System and method for promotion processing and authorization

• US 8,676,639 B2
• Filed: 05/12/2010
• Issued: 03/18/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 10/29/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Visa International Service Association (Visa, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Visa International Service Association (Visa, Inc.)
• Inventors: Perlman, Jeffrey William, Dempsey, Caroline Grace
• Primary Examiner(s): Hamilton, Matthew L
• Application Number:
  US12/778,485
• Publication Number:
  US 20110106601A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,406 Days
• Field of Search: 705/14
• US Class Current: 705/14.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0212 Chance discounts or incentives
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0214 Referral reward systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0225 Avoiding frauds
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/02 Banking, e.g. interest calculation or account maintenance credit or loans G06Q40/03

Abstract

An example funds facilitation system that facilitates transactions between a payer and payee includes a promotion processing system that facilitates the provision of promotions to account holders on the funds facilitation system. The party offering the promotion may be a merchant/payee that also has an account with the funds facilitation system. The promotion processing system applies promotion rules based on the identity of the merchant/payee and upon conditions placed on the promotion that identify a payer or a group of payers to receive the promotion. A user interface is provided for generating promotion rules and monitoring promotions. A user interface is also provided that displays unused promotion and gift codes and links to merchant/payee websites associated with the unused codes. The funds facilitation system can also provide authorization for purchases based on a condition, such as the age of the payer.

Claims

1. A method for processing promotions, performed by a funds facilitation system that facilitates transactions between payers and payees, the method comprising:

storing, by the funds facilitation system, promotion rules in a database, each promotion rule associating a promotion with a payee;

receiving, by the funds facilitation system, a transaction authorization request from a payee for a transaction, the transaction authorization request including identification of the payee, identification of a payer and a transaction amount;

comparing, by the funds facilitation system, the identification of the payee to the promotion rules stored in the database to identify a promotion that is associated with the payee;

determining, by the funds facilitation system, an age of the payer without being informed of the payer'"'"'s age by the payee;

authorizing, by the funds facilitation system, the transaction to the payee in which the promotion is applied to the transaction, wherein the authorization is conditioned on the payer'"'"'s age meeting a predetermined age condition; and

transferring funds from the payer'"'"'s account to the payee'"'"'s account in response to the transaction being authorized.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the promotion is a discount on the transaction amount, and the transferred funds correspond to the transaction amount minus the discount.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the discount is a percentage of the transaction amount.

4. The method of claim 2 wherein the discount is a set monetary amount.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the promotion is for a future purchase transaction.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the promotion is for a non-purchase item.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the non-purchase item is entry into a drawing.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

sending, to the payee, information about a second promotion that is available to the payer, for the payee to forward to the payer.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the second promotion is a cross promotion from another payee.

10. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

determining whether the payer'"'"'s account has sufficient funds to pay for the transaction; and

conditioning the authorization on determining that the payer'"'"'s account has sufficient funds.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the payee corresponds to a merchant website.

12. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

the funds facilitation system determining the payer'"'"'s age from age data that is linked to an account that the payer has with the funds facilitation system.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein the transaction authorization request identifies a purchase item, and the funds facilitation system determines, without being informed by the payee, applicability of the age condition to the transaction based on identity of the purchase item.

14. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

conditioning the transaction authorization based on a condition, set by the payee about the payer, being met.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein the condition is age of the payer, and the funds facilitation system determining the payer'"'"'s age without being informed of it by the payee.

16. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

conditioning the authorization of the transaction of the promotion on a demographic fact, about the payer, meeting a predetermined demographic condition; and

the funds facilitation system determining the demographic fact about the payer without being informed of it by the payee.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein the demographic fact is selected from the payer'"'"'s age, location and birthday.

18. The method of claim 16 wherein the conditioning is based on a condition that is, prior to receiving the transaction authorization request, stored in the database and linked to the promotion rule.

19. The method of claim 16 wherein the condition is included by the payee in the transaction authorization request.

20. The method of claim 16 further comprising:

the funds facilitation system determining the demographic fact about the payer from demographic data that is linked to an account that the payer has with the funds facilitation system.

21. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

conditioning the authorization of the transaction of the promotion on an action by the payer relating to accounts that are managed by the funds facilitation system.

22. A funds facilitation system comprising:

a database that stores promotion rules, each promotion rule associating a promotion with a payee;

a processor in communication with the database; and

memory in communication with the processor and storing instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the funds facilitation system to;

receive a transaction authorization request from a payee for a transaction, the transaction authorization request including identification of the payee, identification of a payer, and a transaction amount;

compare the identification of the payee to the promotion rules stored in the database to identify a promotion that is associated with the payee;

determine an age of the payer without being informed of the payer'"'"'s age by the payee;

authorize the transaction to the payee in which the promotion is applied to the transaction, wherein the authorization is conditioned on the payer'"'"'s age meeting a predetermined age condition; and

transfer funds from the payer'"'"'s account to the payee'"'"'s account in response to the transaction being authorized.

23. The system of claim 22 wherein the promotion is a discount on the transaction amount, and the transferred funds correspond to the transaction amount minus the discount.

24. The system of claim 22 wherein the promotion is for a future purchase transaction.

25. The system of claim 22 wherein the promotion is for a non-purchase item.

26. The system of claim 22 wherein the memory further includes instructions to cause the system to send, to the payee, information about another promotion that is available to the payer, for the payee to forward to the payer.

27. The system of claim 22 wherein the memory further includes instructions to cause the system to condition the transaction authorization on the payer'"'"'s age meeting a predetermined age condition and to determine the payer'"'"'s age without being informed of it by the payee.

28. The system of claim 27 wherein the memory further includes instructions to cause the system to determine the payer'"'"'s age from age data that is linked to an account that the payer has with the funds facilitation system.

29. The system of claim 22 wherein the memory further includes instructions to cause the system to condition the authorization of the transaction of the promotion on a demographic fact about the payer meeting a predetermined demographic condition and to determine the demographic fact about the payer without being informed of it by the payee.

30. The system of claim 22 wherein the memory further includes instructions to cause the system to condition the transaction authorization based on a condition, set by the payee about the payer, being met.

31. A tangible, non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by a funds facilitation system, cause the funds facilitation system to:

store promotion rules in a database, each promotion rule associating a promotion with a payee;

receive a transaction authorization request from a payee for a transaction, the transaction authorization request including identification of the payee, identification of a payer, and a transaction amount;

compare the identification of the payee to the promotion rules stored in the database to identify a promotion that is associated with the payee;

determine an age of the payer without being informed of the payer'"'"'s age by the payee;

authorize the transaction to the payee in which the promotion is applied to the transaction, wherein the authorization is conditioned on the payer'"'"'s age meeting a predetermined age condition; and

transfer funds from the payer'"'"'s account to the payee'"'"'s account in response to the transaction being authorized.