System and method for providing consumer rewards

• US 7,933,841 B2
• Filed: 08/01/2008
• Issued: 04/26/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 07/26/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Rewards Network Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Rewards Network Incorporated
• Inventors: Schmeyer, Frank F., Cruz, Mario A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Fischer; Andrew J.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Dega; Murali
• Application Number:
  US12/184,395
• Publication Number:
  US 20090063351A1
• Time in Patent Office: 998 Days
• Field of Search: 705 1- 45, 705 50- 79
• US Class Current: 705/64
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/31 User authentication
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/34 involving the use of external additional devices, e.g. dongles or smart cards
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6254 by anonymising data, e.g. decorrelating personal data from the owner's identification
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/02 Reservations, e.g. for tickets, services or events
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/382 insuring higher security of transaction
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0206 Price or cost determination based on market factors
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0226 Incentive systems for frequent usage, e.g. frequent flyer miles programs or point systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0232 Frequent usage rewards other than merchandise, cash or travel
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0236 Incentive or reward received by requiring registration or ID from user
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 90/00 Systems or methods specially adapted for administrative, commercial, financial, managerial or supervisory purposes, not involving significant data processing

Abstract

An automated consumer rewards/incentive program that accepts a registration of a consumer. The registration entitles the consumer to receive the benefits of the incentive program. To track the fulfillment of reward earning criteria established by member businesses, the registration includes information indicative of a credit card of the consumer. The system may track member consumer credit card transactions without receiving personal information for non-members by using a one way hash function. The system uses the credit card information to determine when member customers perform a transaction at a member business. When a member customer performs a transaction at a member business using the registered credit card, the system and method examines the credit card transactional information to determine if the consumer fulfilled the requirements of the incentive program for the member business. If the transactional information indicates that the consumer fulfilled the criteria of the rewards program of the member business, the consumer is rewarded in accordance with the benefits of the incentive program.

Claims

1. A method for allowing member consumers to receive customized benefits associated with an incentive program created by a member business, the method comprising:

accepting via a computer network registration information for a plurality of member consumers entitling the member consumers to benefits of the incentive program, the registration information including credit card indicia for each of the member consumers, and storing the registration information in a database that is in communication with the computer network;

providing to a credit card aggregator credit card transactional information from the member business, the credit card transactional information being comprised of information related to one or more purchases, information about the member business from which the purchase was made, the location of the member business from which the purchase was made, information about the type of products that are sold by the member business, and information about the date and time for the purchase, wherein the information related to one or more purchases includes credit card indicia associated with each of the respective purchases;

receiving credit card transactional information related to the purchases from the aggregator;

comparing credit card transactional information for each one of the purchases with the registration information associated with each of the member consumers;

determining based on the comparison whether the credit card indicia associated with each one of the purchases matches the credit card indicia supplied by one of the member consumers;

rewarding the member consumer associated with the matching credit card indicia in accordance with the benefits of the incentive program;

parsing the credit card transactional information into purchase information comprising categories based on purchase amount, the type of business at which the purchase was made, the location of the business at which the purchase was made, and the date and time that the purchase was made;

storing the purchase information in the database; and

providing recommendations to member consumers for other member businesses based on the purchase information that is stored in the database.

2. The method described in claim 1, including the step of providing each of the member consumers with customized home pages based on the credit card purchase information that is stored in the database.

3. The method described in claim 2, wherein the customized home page includes the total number of incentive points, where the benefits rewarded to the member consumer directly related to the incentive points awarded to the member consumer.

4. The method described in claim 3, wherein the incentive points are reward incentives selected from the group consisting of currency, frequent flyer miles, dining points or purchase vouchers.

5. The method described in claim 2, wherein the customized home page displays an account history for the respective member consumer.

6. The method described in claim 1, wherein the recommendations that are provided to member consumers include identifying member businesses that are within a certain distance of the location of the member businesses from which the member consumer has previously made a purchase.

7. The method described in claim 1, wherein the recommendations that are provided to member consumers include identifying member businesses that sell similar products as the member businesses from which the member consumer has made previous a purchase.

8. The method described in claim 7, wherein the products that are sold by member businesses include products selected from the group consisting of food, clothing, articles of manufacture, vehicles, hotel services, or transportation services.

9. The method described in claim 1, wherein the recommendations that are provided to member consumers include identifying member businesses that sell products in similar price ranges.

10. The method described in claim 1, wherein the recommendations that are provided to member consumers include identifying member businesses that are offering specials on selected days of the week or times that correlate to the time purchases by the respective member consumer were made.

11. The method described in claim 1, wherein the credit card indicia is converted into a secure identifier for each of the member consumers by applying a one-way hash algorithm to the credit card indicia for each of the member consumers and thereby generating the secure identifier.

12. The method described in claim 1, wherein credit card indicia may be comprised of information related to a credit card, debit card, or business registered cards for conducting purchase transactions.