Patent ID: 6820061
Filing Date: 2004-11-16
Classification: G06Q,G07F

Abstract:
A method for making an online purchase over a networked computer system comprising the steps of:a. a user accessing a web site for logging into an online reward points trading system that allows accumulation of reward points from a plurality of individual reward accounts for application towards online payment of a product, each individual reward account associated with an individual reward issuing entity and stored on a reward server associated with the reward point issuing entity, and wherein each of said reward accounts tracks points earned by the user for transactions between the user and the associated reward points issuing entity, and wherein each of the reward points issuing entities enables the user to selectively redeem points from the reward account associated with the user for an item selected by the user; b. the reward points trading system determining over the network the number of reward points a user has in each of a plurality of individual reward point accounts; c. the user selecting via the web site a product to be purchased from a plurality of available products; d. the web site displaying to the user the number of reward points available for redemption in at least one of the plurality of individual reward accounts; e. the user interactively selecting via the web site points from selected individual reward accounts to be accumulated and applied to the purchase of the selected product; f. the reward points trading system accumulating the selected reward points from the selected individual reward accounts for application in a purchase transaction for the selected product; and g. the reward points trading system executing a purchase transaction for the selected product on behalf of the user by applying the accumulated points to the purchase price of the product.