Prepaid rewards credited to a transaction account

Abstract

A system and method provide rewards or loyalty incentives to card member customers. The system includes an enrolled card member customer database, an enrolled merchant database, a participating merchant offer database and a registered card processor. The enrolled card member customer database includes transaction accounts of card member customers enrolled in a loyalty incentive program. If the purchase qualifies for a rebate credit, the registered card processor provides the rebate credit to an account of the enrolled card member customer. The registered card processor also provides for electronic notification of rewards offers or credit to prepaid cards, in response to purchases conforming to a specific set of merchant criteria. The system provides a coupon-less way for merchants to provide incentive discounts and/or credits to enrolled customers, along with notifying customers of other available incentive offers.

We claim: 
     
         1 . A method, comprising:
 receiving, by a computer based system and from a merchant system, an authorization request for a transaction including transaction information, wherein the transaction was initiated with a prepaid transaction account;   determining, by the computer based system and prior to approving the authorization request, an offer from a plurality of offers based on the authorization request associated with the prepaid transaction account;   approving, by the computer based system, the authorization request for the transaction based on the transaction information received from the merchant system; and   crediting, by the computer based system, a reward credit amount from the offer to the prepaid transaction account, in response to the authorizing the transaction initiated by the prepaid transaction account.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising receiving, by the computer based system, a prepaid transaction account identifier that corresponds to the prepaid transaction account. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein a prepaid transaction account identifier corresponding to the prepaid transaction account does not particularly identify a user of the prepaid transaction account. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising linking, by the computer based system and in response to the receiving, the prepaid transaction account with a rewards program based on a prepaid transaction account identifier. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein a rewards program linked to the prepaid transaction account includes a rewards program identifier. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein a rewards program is linked to a social networking channel profile for a social networking channel. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the offer applies to the transaction initiated with the prepaid transaction account. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising transmitting, by the computer based system and through a social networking channel, a notice of the reward credit amount associated with the offer. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising monitoring, by the computer based system, transactions associated with the prepaid transaction account. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising providing, by the computer based system, notifications through a social networking channel of the plurality of offers for the prepaid transaction account. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein a rule is provided by the merchant system and the rule defines a basis for providing the offer from the merchant system. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the reward credit amount is provided by a transaction account issuer. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising evaluating, by the computer based system, at least one of a first activity associated with the prepaid transaction account or a second activity associated with the prepaid transaction account against offer rules. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 13 , further comprising transmitting, by the computer based system, the offer in response to at least one of the first activity or the second activity conforming with at least a portion of the offer rules. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the offer has a monetary value. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the transaction information is real time spend data and includes requests for authorization and transactions that have been posted to the prepaid transaction account. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the prepaid transaction account is used for purchasing from the merchant system participating in a rewards program. 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein a prepaid transaction account identifier anonymously associates the prepaid transaction account with a rewards program. 
     
     
         19 . A tangible, non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having computer-executable instructions stored thereon that, if executed by a computer based system, causes the computer based system to be capable of performing a method comprising:
 receiving, by the computer based system and from a merchant system, an authorization request for a transaction including transaction information, wherein the transaction was initiated with a prepaid transaction account;   determining, by the computer based system and prior to approving the authorization request, an offer from a plurality of offers based on the authorization request associated with the prepaid transaction account;   approving, by the computer based system, the authorization request for the transaction based on the transaction information received from the merchant system; and   crediting, by the computer based system, a reward credit amount from the offer to the prepaid transaction account, in response to the authorizing the transaction initiated by the prepaid transaction account.   
     
     
         20 . A system comprising:
 a processor; and   a tangible network interface communicating with a non-transitory memory,   the non-transitory memory communicating with the processor, and   the processor, when executing a computer program, performs operations comprising:   receiving, by the processor and from a merchant system, an authorization request for a transaction including transaction information, wherein the transaction was initiated with a prepaid transaction account;   determining, by the processor and prior to approving the authorization request, an offer from a plurality of offers based on the authorization request associated with the prepaid transaction account;   approving, by the processor, the authorization request for the transaction based on the transaction information received from the merchant system; and   crediting, by the processor, a reward credit amount from the offer to the prepaid transaction account, in response to the authorizing the transaction initiated by the prepaid transaction account.