Methods and systems for paying with loyalty currency during online payment

Abstract

Methods and systems for paying with loyalty currency at a merchant website by a user using a browser app are provided. The user is presented with the loyalty currency balance information based on the loyalty currency units available in the loyalty currency account. Thereafter, the user is presented with an option to pay for the purchase transaction using the loyalty currency. The user may select the option of paying for the purchase transaction using the loyalty currency, thereby redeeming the loyalty points.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method for paying with loyalty currency during online payment at any merchant website by a user using a payment assistant plug-in residing on a browser, the payment assistant plug-in being independent of any merchant website, the loyalty currency being provided by one or more program sponsors, the method comprising:
 receiving a confirmation from the user to use loyalty currency units for a purchase transaction at a merchant website;   filling payment methods details using a payment method in a payment form based on the received confirmation; and   presenting a confirmation message to the user that the purchase transaction has been completed by paying with loyalty currency at the merchant website, irrespective of whether the merchant website supports paying with loyalty currency,   
       wherein the method is implemented on a computing device. 
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the loyalty currency comprises at least one of loyalty points, membership points, reward points, mileage points, e-vouchers, coupons, and miles. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising: automatically presenting loyalty currency balance information for the user corresponding to the one or more program sponsors, wherein the loyalty currency balance information is presented to the user based on tracking the one or more websites that the user visits. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising: capturing total cost of items to be purchased by the user at the merchant website. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising: converting total cost of items to be purchased into one or more loyalty currency units based on a set of one or more conversion rules stored in a conversion table, wherein the set of conversion rules corresponds to a program sponsor, wherein each conversion rule corresponds to a merchant website. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising: presenting the user with at least one loyalty currency payment option based on loyalty currency balance information, the at least one loyalty currency payment option is presented to pay for the purchase transaction at the merchant website using the loyalty currency. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising: reporting purchase transaction information to at least one of the one or more program sponsors after completing the purchase transaction. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 3 , wherein the loyalty currency balance information comprises number of loyalty currency units credited to the user by the one or more program sponsors. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 3 , wherein the user visiting the one or more merchant websites is presented with the loyalty currency balance information when the loyalty currency balance is above a predetermined threshold. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the merchant website belongs to a predefined list of one or more merchant websites provided by at least one program sponsor. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 3 , wherein the loyalty currency balance information is based on aggregated loyalty currency units computed from one or more loyalty currency corresponding to a program sponsor for the user. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 5 , wherein the set of conversion rules is dynamically downloaded from a program sponsor server when the user initiates the purchase transaction at the merchant website. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 6 , wherein the user is presented with the at least one loyalty currency payment option when loyalty currency balance corresponding to a program sponsor is greater than the number of loyalty currency units required to complete the purchase transaction. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the purchase transaction is completed by paying using a combination of one or more loyalty currency units and at least one payment method. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the payment methods comprise at least one of using a credit card, a debit card, a prepaid card, and a merchant card. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the payment methods comprise a virtual prepaid card automatically generated by the payment assistant plug in real-time having a monetary value equal to the monetary value of the purchase transaction, wherein the virtual prepaid card expires at the end of the purchase transaction. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the payment methods further comprise at least one of a virtual card number and a virtual bank number, the virtual card number and/or the virtual bank number generated corresponding to the one or more payment methods. 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the user stores details of the payment methods on the at least one of the computing device and over the network, wherein the details of the payment methods comprise at least one of an account holder name, a credit card number, a debit card number, a Card Verification Value (CW) number, an expiration date, a prepaid card number, and a merchant card number. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the details of the payment methods are filled in the payment form by accessing the details of the payment methods from at least one of the computing device and the network. 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising automatically locking the payment form at the merchant website from user editing subsequent to filling the payment methods details. 
     
     
         21 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising recognizing completion of the purchase, wherein the merchant website records the purchase to be completed using the payment methods, wherein the program sponsor records the purchase to be completed using the loyalty currency. 
     
     
         22 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the one or more program sponsors is at least one of a banking institution, a financial institution, a credit card company, an airline, a super market, and a convenience store. 
     
     
         23 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the payment method details are filled manually by the user in the payment form. 
     
