Patent application number | Description | Published |
20080301050 | REAL TIME ACCOUNT UPDATE - A method is used in a system that includes a financial service provider coordinating accounts issued by an issuer to cardholders requesting credit from merchants. Each merchant has an acquirer with whom the financial service provider also coordinates the accounts. The method can be performed by a merchant sending a transmission to its acquirer including a request for a transaction against one account to which the merchant receives a denial or prior to receiving such a denial. The merchant then requests information from the financial service provider who responds by sending the requested information, upon which the merchant determines whether to extend the credit. When the method is performed by a financial service provider, in response to the denial received by one merchant or prior to such denial, the financial service provider receives a transmission from the merchant including a request for information about the account. In response, the financial service provider sends the merchant the requested information. | 12-04-2008 |
20090048884 | MERCHANT BENCHMARKING TOOL - A benchmarking tool generates reports for delivery to a merchant illustrating a performance of the merchant as compared to the performance of the merchant's peers. The performance is illustrated through metrics that algorithmically combine data on transactions of consumers with the merchant or its peers, respectively. The metrics may be further subdivided into consumer groups such as new consumers, consumers that have shopped within the merchant in the past, consumers that no longer shop within the merchant, or consumers that use a commercial account to pay for purchases. The reports may be rendered in a graphical display for use by the merchant. | 02-19-2009 |
20090063346 | REAL TIME ACCOUNT UPDATE - A method is used in a system that includes a financial service provider coordinating accounts issued by an issuer to cardholders requesting credit from merchants. Each merchant has an acquirer with whom the financial service provider also coordinates the accounts. The method can be performed by a merchant sending a transmission to its acquirer including a request for a transaction against one account to which the merchant receives a denial or prior to receiving such a denial. The merchant then requests information from the financial service provider who responds by sending the requested information, upon which the merchant determines whether to extend the credit. When the method is performed by a financial service provider, in response to the denial received by one merchant or prior to such denial, the financial service provider receives a transmission from the merchant including a request for information about the account. In response, the financial service provider sends the merchant the requested information. | 03-05-2009 |
20090063347 | REAL TIME ACCOUNT UPDATE - A method is used in a system that includes a financial service provider coordinating accounts issued by an issuer to cardholders requesting credit from merchants. Each merchant has an acquirer with whom the financial service provider also coordinates the accounts. The method can be performed by a merchant sending a transmission to its acquirer including a request for a transaction against one account to which the merchant receives a denial or prior to receiving such a denial. The merchant then requests information from the financial service provider who responds by sending the requested information, upon which the merchant determines whether to extend the credit. When the method is performed by a financial service provider, in response to the denial received by one merchant or prior to such denial, the financial service provider receives a transmission from the merchant including a request for information about the account. In response, the financial service provider sends the merchant the requested information. | 03-05-2009 |
20100036768 | SHARE OF WALLET BENCHMARKING - Signals are received representing transactions made by a customer or domestic unit during a given period from a plurality of financial institutions. The transactions affect one or more accounts of the customer or domestic unit at each of the plurality of financial institutions. Data are stored representing the transactions in a machine readable storage medium. At least one benchmark is computed. The benchmark is in part based on a portion of the data corresponding to one or more of the accounts of the customer or domestic unit at a first one of the plurality of financial institutions and in part based on the data corresponding to all of the one or more accounts of the customer or domestic unit at all of the plurality of financial institutions. Data representing the benchmark are transmitted to the first financial institution. | 02-11-2010 |
20100036769 | ACCOUNT HOLDER DEMAND ACCOUNT UPDATE - Account holder identification is used to access and retrieve the account holder's accounts and attributes thereof. A user interface receives a selected account for which merchants having conducted transactions on the selected account are retrieved and displayed on the user interface. The account holder selects which merchants are to receive updated attributes of the selected account, such as a new expiration, a new billing address, a new credit limit, a name change of the account holder, etc. Each user selected merchant is notified of the user selected attributes of the user selected account | 02-11-2010 |
20110066483 | REBATE AUTOMATION - A computer receives information that a request is made to authorize a transaction for a sale of a product by a merchant to an account holder in a transaction conducted on a consumer account issued to the account holder. When the computer confirms that the transaction is authorized and that the transaction occurs within a predetermined time period for which there is a rebate associated with the product and a corresponding sponsor financially responsible for the rebate, the computer communicates that the rebate is to be debited to an account of the sponsor and either: (i) given as a discount by the merchant at the point of sale to the account holder; or (ii) credited to an account issued to the account holder by the issuer. | 03-17-2011 |
