WO2002031734A1 - Incentives through a financial account - Google Patents

Abstract

A method and system is disclosed for a creditor to provide a financial account statement of a customer, either online or offline, with a set of offers for financial incentives from a merchant. Each offer may require a customer to make a qualifying transaction with the merchant offering the financial inventive and to pay for the qualifying transaction using the customer's financial account, such as a credit card from a creditor. The customer may select to accept or decline each offer. If the customer accepts an offer, the creditor system will record the necessary information so that in the subsequent transaction between the customer and the merchant in which the customer transacts for the qualifying transaction using the credit card, the customer will receive the financial incentives, i.e., the discounted or savings amount, recorded in the subsequent financial account statement.

Description

TITLE OF THE INVENTION

INCENTIVES THROUGH A FINANCIAL ACCOUNT

BACKGROUND AND MATERIAL INFORMATION

I. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to systems and methods for providing financial incentives to customers. More particularly, the present invention relates to systems and methods for providing and applying financial incentives to a transaction with a merchant through a financial account of a customer.

II. Description of the Related Art

The practice of sending advertising information or including it with other

types of information is well established. For example, in the retail sales industry,

an advertisement of a merchant may be sent in a mass mailing to customers or

may be included with a mailing (such as a bank statement or a credit card

statement) to inform a diverse consumer population about the goods or services

available from the merchant.

It has also been a marketing practice for merchants to offer financial

incentives to customers, such as discounts, coupons, rebates, and the like.

Financial incentives may be sent or distributed through different types of

communication channels, such as inserts to a local newspaper, a radio or

television broadcast, a telephone marketing campaign or mass mailings to

consumers. Despite the benefits associated with financial incentives, some people are reluctant to use discounts, coupons and the like because it is

inconvenient to collect and organize them. In addition, customers are reluctant

to use coupons since it is difficult to remember to bring the appropriate coupon

when shopping.

With the emergence of the Internet has come a gradual migration from the

traditional channels of communication to newer and more dynamic channels of

communication, including the World Wide Web (WWW). Until now, distributing

information via the Internet or other publicly accessible, computer communication

networks has been largely unsupported by advertising revenues due to the lack

of good mechanisms for mixing advertising with information content in such a

way as to be acceptable to both end users and advertisers.

There are examples of computer programs which contain and/or provide

advertisements to customers. In such examples, the advertisements are either

permanently embedded in the computer programs or reside permanently with

computer programs such that they cannot be easily updated. The conventional

"pop up" windows is a prime example of this particular type of advertisement.

Presently, with the emerging era of shopping through computer networks

or online, merchants electronically offer financial incentives or offers to

customers. According to a recent study, almost one third of online shoppers use

some form of promotional offers, such as discount coupons, rebates, and the

like. One advantage of the online form of promotional offers is that, it is easier to

target the type of consumer profiles for a certain type of product or service. However, one disadvantage of all promotional offers currently available in the

market is that, for either online shopping or conventional shopping at a

merchant's store, customers must remember to show or indicate proof of the

promotional offers at the point of sale to receive applicable discounts. There is

no seamless integration of applying the discounted amount to the purchasing

customer or the customer's financial account.

Therefore, there is a need for an improved way of disseminating offers of

a merchant, either provided online or offline, to a widespread number of

customers. There is also a need for systems and methods that can

automatically apply a financial incentive to a transaction and integrate the

application of such financial incentive with the customer's financial account.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Systems and methods consistent with the principles of the present

invention provide an electronic financial account statement with embedded tags

that allow a credit card customer to review their electronic financial account

statement online, and selectively view Web-based merchant advertisements that

correspond to individual credit card transactions. Systems and methods

consistent with the principles of the present invention also provide a way to

integrate the application of a merchant's offer for financial incentives, either

online or offline, to a customer's financial account statement.

In one embodiment, the present invention includes a networked data-

handling system including a plurality of creditor and customer servers/computers. The networked data-handling system may also include merchant

server/computers. When a merchant server is utilized, the merchant server is

programmed to receive credit card transaction records from point of sale

terminals, and to cause the transaction records to be sent to a creditor server

operated by a credit card issuer. The merchant server also stores merchant's

offer data, which could be in the form of hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP)

pages for transmission to requesting customer computers. The creditor server

may be programmed to receive credit card transaction records from merchant

servers (or a merchant transaction data base), to create an electronic financial

account statement comprised of a plurality of credit card transactions, with an

associated display of merchant's offers for financial incentives, and to cause

electronic account statements to be sent to customer computer. The customer

computer is programmed to receive the electronic financial account statement

and to cause a merchant's offers for financial incentives to be displayed on the

customer's display screen in response to the invocation of a tag embedded in the

electronic financial account statement.

