Universal loyalty rewards and currency consolidation

A method for administering a loyalty rewards program for a plurality of customers and merchants, comprising:

• receiving, using a loyalty server computer, a request to create a loyalty account for a first customer;
• creating, using the loyalty server computer, a loyalty reward account and associated customer identifier corresponding to the first customer;
• providing to the customer a loyalty device associated with the loyalty account, wherein the customer identifier is stored within the loyalty device;
• receiving, using the loyalty server computer, a first purchase information from a first merchant point of sale computer, the first purchase information comprising a purchase price, the customer identifier, and a merchant identifier, wherein the first merchant accepts any one of a plurality of payment forms from the customer to pay for the first purchase;
• increasing, using the loyalty server computer, a point balance of the loyalty account based on the purchase price of the first purchase if the first merchant is a participant in the loyalty rewards program;
• receiving, using the loyalty server computer, second purchase information from a second merchant point of sale computer to redeem at least a portion of the point balance toward a second purchase being made by the customer, said second purchase information comprising a second purchase price, the customer identifier, and a second merchant identifier;
• reducing, using the loyalty server computer, the point balance of the loyalty account based on the second purchase;
• and
• transmitting, using the loyalty server computer, a confirmation to the second merchant point of sale computer that the loyalty account has a sufficient balance to pay for the second purchase;
• wherein said reducing and transmitting stages are performed if the second merchant is a participant in the loyalty rewards program;
• and
• wherein said reducing and transmitting stages are performed if the second merchant is not a participant in the loyalty rewards program.