System and method for facilitating commercial transactions

A method of operating a reward program for a buying club, comprising the steps of;

• a) creating a reward program group of at least one participating merchant and at least one financial institution and a data clearinghouse;
• b) enrolling at least one customer as a buying club member and providing said club member with a buying club account;
• c) initiating a purchase by a club member at said participating merchant using buying club account;
• d) obtaining authorization for said purchase from said financial institution;
• e) transmitting purchasing information from said financial institution to said data clearinghouse which records said purchasing information;
• f) said purchasing information includes item identifiers so that purchased products and services can be identified;
• g) transmitting a request for a discount amount from said data clearinghouse to said merchant;
• h) calculating the total discount of said purchase by said data clearinghouse;
• i) invoicing by said data clearinghouse from said merchant for the total discount;
• j) sending to said data clearinghouse from said financial institution payment of the invoice amount;
• k) wherein, upon receipt of said payment, said data clearinghouse applies a credit to said club member's account.

A system for facilitating a reward program for buying club members comprising:

• a) a buying club including club members, merchants and financial institutions;
• b) a data clearinghouse server for recording transaction data between club members and merchants and financial institutions;
• c) a merchant server for transmitting transaction data to said data clearinghouse server wherein said transaction data includes purchase detail information from a merchant when a club member makes a purchase at a participating merchant;
• d) said purchase detail information includes item by item discounts on purchases;
• e) said data clearinghouse server calculates refund information and authorizes said data clearinghouse to obtain a club member refund from said financial institution;
• and,
• f) said data clearinghouse server produces a statement from said data clearinghouse to said club member identifying said refund information.