When the customer is viewing the merchant's offers for financial

incentives, the customer will be prompted to accept or decline the merchant's

offers. If the customer selects acceptance, the next time the customer transacts

with the merchant, either via online or offline shopping, and the customer uses

the credit card provided by the creditor, the transaction including the amount of financial incentives saved will be recorded and indicated on the subsequent

financial account statement.

Advantageously, this invention creates an attractive avenue for integrating

a merchant's offers for financial incentives into a customer's electronic financial

account statement and thereby provide the customer with^'meaningful financial

savings reflective of their purchasing habits that simultaneously provides the

merchant with a worthwhile and beneficial avenue for advertising the products

sold or services provided.

It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the

following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory only and are not

restrictive of the invention, as claimed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, that are incorporated in and constitute a

part of the specification, illustrate presently preferred embodiments of the

invention and, together with the general description given above and the detailed

description of the preferred embodiments given below, serve to explain the

principles of the invention.

Fig. 1 is an exemplary block diagram of the relationship among a creditor,

a merchant, and a customer, consistent with the principles of the present

invention;

Fig. 2 is another exemplary block diagram of the relationship among the

creditor, merchant and customer; Figs. 3A and 3B are exemplary flow charts of the operations and

processes associated with providing financial incentives to customers, consistent

with the principles of the present invention;

Figs. 4A - 4G are exemplary web pages of an electronic financial account

statement posting a merchant's offers for financial incentives consistent with the

principles of the present invention;

Fig. 5 is an exemplary diagram consistent with the principles of the

present invention from the creditor's perspective;

Fig. 6 is an exemplary diagram consistent with the principles of the

present invention from the merchant's perspective; and

Fig. 7 is an exemplary diagram consistent with the principles of the

present invention from the customer's perspective.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the following detailed description, reference is made to the

accompanying drawings that form a part thereof, and in which is shown by way

of illustration a specific embodiment in which the invention may be practiced.

This embodiment is described in sufficient detail to enable those skilled in the art

to practice the invention and it is to be understood that other embodiments may

be utilized and that structural changes may be made without departing from the

scope of the present invention. The following detailed description is, therefore,

not to be taken in a limited sense. The embodiment of the invention described herein is implemented as

logical operations in a computing system. The logical operations of the present

invention are implemented: (1) as a sequence of computer implemented steps

running on the computing system, and (2) as interconnected machine modules

within the computing system. The implementation is a matter of choice

dependent on the performance requirements of the computing system -

implementing the invention. Accordingly, the logical operations making up the

embodiments of the invention described herein are referred to variously as

operations, steps, or modules.

The operating environment in which the present invention is used

encompasses general distributed computing systems wherein general purpose

computers, work stations, or personal computers are connected via

communication links of various types. In a client server arrangement, programs

and data, many in the form of objects, are made available by various members of

the system.

In accordance with the invention, users at remote terminals in a network

communicate through the network to a server or a web site and are able to

download data from the server or web site to the user's client work station. As

the embodiment of the invention is described herein, a web browser program on

a client station for browsing a network, such as the Internet, will be referred to as

the browser, while the server work station with which the browser station is

communicating during a download will be referred to as the server. Systems consistent with the principles of the present invention comprise a

plurality of merchant, creditor and customer computers. Each type of computer

(merchant, creditor, and customer) may be generally similar to every other type

of computer including a central processing unit, display device, and operator

input device. Moreover, it will be appreciated that each type of computer may

also perform operations described herein as being performed by every other type

of computer. The distributed system may comprise any one of a number of

types of networks over which client computers and server computers

communicate, including local area networks (LANs), wide area networks

(WANs), the Internet and any other networks that distribute processing and

share data among a plurality of nodes. The online services typically provide

functionality such as electronic mail (email), file transfer protocol (FTP), and

World Wide Web (WWW) access.

The WWW is a graphical subnetwork of the Internet. With common "web

browser" software of the type of Mosaic, Netscape Navigator or Microsoft

Internet Explorer, users may easily access Internet information and services on

[ the WWW. The web browser handles the function of locating and targeting

information on the Internet and displaying information provided by a web server.

The WWW utilizes the technology called "hypertext" to organize, search and

present information on the Internet. Using the browser, a user can select a word

("hypertext word") from a viewed document, and be linked to another document featuring information related to the word. These links are within the web server

domain and result in a progressively deeper search or base of choices.

In the business arena, a merchant can, with an Internet address and a

hypertext editor, develop a hypertext document called a "home page", which a

user may explore when they visit the merchant's Web server. This home page

furnishes information about the products or services offered by the merchant

through use of graphic images, sound, hyperlink choices, etc. With that

information, the user is guided through the home page to select or purchase the

goods or services from the merchant.