20110087530 | Systems and Methods to Provide Loyalty Programs - In one aspect, a computing apparatus includes: a transaction handler to process transactions; a portal to receive from users enrollment input identifying account identifiers of the users and respective loyalty programs; and a data warehouse to store data associating the account identifiers with the respective loyalty programs. In response to an authorization request received in the transaction handler for a payment transaction identifying a first account identifier, the computing apparatus is to use the data warehouse to determine whether the first account identifier is enrolled with a loyalty program; and if the first account identifier is enrolled with a first loyalty program, the computing apparatus is to use the transaction handler to request purchase details from the merchant via a response to the authorization request, and determine benefits to be awarded to the user of the first account identifier. | 04-14-2011 |
20110087531 | Systems and Methods to Aggregate Demand - In one aspect, a computing apparatus includes: a data warehouse to store data associating a plurality of account identifiers with an offer having a predefined purchase requirement and an aggregated purchase requirement for a benefit; and a transaction handler configured to process a plurality of transactions. The transaction handler is further configured to determine whether each of the plurality of transactions satisfies a predefined purchase requirement, identify a set of transactions each satisfying the predefined purchase requirement, and determine whether the set of transactions satisfies an aggregated purchase requirement for the benefit. In one example, the transaction handler is configured to provide the benefit via statement credits when the set of transactions satisfies the aggregated purchase requirement. | 04-14-2011 |
20110153500 | REAL TIME ACCOUNT UPDATE - A method is used in a system that includes a financial service provider coordinating accounts issued by an issuer to cardholders requesting credit from merchants. Each merchant has an acquirer with whom the financial service provider also coordinates the accounts. The method can be performed by a merchant sending a transmission to its acquirer including a request for a transaction against one account to which the merchant receives a denial or prior to receiving such a denial. The merchant then requests information from the financial service provider who responds by sending the requested information, upon which the merchant determines whether to extend the credit. When the method is performed by a financial service provider, in response to the denial received by one merchant or prior to such denial, the financial service provider receives a transmission from the merchant including a request for information about the account. In response, the financial service provider sends the merchant the requested information. | 06-23-2011 |
20110218838 | ECONOMETRICAL INVESTMENT STRATEGY ANALYSIS APPARATUSES, METHODS AND SYSTEMS - The ECONOMETRICAL INVESTMENT STRATEGY ANALYSIS APPARATUSES, METHODS AND SYSTEMS (“EISA”) transform raw card-based transaction data via EISA components into business analytics reports. In one embodiment, the EISA may obtain an investment strategy analysis request. The EISA may determine a scope of aggregation of card-based transaction data records for investment strategy analysis and aggregate the card-based transaction data records for investment strategy analysis according to the determined scope. The EISA may generate anonymized card transaction data by removing identifying characteristics from the aggregated transaction data. The EISA may determine a forecast regression equation using the anonymized card-based transaction data records. Using the forecast regression equation, the EISA may calculate a forecast for retail spending in a specified spending category. Based on the calculated forecast, the EISA may generate a business analytics report, and provide the business analytics report in response to the obtained investment strategy analysis report. | 09-08-2011 |
20130030972 | REAL TIME ACCOUNT UPDATE - A method is used in a system that includes a financial service provider coordinating accounts issued by an issuer to cardholders requesting credit from merchants. Each merchant has an acquirer with whom the financial service provider also coordinates the accounts. The method can be performed by a merchant or a financial service provider, the merchant sending a transmission to its acquirer including a request for a transaction against one account to which the merchant receives a denial or prior to receiving such a denial. The merchant then requests information from the financial service provider who responds by sending the requested information, upon which the merchant determines whether to extend the credit. | 01-31-2013 |
20130066771 | Systems and Methods to Configure Data for Diverse Services - A computing apparatus includes: a transaction handler configured to process payment transactions; a data warehouse coupled with the transaction handler to store transaction data recording the payment transactions processed by the transaction handler; and a portal coupled with the data warehouse to store non-transaction data associated with the transaction data. The portal is further configured to receive input from account holders to specify personalization data and to store the personalization data in the data warehouse to tag the non-transaction data. The personalization data controls the access to the non-transaction data tagged with the personalization data. | 03-14-2013 |
20130246125 | Service Provider Analytics - A system, apparatus, computer readable media, and method are disclosed for generating analytics on customers of service provider merchants. In an example, a transaction record associated with an account identifier of a customer that purchased a first service from a first merchant may be processed and a service date for the first service may be determined. Other transaction records comprising the account identifier and that satisfy a temporal filter may be identified. Each of the other transaction records may include transaction data associated with at least one of: (1) purchase of another service to be provided within a first predetermined amount of time of the service date, and (2) purchase of a product within a second predetermined amount of time of the service date. A spending profile including information on the first service, the service date, and the transaction data for each of the other transaction records may be generated. | 09-19-2013 |
