Conversion operations for loyalty points of different programs redeemable for services

A method comprising:

• a commerce partner agreeing to permit transfers or conversions of quantities of non-negotiable credits to entity independent funds, wherein the commerce partner receives compensation in cash or credit from an entity for transfers or conversions, wherein said non-negotiable credits are loyalty points of the loyalty program possessed by a member, wherein the loyalty points are maintained in a loyalty program account owned or controlled by the entity, wherein the entity redeems the loyalty points for a set of entity services that the entity provides to the member, wherein said entity independent funds are different loyalty points of a different loyalty program of a commerce partner, wherein the different loyalty points are redeemable by the commerce partner for commerce partner services that the commerce partner provides to the member, wherein said entity independent funds are possessed by the member and are maintained in a funds account, wherein the funds account is neither owned or controlled by the entity or by any subsidiary or parent of the entity, wherein the entity does not accept the entity independent funds as payment for any of the entity services;
• a computer for the different loyalty program detecting a communication over a network to grant a member of the different loyalty program a new quantity of the entity independent funds, wherein the new quantity of entity independent funds results from a conversion operation, said conversion operation being a conversion or a transfer of at least a subset of the non-negotiable credits into the new quantity of entity independent funds based on the fixed credit-to-funds ratio, wherein the subset of the non-negotiable credits are expended as part of the conversion or transfer;
• responsive to the communication, the computer granting the member the new quantity of the entity independent funds, which are added to the funds account, wherein quantities of non-negotiable credits are subtracted from the loyalty point account approximately concurrent in time with the new quantities of entity independent funds being added to the funds account;
• and
• the computer redeeming at least a portion of the new quantity of entity independent funds in exchange for user selected ones of the commerce partner services, wherein the computer does not accept the non-negotiable credits of the loyalty program for the commerce partner services or at least does not accept the non-negotiable credits in absence of first converting or transferring the non-negotiable credits into entity independent funds.

A method comprising:

• at least one processor, responsive to executing program instructions of at least one memory, accessing a storage device containing information of a loyalty program account of a loyalty program of an entity, wherein loyalty program account maintains a number of non-negotiable credits, which are loyalty points of the loyalty program, possessed by a member, wherein the loyalty program account is owned or controlled by the entity, wherein the entity redeems the loyalty points for a set of entity services that the entity provides to the member;
• at least one processor, responsive to executing program instructions of at least one memory, accessing a second storage device containing information of a funds account of a different loyalty program of a commerce partner, wherein funds account maintains a number of entity independent funds, which are different loyalty points of the different loyalty program, possessed by the member, wherein the funds account is owned or controlled by the commerce partner, wherein the commerce partner redeems the different loyalty points for a set of commerce partner services that the commerce partner provides to the member, wherein the entity does not accept the entity independent funds as payment for the entity services, wherein the entity does not own or control the funds account, wherein the commerce partner does not own or control the loyalty program account, wherein said non-negotiable credits and the entity-independent funds have different restrictions-on-use established by terms-of-use of the loyalty program and established by terms-of-use of the different loyalty program, wherein an agreement exists between the entity and the commerce partner that permits transfers or conversions of non-negotiable credits to entity independent, wherein the agreement specifies that the entity compensates the commerce partner by paying an amount in negotiable funds for each non-negotiable credit redeemed per the agreement;
• at least one processor, responsive to executing program instructions of at least one memory, performing a conversion operation to transfer a subset of the non-negotiable credits into a new quantity of entity independent in accordance with the agreement;
• at least one processor, responsive to executing program instructions of at least one memory, and responsive to the conversion operation, subtracting a quantity of the non-negotiable credits from the loyalty program account of the storage device, said subtracted quantity of non-negotiable credits comprising at least the subset of non-negotiable credits;
• and
• at least one processor, responsive to executing program instructions of at least one memory, and responsive to the conversion operation, adding at least a portion of the new quantity of entity independent funds to the funds account of the second storage device, wherein the subtracting of the quantity of non-negotiable credits from the loyalty program account and the adding of the entity independent funds to the funds account occurs approximately concurrently in time.