Referring now to the drawings, in which like reference numerals represent

like elements throughout the several figures, the present invention will be

described.

Fig. 1 generally illustrates the relationship between a creditor 10,

merchant 20, and customer 30, in accordance with the principles of the

invention. The relationship between creditor-10 and merchant 20 is governed by

a pre-negotiated deal or arrangement. Under such an arrangement or deal,

creditor 10 will post a set of transaction offers from merchant 20 for a plurality of

customers 30 of creditor 10 to transact with merchant 20 for some specific

qualifying goods or services. Each transaction may have a financial incentive

associated with it. The relationship between creditor 10 and customer 30 is

generally a creditor-debtor one, whereby creditor 10 provides a line of credit to

customer 30 and a credit card for customer 30 to charge purchases, and, upon receiving a periodic financial account statement from creditor 10, customer 30

pays creditor 10 for the financial services provided. The relationship between

merchant 20 and customer 30 is generally a supplier-consumer one, whereby

merchant 20 provides products or services to customer 30, and customer 30

pays merchant 20 for the value of the goods or services provided.

Fig. 2 is another illustration that indicates the relationship between a

creditor 10, merchant 20, and customer 30, in accordance with the principles of

the invention. As illustrated in Fig. 2, in accordance with a pre-negotiated deal

between creditor 10 and merchant 20, creditor 10 will post a set of transaction

offers for a customer to transact with merchant 20 for some specific products or

services under a qualifying condition to receive a financial incentive. The

financial incentive, such as a discount, coupon or rebate, may provide the

product or service at a reduced cost or a percentage of the total value or a

specified dollar amount. Associated with each transaction offer are several offer

standards including information with respect to: (1 ) the types and quantity of

specific goods or services to which the offer applies, and (2) the qualifying

conditions or limitations for the applicable transaction (for example, an expiration

| date, territorial limitations of a merchant, etc.).

When customer 30 views the financial incentive, customer 30 may accept

or decline the financial incentive. The financial incentive may be displayed to

customer 30 as part of the financial account statement of the customer. Each

financial incentive accepted by customer 30 may be automatically applied by creditor 10, through the financial account of customer 30, for each applicable

and qualifying transaction with merchant 20. Merchant 20 may reimburse

creditor 10 for costs associated with each financial incentive.

In practice, merchant 20 may contact creditor 10 or one of its managers to

negotiate offers and offer details. After merchant 20 and creditor 10 pre-

negotiate a deal with respect to the offers, merchant 20 may contact creditor 10

or its offer administrator to communicate offers. The offer administrator of

creditor 10 then uploads offers into a merchant offer database. The merchant

offer database may be electronically connected to an online account servicing

system of creditor 10. The online account servicing database may have a

coupon offer engine. The offers may be rendered in DHTML programming

language to customer 30 via the online account servicing system.

Figs. 3A and 3B are exemplary flow charts of the processes and

operations associated with providing financial incentives, consistent with the

principles of the invention. As illustrated in Fig. 3A, the process starts (S.300)

when a customer 30 accesses and views his/her financial account statement

(S.305). In accordance with an aspect of the invention, the financial account

may be a credit card account, bank account or a similar financial account of

customer 30. Each customer 30 may access and view his/her financial account

statement in various ways, including receiving and viewing a printed statement

mailed to the customer or accessing and viewing financial account information

online through a Web site associated with creditor 10. As further shown in Fig. 3A, and in accordance with the principles of the

invention, the financial account statement of customer 30 (which may be issued

or generated by creditor 10 on a periodic basis, such as once a month) is

provided with one or more merchant transaction offers that include a financial

incentive, i.e., a discount, coupon, rebate or the like (S.310). Each transaction

offer may be attached or included with the financial account statement provided

from creditor 10 to customer 30. Such transaction offers may be sent to one or

more customers 30 of creditor 10 or provided only to certain groups of customer

30 that satisfy a predefined customer profile, such as spending patterns, age

group, professions, etc. The customer profile is generally stored in a customer

profile database that creditor 10 maintains. Thus, creditor 10 may provide the

ability for merchants 20 to target transaction offers to customer 30 based upon

the predefined profile.

As indicated above, the financial account statement may be generated

periodically and made available to customer 30 either via regular mail or

electronically when customer 30 accesses their financial account statement via

the Internet using a customer computer 32. Customer 30 may apply for a

password or personal identification number (PIN) for accessing their financial

account to obtain the online financial account statement. Other security,

measures may also be provided to guarantee the confidentiality of the

customer's financial account information. When customer 30 views their financial account statement, the customer

will be given the option to accept each merchant's transaction offer that includes

a financial incentive (S.315). If the offer is received through the mail, customer

30 may accept the offer by sending confirmation of acceptance to creditor 10 by

return mail, by email, by calling a customer representative of the creditor, or by

communication through the creditor's Web site. Alternatively, acceptance of the

offer may be automatic and becomes effective when customer 30 purchases the

goods or services from predesignated merchant 20 according to the qualifying

condition.

