Coupon bearing sponsor account transaction authorization

Abstract

A transaction handler receives, for forwarding to a sponsor account's issuer, a coupon authorization request message from a merchant's acquirer that identifies the sponsor account and a coupon for an item being purchased by a consumer in a transaction with the merchant. The issuer determines eligibility of the coupon for use by the consumer, and sends an authorization response message to the merchant via its acquirer and the transaction handler for the application of a corresponding discount for the item when the coupon is eligible. One or more coupon eligibilities for the purchase of the item by the consumer from the merchant can be derived from comparisons of the transaction to predetermined times, geographies, jurisdictions, sets of merchants, and/or the number of times that coupons have been used in other transactions. The transaction handler can further process the transaction for authorization the consumer's account to pay of the transaction.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method, comprising:
 receiving, in a computing device including a transaction handler of a payment processing network and from a merchant, a first request message identifying a consumer account of a consumer and requesting authorization of a payment transaction between the consumer and the merchant for a purchase from the merchant;   sending, from the computing device and to an issuer of the consumer account, a second request message requesting authorization of the payment transaction by the issuer of the consumer account;   sending, from the computing device and to an issuer of a sponsor account of a benefit of an offer, a third request message requesting authorization of the benefit of the offer to be used with the purchase from the merchant;   receiving, in the computing device and from the issuer of the sponsor account as a response to the third request message to the issuer of the sponsor account, a first response message authorizing the benefit of the offer to be used with the purchase from the merchant;   receiving, in the computing device and from the issuer of the consumer account as a response to the second request message to the issuer of the consumer account, a second response message authorizing the payment transaction in the consumer account for the purchase with which the benefit of the offer is to be used; and   communicating, from the computing device, authorization data to the merchant for the purchase, in accordance with the first response message authorizing the benefit of the offer to be used with the purchase from the merchant and the second response message authorizing the payment transaction in the consumer account for the purchase with which the benefit of the offer is to be used.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the communicating of the authorization data comprises:
 sending, from the computing device to the merchant, the first response message authorizing the benefit of the offer to be used with the purchase from the merchant; and   sending, from the computing device to the merchant, the second response message authorizing the payment transaction in the consumer account for the purchase with which the benefit of the offer is to be used.   
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the sending of the second response message authorizing the payment transaction in the consumer account for the purchase with which the benefit of the offer is to be used is in response to the receiving of the second response message from the issuer of the consumer account authorizing the payment transaction. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 3 , wherein the sending of the first response message authorizing the benefit of the offer to be used with the purchase from the merchant is in response to the receiving of the first response message from the issuer of the sponsor account authorizing the benefit of the offer to be used with the purchase. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 4 , wherein the issuer of the consumer account is different from the issuer of the sponsor account. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 receiving, in the computing device from the merchant, the third request message requesting authorization of the benefit of the offer to be used with the purchase from the merchant.   
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 6 , wherein the third request message is received via an acquirer from the merchant requesting authorization of the benefit of the offer to be used with the purchase from the merchant. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein the first request message is received via the acquirer from the merchant requesting authorization of the payment transaction between the consumer and the merchant for the purchase from the merchant. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 6 , wherein the third request message received in the computing device identifies the sponsor account. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 6 , wherein the offer includes a coupon; and the third request message received in the computing device requests to charge the sponsor account an amount in accordance with the coupon. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein a transaction amount of the payment transaction in the consumer account is a result of applying the benefit according to the offer to the purchase from the merchant. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein the receiving of the first request message from the merchant follows the receiving of the first response message from the issuer of the sponsor account. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 clearing and settling, by the computing device, a transaction between the merchant and the sponsor account for the benefit of the offer.   
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the third request message requests to charge the sponsor account an amount in accordance with the offer. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein a transaction amount requested in the second request message to the issuer of the consumer account includes the benefit provided to the purchase according to the offer. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 15 , wherein the transaction amount is computed by a point of service terminal of the merchant in response to the first response message authorizing the benefit of the offer to be used with the purchase from the merchant. 
     
     
         17 . A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing instructions configured to instruct a computing device including a transaction handler of a payment processing network to perform a method, the method comprising:
 receiving, in the computing device including the transaction handler of the payment processing network and from a merchant, a first request message identifying a consumer account of a consumer and requesting authorization of a payment transaction between the consumer and the merchant for a purchase from the merchant;   sending, from the computing device and to an issuer of the consumer account, a second request message requesting authorization of the payment transaction by the issuer of the consumer account;   sending, from the computing device and to an issuer of a sponsor account of a benefit of an offer, a third request message requesting authorization of the benefit of the offer to be used with the purchase from the merchant;   receiving, in the computing device and from the issuer of the sponsor account as a response to the third request message to the issuer of the sponsor account, a first response message authorizing the benefit of the offer to be used with the purchase from the merchant;   receiving, in the computing device and from the issuer of the consumer account as a response to the second request message to the issuer of the consumer account, a second response message authorizing the payment transaction in the consumer account for the purchase with which the benefit of the offer is to be used; and   communicating, from the computing device, authorization data to the merchant for the purchase, in accordance with the first response message authorizing the benefit of the offer to be used with the purchase from the merchant and the second response message authorizing the payment transaction in the consumer account for the purchase with which the benefit of the offer is to be used.   
     
     
         18 . The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of  claim 17 , wherein the offer provides a discount; a transaction amount request by the second request message sent to the issuer of the consumer account includes the discount applied to the purchase; and the third request message sent to the issuer of the sponsor account requests to charge the sponsor account for the discount in accordance with the offer. 
     
     
         19 . A computing device, comprising:
 a processor; and   a memory storing instructions configured to instruct the processor to perform operations of a transaction handler of a payment processing network, the operations including:
 receiving, in the computing device including the transaction handler of the payment processing network and from a merchant, a first request message identifying a consumer account of a consumer and requesting authorization of a payment transaction between the consumer and the merchant for a purchase from the merchant; 
 sending, from the computing device and to an issuer of the consumer account, a second request message requesting authorization of the payment transaction by the issuer of the consumer account; 
 sending, from the computing device and to an issuer of a sponsor account of a benefit of an offer, a third request message requesting authorization of the benefit of the offer to be used with the purchase from the merchant; 
 receiving, in the computing device and from the issuer of the sponsor account as a response to the third request message to the issuer of the sponsor account, a first response message authorizing the benefit of the offer to be used with the purchase from the merchant; 
 receiving, in the computing device and from the issuer of the consumer account as a response to the second request message to the issuer of the consumer account, a second response message authorizing the payment transaction in the consumer account for the purchase with which the benefit of the offer is to be used; and 
 communicating, from the computing device, authorization data to the merchant for the purchase, in accordance with the first response message authorizing the benefit of the offer to be used with the purchase from the merchant and the second response message authorizing the payment transaction in the consumer account for the purchase with which the benefit of the offer is to be used. 
   
     
     
         20 . The computing device of  claim 19 , wherein a transaction amount request by the second request message sent to the issuer of the consumer account includes the benefit of the offer applied to the purchase; and the third request message sent to the issuer of the sponsor account requests to charge the sponsor account for the benefit of the offer applied to the purchase.