SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR MAXIMIZING A REWARDS ACCUMULATION STRATEGY DURING TRANSACTION PROCESSING

• US 20090287564A1
• Filed: 06/05/2009
• Published: 11/19/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 11/05/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Liberty Peak Ventures, LLC (Dominion Harbor Enterprises, LLC)
• Original Assignee: American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc. (American Express Company)
• Inventors: Bishop, Fred, Seth, Hitesh, Morgan, Robert E.
• Granted Patent: US 8,180,706 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/14.380
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/02 involving a neutral party, e.g. certification authority, notary or trusted third party [TTP]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/04 Payment circuits
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/10 specially adapted for electronic funds transfer [EFT] systems; specially adapted for home banking systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/12 specially adapted for electronic shopping systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/20 Point-of-sale [POS] network systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/202 Interconnection or interaction of plural electronic cash registers [ECR] or to host computer, e.g. network details, transfer of information from host to ECR or from ECR to ECR
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/204 comprising interface for record bearing medium or carrier for electronic funds transfer or payment credit
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/40 Authorisation, e.g. identification of payer or payee, verification of customer or shop credentials; Review and approval of payers, e.g. check credit lines or negative lists
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/403 Solvency checks
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/405 Establishing or using transaction specific rules
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0238 at point-of-sale [POS]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/03 Credit; Loans; Processing thereof

Abstract

Facilitating commercial transactions using a payment system directory are disclosed. A payment directory and/or wireless point of sale (POS) device may be configured to use predetermined rules, a multitude of data items and/or conditions to locate a payment system, and transmit a payment authorization request from a remote location to at least one payment system, either directly, or via a payment system directory and/or a SSL Gateway.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving, at a payment directory computer, a payment request for a transaction;

determining, by the payment directory computer and based upon the payment request, that the transaction should be at least partially funded from a transaction account, wherein the transaction account is determined at least partially by a rewards program associated with the transaction account;

determining, by the payment directory computer and based upon the transaction account, a payment system for processing at least a portion of the transaction; and

,

facilitating, by the payment directory computer, an authorization request to the payment system.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining the payment system comprises querying a payment system directory.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the querying the payment system directory comprises transmitting a payment directory request to the payment system directory with at least one selection parameter, wherein the selection parameter is associated with at least one of rewards program information, an account owner associated with the payment request or a merchant associated with the transaction, wherein the payment system directory parses the payment directory request, creates a query based upon the parsed payment directory request and executes the query against a payment system database.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the payment request is received from a point of service (POS) device.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the facilitating comprises transmitting an identification of the payment system to a point of service (POS) device.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein at least one of the POS device sends the authorization request to the payment system or the POS device receives an authorization response from the payment system.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the facilitating comprises transmitting, by the payment directory computer, an authorization request to the payment system, wherein the payment system transmits an authorization response to at least one of a point of service (POS) device and the payment directory computer.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining that the transaction should be funded by the transaction account comprises determining based upon a predetermined rule.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the predetermined rule is based upon the rewards program associated with the transaction account and at least one of the payment request, a merchant system, a requesting device, a merchant who submitted a payment request, a purchaser transaction device attribute, a transaction amount, an account holder, a transaction account, a proxy account identifier, a transaction account issuer, an alternate account associated with a transaction account, an overdraft rule, an overdraft account, an acquiring financial institution, a point of sale device, a point of service (POS) device associated with the transaction, a POS device attribute, a merchant associated with a POS device, a geographic location, a geographic location associated with the transaction, a code, a product associated with the transaction, a merchant associated with the transaction, a date a user data input, a first budget associated with a first account and with budget information, a points balance associated with a rewards account, an expiration date associated with the rewards program, a points balance associated with a second rewards program, an expiration date associated with the rewards program, a points balance associated with a rewards account, or an allowance.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining a supplemental account for funding the transaction.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the determining a supplemental account is performed in response to a forecasted points balance associated with the rewards account being greater than a predetermined threshold, wherein the forecasted points balance is based upon the estimated effect of the transaction on a points balance associated with the rewards account.

12. The method of claim 10, further comprising determining based upon the supplemental account a supplemental payment system for processing at least a portion of the transaction.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising facilitating a supplemental authorization request to the supplemental payment system.

14. The method of claim 12, further comprising determining an authorization request amount and a supplemental authorization request amount based upon the rewards program, wherein the authorization request comprises the authorization request amount and the supplemental authorization request comprises the supplemental authorization request amount.

18. The method of claim 14, wherein at least one of the authorization request is transmitted via an SSL gateway or the authorization response is received via an SSL gateway.

15. A method, comprising:

transmitting, by a point of sale (POS) device, a payment request for a transaction to a payment system directory;

determining, by at least one of the POS device and the payment system directory, that at least a portion of the transaction should be funded by a transaction account, wherein the transaction account is determined at least partially by a rewards program associated with the transaction account; and

,

receiving at least one of an identification of a payment system from the payment system directory or an authorization response from a payment system, wherein the authorization response is based upon an authorization request sent to the payment system by the payment system directory.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the determining that at least a portion of the transaction should be funded by a transaction account is based upon at least one is based upon the rewards program associated with the transaction account and at least one of the payment request, a merchant system, a requesting device, a merchant who submitted a payment request, a purchaser transaction device attribute, a transaction amount, an account holder, a transaction account, a proxy account identifier, a transaction account issuer, an alternate account associated with a transaction account, an overdraft rule, an overdraft account, an acquiring financial institution, a point of sale device, a point of service (POS) device associated with the transaction, a POS device attribute, a merchant associated with a POS device, a geographic location, a geographic location associated with the transaction, a code, a product associated with the transaction, a merchant associated with the transaction, a date a user data input, a first budget associated with a first account and with budget information, a points balance associated with a rewards account, an expiration date associated with the rewards program, a points balance associated with a second rewards program, an expiration date associated with the rewards program, a points balance associated with a rewards account, or an allowance.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein in response to a forecasted points balance associated with the rewards account being greater than a predetermined threshold, determining that at least a portion of the transaction should be funded by a supplemental account, wherein the forecasted points balance is based upon the estimated effect of the transaction on a points balance associated with the rewards account.

19. A tangible machine-readable medium having stored thereon computer-executable instructions that, if executed by a computing device, cause the computing device to perform a method comprising:

receiving a payment request for a transaction;

determining based upon the payment request that the transaction should be at least partially funded from a transaction account, wherein the transaction account is determined at least partially by a rewards program associated with the transaction account;

determining based upon the transaction account a payment system for processing at least a portion of the transaction; and

,

facilitating an authorization request to the payment system.