If the offer is viewed by customer 30 online via the Internet, customer 30

may respond by any of the methods described above (e.g., by mail, by email, by

telephone, or by communication through the creditor's Web site). Figs. 4A-4G,

to be further described, are exemplary response pages of a creditor's Web site

through which customer 30 may respond and accept an offer.

An offer screen, such as shown in Fig. 4A, gives customer 30 an option to

view one or more transaction offers currently provided by merchant 20. While in

the offer screen or in a subsequent screen, customer 30 may view the

transaction offers in more detail, including the specific goods or services to which

each of the offers applies, the qualifying conditions of the applicable transaction,

etc. In one embodiment, the offers in the offer database may be updated with or

without real-time processing to manage the volume of offers. As illustrated in Fig. 3A, customer 30 will be prompted to select an option

of either accepting or declining each offer that includes a financial incentive

(S.315). If customer 30 chooses to "Accept" an offer, then the creditor system

will gather information such as the accepted offer, identity of merchant 20, and

financial account identify of customer 30. This information will be tagged and/or

stored into an accepted offer database of creditor 10 (S.320).

As further illustrated in Fig. 3A, if customer 30 chooses to "Decline" an

offer, then the process ends (S.325) and customer 30 may return, for example,

to viewing the screen prior to the offer screen or viewing another screen; The

creditor system may record each offer declined by customer 30 in an offer history

database. Each customer 30 may also have the option of selecting "Decline -

never again" when customer 30 does not wish to ever receive an offer from

merchant 20 again. In addition, each customer 30 may select "Cancel" to close

a particular offer screen. When customer 30 chooses to cancel offer, customer

30 may be prompted to again select accepting or declining the offer in the

subsequent occasion of reviewing their financial account statement.

At the time each customer 30 chooses to accept any of the offers, creditor

system will inform a set of qualifying conditions, such as limits and constraints

corresponding to each of the offers. The qualifying conditions may include, for

example, (1 ) that the discount or rebate amount may not appear on the financial

account statement of customer 30 until the subsequent billing cycle, (2) an

interest will accrue on any outstanding balance, including the purchase amount(s) of accepted offer transactions, (3) merchant 20 may impose purchase

amount limits as a limit of the offer, (4) there may be product limitations on the

purchases, i.e., no alcohol, tobacco, etc., (5) there may be numeric limits to the

number of offers customer 30 may receive, (6) there may be limits to the offers,

i.e., offers cannot be combined, transferred, etc.

As illustrated in Fig. 3B, continuing the flow chart from Fig. 3A (S.330),

when customer 30 executes a transaction with merchant 20, customer 30 pays

for the goods or services using the credit line of the financial account provided by

creditor 10 (S.335). Customer 30 may execute the transaction either online or in

person at the location of merchant 20 using the offer. If customer 30 has

sufficient credit and the transaction is approved by creditor 10 (S.340), then

merchant 20 will charge the transacted goods or services for a full price at the

point of sale for the total amount. Creditor 10 will subsequently determine if the

transaction is a qualifying transaction for applying the offer and financial

incentive for the specific goods or services (S.345). When a transaction

involving the offer is executed, offer identity is logged in and the transaction is

registered in the accepted offer database. If the transaction is determined to be

a qualifying transaction, then no discount may be applied at the point of sale by

merchant 20. Instead, any discount or rebate will be applied by creditor 10 when

the next financial account statement of customer 30 is generated.

In particular, creditor 10 may identify the transaction information and

related offer involving customer 30 and merchant 20 (S.350). The creditor system will merge or cross reference the data in the accepted offer database of

creditor 10 and a transaction data base of merchant 20. Then the creditor

system applies the discounted amount to the transaction price based on the offer

accepted by the customer.

When customer 30 receives via the mail, or logs on the Internet to view,

the financial account statement, normally at the end of a billing cycle, the

financial account statement will indicate each accepted offer and, if the accepted

offer has been used, the amount of discount associated with the accepted offer

(S.355). Customer 30 may also view a running total of all offers used for the

calendar year. Customer 30 sees and feels the benefits in terms of financial

savings in the financial account statement, either provided online or in a printed

format (customer computer print out or original print out from creditor 10). In

addition, customer 30 are free from the inconvenience of carrying around and

managing the conventional printed or paper offers, such as coupons, rebates,

etc. An electronic mail may be used as a traffic generator to communicate to

each customer 30 who accepts one or more offers that there are new offers

posted or when the accepted offers are about to expire.

