Patent ID: 8695875
Filing Date: 2014-04-15
Classification: G06Q

Abstract:
1. A method for applying a credit amount to a cardholder's account, the method comprising: upon receiving a swipe from a card, providing a prompt to a cardholder, via a display, to choose to make a purchase from a merchant using either the card or reward points; in response to receiving a request to use the card: receiving the card from the cardholder for the purchase from the merchant; sending a card number associated with the card to a cardholder's bank server; identifying, by the cardholder's bank server, the cardholder as being associated with a financial services company of which the cardholder's bank is a member; determining, by the cardholder's bank server, whether the purchase qualifies for the rewards points, based on an identity of a product or service purchased, a purchase price of the product or the service purchased, an identity of the merchant, and the identity of the cardholder; in response to a determination that the purchase does not qualify for the rewards points, completing the purchase without applying the rewards points; in response to a determination that the purchase does qualify for the rewards points: determining, by the cardholder's bank server, a reward point value available from the financial services company for using the card for the purchase, wherein a higher reward point value is applied when the cardholder elects to purchase with a credit card rather than a debit account associated with the card or a debit card; automatically converting at the time of the purchase, by the cardholder's bank server, the reward point value to a credit amount; automatically, without an action on the part of the cardholder to redeem the credit amount, applying the credit amount to the cardholder's account substantially immediately upon purchase without regard to a periodic time interval associated with the cardholder's card account to determine a new card balance for substantially immediate use by the cardholder; and presenting the new credit card balance to the cardholder; and in response to receiving a request to use the reward points, debiting a required number of the rewards points from a reward points credit account of the cardholder.