A method for providing for geographically limited rewards earned for transactions, the method comprising:
- acquiring, in response to a data request, a first set of transaction data from a payment network at and using a transaction data aggregator, the payment network comprising a server adapted and configured to communicate with merchant banks and payment card issuing banks to settle transactions between payment cardholders and merchants;
- creating, at and using an incentive management system, a database of a second set of transaction data, the second set of transaction data being a subset of the first set of transaction data, the database of the second set of transaction data created by at least one of:
- comparing the first set of transaction data to a database of enrolled payment cardholder identification data and selecting those transactions in the first set of transaction data that include identification information associated with enrolled payment cardholders, and
- comparing the first set of transaction data to a database of enrolled merchant identification data and selecting those transactions in the first set of transaction data that include identification information associated with enrolled merchants,
- wherein the selected transactions are entered into the database of the second set of transaction data;
- identifying, at and using the incentive management system, rewards eligible transactions and creating a database of rewards eligible transactions by at least one of:
- comparing the database of the second set of transaction data, when said database includes transactions selected as including identification information associated with enrolled payment cardholders, to a database of enrolled merchant identification data and selecting those transactions that include identification data matching identification data within the database of enrolled merchant identification data, and
- comparing the database of the second set of transaction data, when said database includes transaction selected as including identification information associated with enrolled merchants, to a database of enrolled payment cardholders and selecting those transactions that include identification data matching identification data within the database of enrolled payment cardholders identification data;
- calculating rewards, at and using the incentive management system, by querying the database of rewards eligible transactions to determine a rewards amount;
- transmitting, from the incentive management system and for each transaction within the database of rewards eligible transactions, an instruction to a virtual card issuer to apply the rewards amount to an account corresponding to the cardholder identification data associated with the eligible transaction within the database of rewards eligible transactions, the instruction including the rewards amount and a cardholder identification, the account being tied to a virtual payment card issued by the virtual card issuer;
- receiving, at and using the incentive management system and from the virtual card issuer, a transaction authorization request associated with a transaction initiated by an enrolled payment cardholder to make a purchase using rewards, the transaction authorization request including transaction data including at least enrolled payment cardholder identification information and merchant identification information;
- determining, at and using the incentive management system, if the transaction of the transaction authorization request is occurring within a prescribed geographic area in which rewards may be spent at enrolled merchants, wherein determining if the transaction is occurring within the prescribed geographic area in which rewards may be spent includes at least one of:
- determining if a merchant identification included in the transaction authorization request at least partially matches a merchant identification held within the database of enrolled merchant identification data by querying the database of enrolled merchant identification data with the merchant identification included in the transaction authorization request, and wherein the incentive management system determines that the transaction is occurring within the prescribed geographic area in response to a match being found between the merchant identification included in the transaction authorization request and a merchant identification stored within the database of enrolled merchant identification data,
- comparing a portion of a merchant address included within the transaction authorization request to the geographic area within which rewards may be spent, the geographic area being predefined and stored within the incentive management system, or
- in response to receiving the transaction authorization request, (1) receiving, from a payment cardholder device and at the incentive management system, position data and associating that position data with the transaction authorization request, and (2) determining that the transaction of the transaction authorization request is occurring within the prescribed geographic area when the position data associated with the transaction authorization request corresponds to the prescribed geographic area;
- and
- in response to determining that the transaction is occurring within the prescribed geographic area in which rewards may be spent, transmitting from the incentive management system and to the virtual card issuer, an authorization for the virtual card issuer to complete the transaction using the rewards within the prescribed geographic area.