As further illustrated in Fig. 3B, the merchant system will retrieve

information from the transaction database of merchant 20 including purchases

made by customer 20 using the offer (S.360). Creditor 10 will then receive

reimbursement from merchant 20 when the amount of discount is charged back

to merchant 20 (S.365). This may be performed generally via a finance or accounting department of creditor 10. Creditor 10 may submit to merchant 20 a report, periodically or otherwise, of the number of offers accepted or declined,

the total dollar amount of the period's accepted offer discounts and possible

other analyses.

The processes of applying the amount of discount to the financial account

statement of customer 30 and obtaining reimbursement from merchant 20 may

driven off of several interconnecting databases, including the offer accepted

database and offer history database. These data artifacts and processes will

feed the finance and accounting department of creditor 10 with reconciliation,

financial account processing, management information system, online account

servicing system, print operations, etc.

Figs. 4A-4G illustrate, for exemplary purposes, web pages of creditor 10

that customer 30 may view the transaction offer from merchant 20. Fig. 4A

illustrates an offer screen 410 imbedded with a financial account statement 412

of customer 30 with creditor -10. Customer 30 may view transaction offers

currently provided by merchant 20. Offer screen 410 may include logo tags, for

instance, ToysRus, Circuit City, Home Depot, and Borders, as merchant 20.

When customer 30 selects a particular merchant, i.e., ToysRus, customer 30 will

be prompted to a subsequent screen 420 illustrated in Fig. 4B.

Fig. 4B illustrates a screen 420 providing further information on the offer

from the selected particular merchant. Customer 30 is prompted to accept the

offer by selecting an ACCEPT key 422, or to decline by selecting a DECLINE key 424. If customer 30 selects ACCEPT key 422, customer 30 will be prompted

to a screen 430 illustrated in Fig. 4C. If customer 30 selects DECLINE key 424,

customer 30 will return to the financial account statement 412 illustrated in Fig.

4B.

Fig. 4C illustrates screen 430 confirming offer acceptance when customer

30 selects to accept the offer. At this point, customer 30 may select a key 432 to

redeem the offer immediately, by making an online purchase of goods or

services under the qualifying condition, at which point customer 30 may be

connected to the Web site of the selected particular merchant, i.e.,

ToysRus.com. Otherwise, customer 30 may select a key 434 to return viewing

the financial account statement 412.

Fig. 4D illustrates an alternative screen 440 to view all offers currently

available from a plurality of merchants 20, instead of selecting a particular

merchant from those shown on screen 440. From screen 440, similar to the

financial account statement 412, customer 30 may select a REWARDS key 442

to view all offers available.

Fig. 4E illustrates a screen 450 if customer 30 selects REWARDS key

442. Screen 450 may include one or more offers from merchants 20, i.e., Sears,

which is not included in the previous screen 440.

Fig. 4F illustrates a screen 460, similar to screen 440, in which customer

30 may select a MY SAVINGS key 462 to view a summary report on all financial

savings of customer 30 during a calendar period. Fig. 4G illustrates a subsequent screen 470 containing a summary report

472 which provides information including a list of merchants 20, the number of

offers redeemed from each merchant 20, the associated amount of financial

savings received by customer 30, and the total saving amount to date.

Fig. 5 is an exemplary diagram that illustrates, from the perspective of

merchant 20, the process for providing financial incentives consistent with the

principles of the present invention. Merchant 20 contacts creditor 10, i.e., the

Relationship Manager of creditor 10, to negotiate offers and offer details (S.510).

In addition, merchant 20 also contacts creditor 10, i.e., the Offer Administrator, to

communicate offers. The negotiation may be done in person, via telephone or

the internet. Merchant 20 may also register with creditor 10 to participate in the

offer program, such as by merchant 20 signing up as affiliate of creditor 10,

either via online registration or otherwise. According to the negotiation, creditor

10 uploads offers into a merchant offer database (S.520). The merchant offer

database can be a separate database or an integral database with other

functions or systems of creditor 10.

The offer data in the merchant offer database are merged or cross-

indexed with a database containing information regarding an online account

servicing customers, and the offers are presented to such customers 30 (S.530).

When customer 30 selects to accept the offer, information including the accepted

offer identity, the merchant identity, and customer account identity, is tagged or

formed into Accepted Offer Identity database (S.540). The information stored in the Accepted Offer Identity database is fed forward to and used for Offer History

database (S.541 ), execution of the offer at the conclusion of the transaction

(S.542), and Merchant Transaction database (S.543).

