System and method for a multiple merchant stored value card
AssigneeAmerican Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc.
InventorDonna A. Antonucci
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The loyalty system allows a consumer to accumulate general loyalty points from one or more merchants, and convert any desired subset of general points to loyalty dollars associated with a specific merchant. The system stores, for each consumer, the merchant loyalty dollars (or monetary equivalent) by merchant within a remotely-accessible host database or within a smart card database. Upon conducting a purchase at a particular merchant, the consumer may utilize a code key to facilitate access to the consumer's own loyalty dollars for the particular merchant. The loyalty dollars are then applied to the purchase transaction as a discount or rebate. The consumer may also re-load the merchant loyalty dollar accounts.
Claims20
A system comprising:
- an incentive processor configured to facilitate allocation of loyalty points;
- a tangible, non-transitory memory configured to communicate with the processor;
- a conversion rules database configured to convert general loyalty points into a first merchant loyalty dollar value or into a second merchant loyalty dollar value;
- a transfer module for transferring at least a portion of the second merchant loyalty dollar value into the first merchant loyalty dollar value for use in a transaction;
- and
- a consumer accounts database having a general loyalty point database configured to store the general loyalty points and a plurality of merchant loyalty dollar value databases configured to store the merchant dollar values.
A method comprising:
- converting, by a computer-based system for allocating points, general loyalty points into a first merchant loyalty dollar value or into a second merchant loyalty dollar value;
- transferring, by the computer-based system, at least a portion of the second merchant loyalty dollar value into the first merchant loyalty dollar value for use in a transaction;
- and
- storing, by the computer-based system and in a consumer accounts database, the general loyalty points and the merchant loyalty dollar values, wherein the consumer accounts database includes a general loyalty point database and a plurality of merchant loyalty dollar value databases.
An article of manufacture including a non-transitory, tangible computer readable storage medium having instructions stored thereon that, in response to execution by a computer-based incentive system for allocating points, cause the computer-based system to be capable of performing operations comprising:
- converting, by the computer-based system, general loyalty points into a first merchant loyalty dollar value or into a second merchant loyalty dollar value;
- transferring, by the computer-based system, at least a portion of the second merchant loyalty dollar value into the first merchant loyalty dollar value for use in a transaction;
- and
- storing, by the computer-based system and in a consumer accounts database, the general loyalty points and the merchant loyalty dollar values, wherein the consumer accounts database includes a general loyalty point database and a plurality of merchant loyalty dollar value databases.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.