SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR PROVIDING LOCATION BASED COUPON-LESS OFFERS TO REGISTERED CARD MEMBERS

• US 20120203604A1
• Filed: 02/04/2011
• Published: 08/09/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 02/04/2011
• 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: Durvasula, Sastry VSM, Tiku, Sripriya V., Baker, Miles, Derocher, Diane, Newhouse, Sherree, Puranik, Manjushri H.
• Granted Patent: US 9,489,680 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/14.17
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0207 Discounts or incentives, e.g. coupons or rebates
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0234 Rebates after completed purchase
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0259 based on store location
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0261 based on user location

Abstract

The system provides location based coupon-less offers based upon a location of a card member (CM). A location of a CM may be determined based upon one or more of a travel itinerary, a GPS signal, a proximity of a mobile communication device to a cellular base station, and/or a zip code. An offer from a merchant registered to provide coupon-less offers may be transmitted to a mobile communication device based upon the location. An offer, once accepted by a CM, may be matched to a record of charge associated with a transaction account held by the CM. A credit may be applied to the CM'"'"'s transaction account and a debit may be applied to a transaction account of the registered merchant. One or more offer categories and/or one or more offer category classes may be transmitted to the mobile communication device based upon the CM'"'"'s location.

Claims

1-20. -20. (canceled)

21. A method comprising:

determining, by a computer based system for providing location based offers, a dynamically changing location of an account affiliate associated with a transaction account, wherein the dynamically changing location is determined based on at least one of a travel itinerary associated with the transaction account and a location associated with a computing device associated with the transaction account;

providing, by the computer based system, first notification instruction for a first offer for the account affiliate based upon the location; and

associating, by the computer based system, the offer with the transaction account.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the offer is from a merchant registered to provide offers.

23. The method of claim 21, wherein the notification instruction generates a first notification of the first offer for transmission to the account affiliate.

24. The method of claim 21, wherein the offer is a coupon-less offer.

25. The method of claim 21, wherein the account affiliate is at least one of an account holder, an account owner, a supplemental account holder, a beneficiary of an account and a rewards account holder.

26. The method of claim 25, further comprising crediting, by the computer based system, the transaction account held by the account affiliate based upon the associating.

27. The method of claim 26, further comprising:

comparing, by the computer based system, a transaction with a criterion governing the coupon-less offer; and

determining, by the computer based system, a reward based upon the transaction complying the criterion governing the coupon-less offer.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein the location of the account affiliate is provided by the computing device.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein the computing device is a smart phone.

30. The method of claim 29, wherein a product level discount is provided based upon acceptance of the offer.

31. The method of claim 30, wherein the smart phone comprises an application configured to determine whether the transaction is associated with the product level discount.

32. The method of claim 31, further comprising applying, by the computer based system, the reward to the transaction account.

33. The method of claim 32, wherein the reward is a rebate amount, and wherein he rebate amount is applied to the financial account.

34. The method of claim 33, wherein the rebate amount is granted based on a spend level associated with a particular product.

35. The method of claim 34, further comprising debiting, by the computer based system, an account owned by the merchant in response to the applying.

36. The method of claim 21, wherein the account affiliate is the transaction account owner, and wherein the offers are transmitted to a transaction account owner.

37. The method of claim 36, wherein the dynamically determined location may be determined by real time transaction data associated with a transaction associated with the transaction account.

38. The method of claim 37, further comprising:

providing, by the computer based system, second notification instruction for a second offer for the account affiliate based upon the location; and

transmitting, by the computer based system, a second notification of the second offer, in response to a change in the dynamically determined location.

39. The method of claim 38, further comprising:

enrolling, by the computer based system, the transaction account in response to receiving a request associated with the transaction account to enroll the transaction account in a location based offer program; and

receiving, by the computer based, device data associated with the computing device, wherein the computing device is associated with the transaction account and is configured to provide location information to the computer based system.

40. The method of claim 39, further comprising receiving, by the computer based system, preferences associated with the transaction account, wherein the preferences at least partially define a type of offers that will be provided the account affiliate, and wherein the preferences at least partially define a source of information used to the location.

41. A tangible computer-readable storage medium having computer-executable instructions stored thereon that, if executed by a computer based system for providing location based offers, causes the computer based system to perform a method comprising:

determining, by the computer based system, a dynamically changing location of an account affiliate associated with a transaction account, wherein the dynamically changing location is determined based on at least one of a travel itinerary associated with the transaction account and a location associated with a computing device associated with the transaction account;

providing, by the computer based system, notification instruction for an offer for the account affiliate based upon the location; and

associating, by the computer based system, the offer with the transaction account.

42. A system comprising:

a network interface communicating with a memory;

the memory communicating with a processor for providing location based offers; and

the processor, when executing a computer program, performs operations comprising;

determining, by processor, a dynamically changing location of an account affiliate associated with a transaction account, wherein the dynamically changing location is determined based on at least one of a travel itinerary associated with the transaction account and a location associated with a computing device associated with the transaction account;

providing, by the processor, notification instruction for an offer for the account affiliate based upon the location; and

associating, by the processor, the offer with the transaction account.