The next time customer 30 uses his/her credit line (or credit card) with

creditor 10 in a transaction with merchant 20 in return for goods or services,

merchant 20 charges full price for the goods or services at the point of sale for

the total amount (S.550). The discount related to the offers is not applied at the

point of sale. But instead, the transaction along with the discount are reconciled

in the financial account statement of customer 30, normally at the end of the

billing cycle between customer 30 and creditor 10 (S.560). The financial account

statement will be generated based on the information from the Merchant

Transaction database.

The saving amount deducted in the financial account statement is

charged back by creditor 10, i.e., the Finance and Accounting department, to

merchant 20 (S.570). A printed financial account statement of customer 30 is

generated (S.575).

In addition, reports/analyses and other reporting functions may be

supplemented from the Finance and Accounting department of creditor 10 for

merchant 20 to receive a detailed report including the number of offers accepted

or declined, the total amount of the accepted offer discounts for a specified

period, and other analyses (S.580 and S.585). Also alternatively, the Finance and Accounting department of creditor 10

may provide a system for merchant 20 to receive a reimbursement from a

merchant's creditor (S.590).

Further alternatively, merchant 20 may refine, update, or reload a new set

of offers for creditor 10 to upload (S.595).

Fig. 6 illustrates, from the perspective of customer 30, the process for

providing financial incentives consistent with the principles of the present

invention. Customer 30 (or a credit card holder) applies for an access to the

online account servicing of creditor 10, so that customer 30 can log into the

online account servicing of creditor 10 (S.610). Thereafter, at any time customer

30 can view his/her account status as posted on the online account servicing

statement (S.620).

While customer 30 is viewing his/her online account status, customer 30

will be able to view the set of offers for financial incentives to transact with

merchant 20 using the line of credit or credit card from creditor 10 (S.630).

Customer 30 may click on, for example, "Your Offers" image or link to view an

offer listing or to view one or more offers among the set of offers to learn about

the detail of the offers (S.640).

Customer 30 is prompted to accept or decline any of the offers (S.650). If

customer 30 declines the offer, customer 30 will return to a previous view of

his/her financial account statement (S.660). On the other hand, customer 30

may accept the offer (S.670), and customer 30 transacts with merchant 20, i.e., by purchasing goods or retaining services from the merchant 20 offering the

financial incentives (S.675). The transaction between the merchant 20 offering

the financial incentives and customer 30 may be made online or offline. At the

conclusion of the transaction or at the point of sale, customer 30 pays merchant

20 using the credit card from creditor 10 for the full price of the transaction, no

discount is indicated on the proof of the transaction.

When customer 30 logs onto the online account servicing to view his/her

account statement (S.680), the transaction paid at full price and the saving

amount based on the applicable offer will be indicated on the financial account

statement (S.685). In addition, the financial account statement may also indicate

a running total of saving amount during the calendar year (S.690). Customer 30

may print the financial account statement reflecting the above discussed

transaction and other transactions not using the offers (S. 695).

Fig. 7 illustrates, from the perspective of creditor 10, the process for

providing financial offers consistent with the principles of the present invention.

A set of offers for financial incentives from merchant 20 is uploaded into the

merchant offer database (S.710). The merchant offer database is connected to

the online account servicing system or other systems of creditor 10 (S.715). The

offers may be rendered in DHTML programming language to customer 30 via the

online account servicing system.

Offer Administrator of creditor 10 will post the set of offers on the online

account servicing system so that the offers will be displayed when customer 30 views his/her financial account statement, either online or offline (S.730).

Customer 30 will be prompted to enter selection to accept or decline the offers

(S.735). For online customer 30, if customer 30 declines the offer, customer 30

will return to a previous view of his/her financial account statement (S.730). On

the other hand, customer 30 may select to accept the offer, in which the creditor

system will capture information including account identity of customer 30, identity

of merchant 20 offering the financial incentives, the amount or percentage of the

financial incentives, any limitations or constraints of the offer, etc. (S.735). This

information will be recorded in the accepted offer database. Customer 30 will be

presented with the details of the offers, including any limitations or constraints in

applying the offer.

When customer 30 transacts with merchant 20 for the qualifying goods or

services and uses the credit card of creditor 10 to finance the transaction, the

creditor system will identify the transaction made by customer 30 at the merchant

20 which provided the accepted offer (S.740, S.745, and S.750). The creditor

system will then cross reference the transaction database of merchant 20 with

the accepted offer database (S.755), and the creditor system applies the

corresponding financial incentives for the qualifying transaction (S.760). That is,

the creditor system will apply the discounted amount or savings to the

transaction value that was paid for at the full price.

A database, including a merchant accepted offer database or the

transaction database of merchant 20 (S.765), is generated based on the information captured in S.735 and is used in S.760 to cross reference with the

accepted offer database of creditor 10 to apply the qualifying transaction with the

discounted amount based on the offer's financial incentives. Information from

the merchant accepted offer database (S.771) and information on accepted and

used offers (S.772), i.e., by customer account identity, are utilized to update the

offer history database (S.770).