     
         24 . A system for paying with loyalty currency during online payment at any merchant websites by a user using a payment assistant plug-in residing on a browser, the payment assistant plug-in being independent of any merchant website, the loyalty currency being provided by one or more program sponsors, the system comprising:
 a processor; and   a memory coupled to the processor, wherein the processor is configured to execute the payment assistant plug-in residing on the browser in the memory, the payment assistant plug-in comprising:   a tracking module configured to:
 I. track a user response to at least one loyalty currency payment option presented to the user, the at least one loyalty currency payment option is presented to pay for a purchase transaction using the loyalty currency; and 
 II. receive a confirmation from the user to use converted loyalty currency units for a purchase transaction at the merchant website; and 
   a presentation module configured to:
 I. present a confirmation message to the user that the purchase transaction has been completed by paying with loyalty currency at the merchant website, irrespective of whether the merchant website supports paying with loyalty currency; 
   wherein the payment assistant plug-in is connected to a loyalty currency server, the loyalty currency server hosts one or more rules for operating the loyalty currency client,   Wherein the payment assistant plug-in interacting with the one or more program sponsors over a network.   
     
     
         25 . The system of  claim 21 , wherein the tracking module further configured to:
 I. track one or more websites the user visits; and   II. capture total cost of items to be purchased by the user at the merchant website.   
     
     
         26 . The system of  claim 21 , wherein the presentation module further configured to:
 I. present to the user in a predefined format at least one loyalty currency balance information corresponding to the one or more program sponsors without a user input, when the user visits the one or more merchant websites;   II. present to the user in the predefined format one or more number of loyalty currency units corresponding to the one or more program sponsors required for the purchase transaction.   
     
     
         27 . The system of  claim 21 , further comprising:
 a currency converter module configured to convert the total cost of items to be purchased into the one or more loyalty currency units needed for completing the purchase transaction, and to provide the number of one or more loyalty currency units needed for completing the purchase transaction to the presentation module;   a transaction report module configured to capture the purchase transaction information and reporting the purchase transaction information to at least one of the one or more program sponsors; and   a sponsor interface module configured to interface with at least one program sponsor server and to obtain at least one of:   loyalty currency balance information corresponding to the user;   a set of conversion rules corresponding to a merchant website for converting the total cost of items to be purchased into loyalty currency units;   information on merchants where the payment by loyalty currency service is to be provided;   a list of users for whom the payment by loyalty currency service is to be enabled; and   a predetermined threshold of loyalty currency balance required corresponding to the at least one program sponsor.   
     
     
         28 . The system of  claim 21 , wherein the loyalty currency server interacts with the payment assistant plug-in and the at least one program sponsor server over the network. 
     
     
         29 . The system of  claim 21 , further comprising an authentication module configured to authenticate the user with at least one of the payment assistant plug and the loyalty currency server. 
     
     
         30 . The system of  claim 21 , further comprising a user profile module configured to extract one or more user profiles from at least one of the loyalty currency server and one or more program sponsors, wherein the information comprises at least one of an account holder name, a credit card number, a debit card number, a Card Verification Value (CW) number, an expiration date, a prepaid card number, and a merchant card number. 
     
     
         31 . The system of  claim 21 , further comprising a targeting module configured to:
 select at least one loyalty currency payment option to be offered to the user when the at least one loyalty currency balance is greater than number of loyalty currency units required to complete the purchase transaction; and   select the at least one loyalty currency payment option based on at least one of the merchant website, the total cost of items to be purchased, the loyalty currency balance information, and one or more user preferences.   
     
     
         32 . The system of  claim 21 , further comprising a payment method module configured to automatically lock a payment form from user editing subsequent to filling one or more payment method details. 
     
     
         33 . The system of  claim 27 , wherein the purchase transaction information comprises at least one of a monetary value of the purchase transaction and an address of the merchant website at which the user performed the purchase transaction. 
     
     
         34 . A computer program product comprising computer-executable instructions embodied in a non-transitory computer-readable medium for use in connection with a processor-containing system, for performing steps comprising:
 receiving a confirmation from a user to use loyalty currency units for a purchase transaction at a merchant website;   filling payment methods details using a payment method in a payment form based on the received confirmation; and   presenting a confirmation message to the user that the purchase transaction has been completed by paying with loyalty currency at the merchant website, irrespective of whether the merchant website supports paying with loyalty currency.