified merchant;

analyzing, by the computer based system and in response to the selecting, the transaction amount and the transaction date to determine that the transaction information qualifies for a reward in accordance with a first offer of the subset of offers;

determining, by the computer based system and in response to the selecting, the reward based on the offer parameters, an attribute of the transaction account, the transaction information, a type of the offer, and a rule;

applying, by the computer based system, the reward as a credit to the transaction in the transaction account during a settlement operation;

adjusting, by the computer based system, the amount of the available credit for the transaction account, in response to the applying the reward;

linking, by the computer based system, the reward with the transaction information associated with the transaction and based on the registering the transaction account with the rewards program;

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; and

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.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the reward is a monetary value.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising indicating, by the computer based system, the monetary value as a separate entry within the statement associated with the transaction account, wherein the separate entry is associated with a transaction record of the transaction.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the reward is loyalty points.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the loyalty points are at least one of merchant based loyalty points, issuer based loyalty points or third party loyalty points.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the reward is at least one of a discount or a rebate.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the rule is at least one of a predetermined rule or a dynamic rule.

8. 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.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the offer is a merchant sponsored offer.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising crediting, by the computer based system, the reward to the transaction account in response to the transaction information qualifying for the offer.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising receiving, by the computer based system, the amount of the reward from the merchant account in response to the transaction information qualifying for the offer.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the reward is a monetary value.

13. The method of claim 12, 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 the statement associated with the transaction account.

14. A tangible, non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having computer-executable instructions stored thereon that, if executed by a computer based system, causes the computer based system to perform a method comprising:

creating, by the computer based system, an offer for a rewards program,

wherein the offer is based on offer information and merchant information from a merchant, and

wherein the offer and the offer information are stored in an offer database and the merchant information is stored in a merchant database, and

defining, by the computer based system, offer parameters associated with the offer,

registering, by the computer based system, a transaction account with the rewards program;

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, in response to the registering the transaction account with the rewards program,

wherein the transaction account is accessed by an offer distribution engine that is configured to distribute offers from the offer database to the transaction account;

authorizing, by an authorization server of the computer based system, a transaction with the merchant in response to a user initiating the transaction with the merchant using the transaction account,

wherein the authorization is based on a first amount of credit associated with the transaction account;

reducing, by the computer based system, an amount of available credit for the transaction account by a transaction amount included with the authorization;

receiving, by the computer based system and in response to the authorizing, transaction information for the transaction from the merchant for the transaction between the merchant and the user;

identifying, by the computer based system and in response to the authorizing, the merchant as an identified merchant based on the transaction originating with the merchant;

determining, by the computer based system and from the transaction information and in response to the authorizing, the transaction date;

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 identified merchant;

analyzing, by the computer based system and in response to the selecting, the transaction amount and the transaction date to determine that the transaction information qualifies for a reward in accordance with a first offer of the subset of offers;

determining, by the computer based system and in response to the selecting, the reward based on the offer parameters, an attribute of the transaction account, the transaction information, a type of the offer, and a rule;

applying, by the computer based system, the reward as a credit to the transaction in the transaction account during a settlement operation;

adjusting, by the computer based system, the amount of the available credit for the transaction account, in response to the applying the reward;

linking, by the computer based system, the reward with the transaction information associated with the transaction and based on the registering the transaction account with the rewards program;

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; and

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.

15. 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;

creating, by the processor, an offer for a rewards program,

wherein the offer is based on offer information and merchant information from a merchant, and

wherein the offer and the offer information are stored in an offer database and the merchant information is stored in a merchant database, and

defining, by the processor, offer parameters associated with the offer,

registering, by the processor, a transaction account with the rewards program;

linking, by the processor, the transaction account to a reward program identifier that indicates that the transaction account is associated with the rewards program, in response to the registering the transaction account with the rewards program,

wherein the transaction account is accessed by an offer distribution engine that is configured to distribute offers from the offer database to the transaction account;

authorizing, by an authorization server of the processor, a transaction with the merchant in response to a user initiating the transaction with the merchant using the transaction account,

wherein the authorization is based on a first amount of credit associated with the transaction account;

reducing, by the processor, an amount of available credit for the transaction account by a transaction amount included with the authorization;

receiving, by the processor and in response to the authorizing, transaction information for the transaction from the merchant for the transaction between the merchant and the user;

identifying, by the processor and in response to the authorizing, the merchant as an identified merchant based on the transaction originating with the merchant;

determining, by the processor and from the transaction information and in response to the authorizing, the transaction date;

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 identified merchant;

analyzing, by the processor and in response to the selecting, the transaction amount and the transaction date to determine that the transaction information qualifies for a reward in accordance with a first offer of the subset of offers;

determining, by the processor and in response to the selecting, the reward based on the offer parameters, an attribute of the transaction account, the transaction information, a type of the offer, and a rule;

applying, by the processor, the reward as a credit to the transaction in the transaction account during a settlement operation;

adjusting, by the processor, the amount of the available credit for the transaction account, in response to the applying the reward;

linking, by the processor, the reward with the transaction information associated with the transaction and based on the registering the transaction account with the rewards program;

generating, by the processor, 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; and

displaying, by the processor, an indicator of an amount of the reward on a statement in connection with the charge corresponding to the transaction.