Information regarding the history of discount amount S.773 from S.760

and a summary of discount amount S.774 from S.770, are utilized to update the

online account servicing system and a printed statement may thereafter be

generated (S.785).

The Finance and Accounting department of creditor 10 extracts the

information from S.760 to perform a reconciliation between merchant 20 and

creditor 0 (S.790). The Finance and Accounting department may generate a

report or. perform other analyses (S.795). The merchant accepted offer database

from S.765 and the offer history database from S.770 may also report or be used

to perform analyses in S.795.

From the foregoing description, it will be appreciated that the present

invention provides an efficient system and method for combining financial

transaction data (such as credit card transaction data) with merchant's offers for

financial incentives and presenting the combined information of the qualifying

transaction and the corresponding savings to a customer over the Internet or in a

printed format of financial account statement. The present invention has been described in relation to a particular embodiment which is intended in all respects

to be illustrative rather than restrictive. Those skilled in the art will appreciate

that many different combinations of hardware will be suitable for practicing the

present invention. Many commercially available substitutes, each having

somewhat different cost and performance characteristics, exist for each of the

components described above.

Although aspects of the present invention are described as being stored

in memory, one skilled in the art will appreciate that these aspects can also be

stored on or read from other types of computer-readable media, such as

secondary storage devices, like hard disks, floppy disks, or CD-ROMs; a carrier

wave from the Internet; or other forms of RAM or ROM. Similarly, the method of

the present invention may conveniently be implemented in program modules that

are based upon the flow charts and other drawings described above. No

particular programming language has been indicated for carrying out the various

procedures described above- because it is considered that the operations, steps

and procedures described above and illustrated in the accompanying drawings

are sufficiently disclosed to permit one of ordinary skill in the art to practice the

instant invention. Moreover, there are many computers and operating systems

which may be used in practicing the instant invention and therefore no detailed

computer program could be provided which would be applicable to these many

different systems. Each user of a particular computer will be aware of the

language and tools which are most useful for that user's needs and purposes. Alternative embodiments will become apparent to those skilled in the art

to which the present invention pertains without departing from its spirit and

scope. For example, although the invention is described above with reference to

credit card accounts, the invention may be implemented with other types of

financial accounts, such as savings accounts, checking accounts, debit card

accounts, etc. Accordingly, the scope of the present invention is defined by the

appended claims rather than the foregoing description.

Claims

WHAT IS CLAIMED IS:

1. A method for providing an incentive to customers, the method

comprising:

providing an account statement to a customer;

including, with the account statement, an offer for an incentive that is valid

for a particular type of transaction; and

applying the incentive associated with the offer to the account statement

when the customer makes the particular type of transaction.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

obtaining reimbursement of the incentive from an offer provider.

3. A method for providing an incentive to customers, the method

comprising:

displaying an account information to a customer; and

including, with the display, an indication for an offer for an incentive;

wherein the incentive is applied to the account information when the

customer makes a particular type of transaction.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

obtaining reimbursement for the incentive from an offer provider.

5. A system for providing an incentive to customers, the comprising:

a first data storage system for maintaining account information of

customers; and

a second data storage system for maintaining information on offers for

incentives, the second data storage system being electronically connected to the

first data storage system;

wherein at least one of the offers for incentives is applied to a

corresponding account information of the customer when the customer makes a

particular type of transaction.

6. The system of claim 5, further comprising:

a system to reimburse the at least one of the offers for incentives to an

offer provider.

7. A method for providing a transaction offer through a financial

account of a customer, the method comprising:

providing a financial account statement to the customer, wherein the

customer is associated with the financial account;

including, with the financial account statement, the offer that is valid for a

qualifying transaction;

recording an acceptance of the offer by the customer;

detecting the qualifying transaction by the customer in which the accepted

offer is applied toward the qualifying transaction made through the financial

account of the customer;

applying to the financial account statement of the customer a financial

incentive associated with the accepted offer.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

obtaining reimbursement of the financial incentive provided to the

customer.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the offer is included with the

financial account statement associated with a customer having a predefined

profile.

10. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

reminding the customer when the accepted offer is about to expire.

11. A method for integrating a retail transaction when a vendor offers

an electronic certificate to consumer via a creditor, comprising the steps of:

providing a set of offers for electronic certificate to a plurality of consumer

stations via the creditor system;

maintaining a database for each of the plurality of consumer stations

which accepts the set of offers; and

applying a certificate data through the creditor system for each of the

plurality of consumer stations which accepts the set of offers.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the providing step comprises:

selectively providing the set of offers to a portion of the plurality of

consumer stations having a predefined profile.

