System and Method for Fuel Price-Protection

A system for approving or denying customer requests to withdraw fuel from retail locations, comprising:

• a storage system configured to store:
• account records each comprising an unique account identifier, a credited fuel quantity, and a price-centric class associated with the credited fuel quantity;
• and
• price records each comprising an unique price-centric class identifier and a posted fuel price for the corresponding price-centric class;
• an interface configured to receive customer withdrawal requests via retail locations, wherein each withdrawal request comprises an account identifier and information for determining a price-centric class of the retailer location;
• a processor configured to approve or deny each withdrawal request based on credited fuel quantity in the account record corresponding to the account identifier in the withdrawal request and any differential between the posted fuel price corresponding to the price-centric class of the retailer and the posted fuel price corresponding to the price-centric class associated with the credited fuel quantity,
• wherein a withdrawal approval or denial is returned to the respective retail location in response to each withdrawal request.

A method for approving or denying a customer request to withdraw fuel from a retail location, comprising:

• storing account records each comprising an unique account identifier, a credited fuel quantity, and a price-centric class associated with the credited fuel quantity;
• storing price records each comprising an unique price-centric class identifier and a posted fuel price for the corresponding price-centric class;
• receiving a customer withdrawal request via the retail location comprising an account identifier and information for determining the price-centric class of the retailer location;
• in response to the withdrawal request, returning one of a withdrawal approval and a withdrawal denial based on the credited fuel quantity in the account record corresponding to the received account identifier and any differential between the posted fuel price corresponding to the price-centric class of the retailer and the posted fuel price corresponding to the price-centric class associated with the credited fuel quantity.

A computer readable medium embodying a computer program for approving or denying a customer request to withdraw fuel from a retail location, the computer program comprising:

• computer program code for storing account records each comprising an unique account identifier, a credited fuel quantity, and a price-centric class associated with the credited fuel quantity;
• computer program code for storing price records each comprising an unique price-centric class identifier and a posted fuel price for the corresponding price-centric class;
• computer program code for receiving a customer withdrawal request via the retail location comprising an account identifier and information for determining the price-centric class of the retailer location;
• computer program code for, in response to the withdrawal request, returning one of a withdrawal approval and a withdrawal denial based on the credited fuel quantity in the account record corresponding to the received account identifier and any differential between the posted fuel price corresponding to the price-centric class of the retailer and the posted fuel price corresponding to the price-centric class associated with the credited fuel quantity.