20130275181 | SERVICE PROVIDER ANALYTICS - A system, apparatus, computer readable media, and method are disclosed for generating analytics on customers of service provider merchants. In an example, a transaction record associated with an account identifier of a customer that purchased a first service from a first merchant may be processed and a service date for the first service may be determined. Other transaction records comprising the account identifier and that satisfy a temporal filter may be identified. Each of the other transaction records may include transaction data associated with at least one of: (1) purchase of another service to be provided within a first predetermined amount of time of the service date, and (2) purchase of a product within a second predetermined amount of time of the service date. A spending profile including information on the first service, the service date, and the transaction data for each of the other transaction records may be generated. | 10-17-2013 |
20130275186 | Merchant Benchmarking Tool - A benchmarking tool accesses a database comprising a plurality of transaction records, each of the records comprising transaction data on a purchase transaction. A first subset of the transaction records is determined that occur within a predetermined time period and are associated with a first merchant. A second subset of the transaction records is determined that occur within the predetermined time period and are associated with a merchant peer group. The first subset of transaction records are processed to determine a first metric for the first merchant. The second subset of transaction records are processed to determine a second metric for the merchant peer group. The first metric is compared to the second metric to indicate performance of the first merchant relative to performance of the merchant peer group. | 10-17-2013 |
20140310086 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS TO PROVIDE LOYALTY PROGRAMS - A computing apparatus includes: a transaction handler to process transactions; a portal to receive from users enrollment input identifying account identifiers of the users and respective loyalty programs; and a data warehouse to store data associating the account identifiers with the respective loyalty programs. In response to an authorization request received in the transaction handler for a payment transaction identifying a first account identifier, the computing apparatus is to use the data warehouse to determine whether the first account identifier is enrolled with a loyalty program; and if the first account identifier is enrolled with a first loyalty program, the computing apparatus is to use the transaction handler to request purchase details from the merchant via a response to the authorization request, and determine benefits to be awarded to the user of the first account identifier. | 10-16-2014 |
20150019314 | REBATE AUTOMATION - A computer receives information that a request is made to authorize a transaction for a sale of a product by a merchant to an account holder in a transaction conducted on a consumer account issued to the account holder. When the computer confirms that the transaction is authorized and that the transaction occurs within a predetermined time period for which there is a rebate associated with the product and a corresponding sponsor financially responsible for the rebate, the computer communicates that the rebate is to be debited to an account of the sponsor and either: (i) given as a discount by the merchant at the point of sale to the account holder; or (ii) credited to an account issued to the account holder by the issuer. | 01-15-2015 |
20150058108 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS TO AGGREGATE DEMAND - A computing apparatus includes: a data warehouse to store data associating a plurality of account identifiers with an offer having a predefined purchase requirement and an aggregated purchase requirement for a benefit; and a transaction handler configured to process a plurality of transactions. The transaction handler is further configured to determine whether each of the plurality of transactions satisfies a predefined purchase requirement, identify a set of transactions each satisfying the predefined purchase requirement, and determine whether the set of transactions satisfies an aggregated purchase requirement for the benefit. In one example, the transaction handler is configured to provide the benefit via statement credits when the set of transactions satisfies the aggregated purchase requirement. | 02-26-2015 |
20150088626 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS TO RESERVE AND RELEASE REWARDS FOR REDEMPTION DURING PAYMENT TRANSACTIONS - A system including a transaction handler configured to split a transaction, initiated between an acquirer processor representing a merchant and an issuer processor representing a user of a payment account, into separate transactions with the issuer processor and one or more sponsor processors in control of reward accounts of the user for the redemption of loyalty rewards. The transaction handler may communicate with the sponsor processors in parallel or in sequence to reserve and release rewards, and may provide a partial authorization for the transaction in response to each authorization for reward redemption from a respective reward account without a subsequent, updated authorization request for the transaction in the payment account of the user. | 03-26-2015 |
20150088633 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS TO REDEEM LOYALTY REWARDS DURING PAYMENT TRANSACTIONS - A system including a transaction handler configured to split a transaction, initiated between an acquirer processor representing a merchant and an issuer processor representing a user of a payment account, into separate transactions with the issuer processor and one or more sponsor processors in control of reward accounts of the user for the redemption of loyalty rewards. User preferences and rules of the loyalty programs for the redemption of the loyalty rewards are stored to facilitate the determination of the redemption details in an automated way, such that the user (and/or the merchant) does not have to specify the redemption details. A portal may optionally notify the user of the award/redemption of the benefit of an offer using a communication channel separate from the transaction terminal that initiates and approves the transaction between the account holder and the merchant. | 03-26-2015 |