13. The method of claim 11 , wherein the step of applying a certificate

data is performed at a subsequent financial account statement from the vendor

system.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the step of applying a certificate

data further comprises:

updating a transaction database of the creditor system to incorporate the

certificate data.

15. The method of claim 11 , further comprising:

obtaining reimbursement of the certificate data from the vendor.

16. The method of claim 11 , further comprising:

maintaining a database for each of the plurality of consumer stations

which declines the set of offers.

17. The method of claim 11 , further comprising:

communicating with each of the plurality of consumer stations which

accepts the set of offers regarding detail information of the electronic certificate.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the communicating step further

comprises:

transmitting a reminder to each of the plurality of consumer stations which

accepts the set of offers.

19. The method of claim 11 , further comprising:

communicating with each of the plurality of consumer stations which

accepts at least one of the set of offers regarding a second set of offers for

electronic certificate.

20. A method for integrating a vendor's electronic certificate data with a

creditor system, comprising the steps of:

transmitting an offer for electronic certificate from a vendor to a plurality of

consumer stations via a financial account statement of the creditor system, each

customer being associated with a financial account of the creditor system;

receiving an electronic response from a vendor system corresponding to

each of the plurality of consumer stations which accepts and uses the offer in a

transaction with the vendor using the financial account; and

applying a certificate data consistent with the offer to the financial account

statement each of the plurality of consumer stations which accepted and used

the offer.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the transmitting step comprises:

selectively transmitting the offer to a portion of the plurality of consumer

stations having a predefined profile.

22. The method of claim 20, the applying step further comprises:

applying the certificate data to a subsequent periodical financial account

statement of each of the plurality of consumer stations which accepted and used

the offer.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the applying step further

comprises:

updating a transaction database of the creditor system to incorporate the

certificate data.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the applying step further

comprises:

applying the certificate data to a subsequent transaction between the

vendor system and the creditor system.

25. The method of claim 20, further comprising:

maintaining a database for each of the plurality of consumer stations

which accepts the offer.

26. The method of claim 20, further comprising:

maintaining a database for each of the plurality of consumer stations

which declines the offer.

27. The method of claim 20, further comprising:

communicating with each of the plurality of consumer stations which

accepts the offer regarding detail information of the electronic certificate.

28. A method for applying an offer of electronic certificate for a plurality

of consumer stations from a vendor system to a creditor system, comprising the

steps of:

maintaining a first database for each of the plurality of consumer stations

which accepts the offer of electronic certificate; and

applying a certificate data to the vendor system through the creditor

system for each of the plurality of consumer stations which accepts the set of

offer.

29. The method of claim 28, further comprising:

maintaining a second database for each of the plurality of consumer

stations which declines the offer of electronic certificate.

30. The method of claim 28, wherein the vendor system providing the

offer of electronic certificate in a selective manner to a portion of the plurality of

consumer stations having a predefined profile.

31. The method of claim 28, wherein the step of applying the certificate

data is performed at a subsequent transaction between the vendor system and

each of the plurality of consumer stations which accepts the set of offer.

32. The method of claim 31 , wherein the step of applying the certificate

data further comprises:

updating a transaction database of the creditor system to incorporate the

certificate data.

33. The method of claim 28, further comprising:

communicating with each of the plurality of consumer stations which

accepts the offer regarding further information regarding the electronic certificate.

34. The method of claim 33, wherein the communicating step further

comprises:

transmitting a reminder to each of the plurality of consumer stations which

accepts the offer when the creditor system needs a response from the plurality of

consumer stations.

35. An apparatus for integrating. a vendor's electronic certificate data

with a creditor system, comprising:

an offer for electronic certificate provided by a vendor system to a plurality

of consumer stations via a creditor system;

a database system maintaining a database on each of the plurality of

consumer stations which accepts the offer; and

an offer registration system registering a certificate data corresponding to

each of the plurality of consumer stations which accepts the offer.

36. The apparatus of claim 35, wherein the offer for electronic

certificate is selectively electronically provided to a portion of the plurality of

consumer stations having a predefined profile.

37. The apparatus of claim 35, wherein the offer registration system

registers the certificate data at a subsequent transaction between the vendor

system and each of the plurality of consumer stations which accepts the offer.

38. The apparatus of claim 37, wherein the offer registration system is

electronically connected to the vendor system to update a transaction database

between the creditor system and the vendor system, the transaction database

being updated to incorporate the certificate data registered to each of the

plurality of consumer stations which accepts the offer.

39. The apparatus of claim 35, wherein the database system further comprises:

a database on each of the plurality of consumer stations which declines

the offer.

40. The apparatus of claim 35, further comprising:

a consumer relation database to communicate with each of the plurality of

consumer stations which accepts the offer regarding detailed information of the

electronic certificate.