Cardholder loyalty program with rebate

A system for implementing a program comprising:

• a payment system including a plurality of participating account holders, a plurality of non-participating account holders, a plurality of non-preferred merchants and a plurality of preferred merchants;
• said payment system including a processor for executing a program including the plurality of participating account holders and the plurality of preferred merchants, said program being administered by an entity;
• said processor evaluating transactions to identify transactions involving both a participating account holders and a preferred merchant;
• said processor executing instructions implementing the program in response to identifying a qualifying transaction in which one of the participating account holders purchased goods or services from one of the preferred merchants for a purchase price;
• and
• wherein said processor executes instructions which result in:
• the preferred merchant of an identified, qualified transaction paying a rebate;
• at least part of the rebate being provided to the participating account holder of an identified, qualified transaction;
• and
• optionally, part of the rebate being provided to the administering entity.

A system for implementing a program comprising:

• a payment system including a plurality of participating account holders, a plurality of non-participating account holders, a plurality of non-preferred merchants and a plurality of preferred merchants;
• a processor separate from or integral with the payment system, said processor for executing a program including the plurality of participating account holders and the plurality of preferred merchants, said program being administered by an entity;
• said processor evaluating transactions to identify transactions involving both a participating account holders and a preferred merchant;
• said processor executing instructions implementing the program in response to identifying a qualifying transaction in which one of the participating account holders purchased goods or services from one of the preferred merchants for a purchase price;
• and
• wherein said processor evaluates transactions to identify transactions involving a non-participating account holders and a preferred merchant;
• said processor, in response to identifying a non-qualifying transaction in which one of the non-participating account holders purchased goods or services from one of the preferred merchants for a purchase price, executing instructions which result in:
• the non-participating account holder of an identified, non-qualified transaction being provided a notification that the non-qualified transaction would have resulted in a rebate to the non-participating account holder if the non-participating account holder was a participating account holder.

A system for encouraging consumers to purchase goods or services via card-based payments, comprising:

• a payment system comprising a card system having a plurality of cardholders and merchants, each authorized to complete transactions via the payment system, wherein at least a portion of the cardholders are participating cardholders that participate in a loyalty program and at least a portion of the merchants are preferred merchants that participate in the loyalty program, the loyalty program comprising an incentive for encouraging the participating cardholders to complete transactions with the preferred merchants via the payment system;
• and
• a card issuer operative to issue cards of the card system to the cardholders and to administer operation of the payment system,
• the card issuer further operative to administer the loyalty program by evaluating the transactions completed via the payment system to identify qualifying transactions involving one of the participating cardholders and one of the preferred merchants and, for each qualifying transaction, issuing at least a portion of the incentive to the participating cardholder,
• whereby the participating cardholder receives the at least a portion of the incentive based on actions taken exclusively by the card issuer.