Patent Publication Number: US-2021182825-A1

Title: Systems and methods for processing electronic transactions based on consumer characteristics

Description:
RELATED APPLICATION(S) 
     This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/730,387 filed Nov. 27, 2012, the entirety of which is incorporated herein by reference. 
    
    
     TECHNICAL FIELD 
     Various embodiments of the present disclosure relate generally to processing electronic transactions. More specifically, particular embodiments of the present disclosure relate to systems and methods for processing electronic transactions based on consumer characteristics, such as, for example, physical geography or association. 
     BACKGROUND 
     When a consumer uses an electronic payment method, such as a credit, debit, or prepaid card as currency, whether at a brick-and-mortar or online retailer, an orchestrated series of communications and transactions take place to ultimately transfer payment from the consumer to the merchant. In the case of most credit cards, once a consumer swipes his or her card, or otherwise initiates a transaction, the merchant submits a request for the payment to a credit card “acquiring bank” or “acquirer,” which sends an authorization request to the consumer&#39;s respective credit card “issuer” (e.g., CapitalOne or Bank of America). The consumer&#39;s credit card issuer then determines if enough funds are available, and generates an authorization code for sending back to the acquirer over a card network (e.g., Visa or MasterCard). The acquirer then informs the merchant whether the transaction is authorized. Over time following the transaction, the parties carry out a process of batching and clearing transactions, and funding merchants from funds that are ultimately obtained from respective consumer cardholders. 
     To fund this process, each time a merchant swipes or processes a consumer&#39;s credit, debit, or prepaid card, the merchant is typically required to pay an interchange, or “swipe” fee. The interchange fee is typically set by the credit card networks, and split between the acquiring bank, card issuer, and other intermediaries. Often, the amount of the fee charged to the merchant depends on a number of factors, including the type of card used (e.g., premium rewards cards have higher fees than debit cards) and the type of transaction (e.g., online merchants pay higher fees than brick-and-mortar stores). However, unbeknownst to most consumers, the amount of the interchange fee also depends on the identity of the merchant. Typically, small businesses, such as gas stations and boutiques, pay the highest fees, whereas big box retailers like Target and Walmart are able to negotiate lower fees based on, e.g., volume of transactions. 
     This system not only burdens small merchants with relatively higher fees, but it can also result in policies that incentivize consumers to favor big box retailers over small merchants. For instance, due to the burdens of high fees, small merchants may impose mandatory minimums on credit purchases, refuse to accept premium rewards cards (e.g., American Express), or even refuse to accept credit cards at all. As a result, some consumers may be driven away from small and local merchants, in favor of big box retailers and other national chains. 
     Moreover, many credit card issuers have implemented rewards programs that incentivize consumers to favor big box retailers and other national chains over small businesses. For example, consumers might earn “double points” for shopping at one of a selected set of different national chains with whom that credit card issuer has negotiated some form of discount or profit sharing arrangement. Again, this might cause consumers to favor shopping at large national chains over local small businesses. 
     These challenges are so significant that the United States Congress recently passed legislation capping interchange fees and allowing merchants to charge their own incentive fees for use of cash or debit cards over credit cards. However, these legislative efforts do not solve the underlying problems of small merchants lacking the leverage to negotiate lower interchange fees or to secure consumer incentives through credit issuer rewards programs. Moreover, because existing techniques do not process transactions differently based on physical geography or characteristics of consumers or merchants, consumers may have an incentive to travel to large national chains, instead of more local, small merchants. 
     Accordingly, a need exists for systems and methods for enabling merchants to generate their own incentives to attract local credit consumers. More generally, a need exists for systems and methods for processing electronic transactions based on physical geography. 
     SUMMARY 
     According to an exemplary embodiment, a method is disclosed for processing electronic transactions between a merchant and a consumer based on physical geography. The method includes receiving payment data associated with a consumer payment card; transmitting the payment data, over a network, to a third party; receiving, over the network, information for determining whether a geofence associated with the merchant matches a geofence associated with the consumer; and processing a transaction with the consumer based on whether the consumer geofence ID matches a geofence ID associated with the merchant. 
     According to another exemplary embodiment, a method is disclosed for processing transactions based on a characteristic. The method includes receiving from a merchant, over an electronic network, payment data associated with a consumer; processing the received payment data to determine a characteristic associated with the consumer; determining whether the consumer characteristic matches a characteristic associated with the merchant; and transmitting to the merchant, over an electronic network, the results of the comparison between the consumer characteristic and the merchant characteristic. 
     According to another exemplary embodiment, a method is disclosed for processing electronic transactions between a merchant and a consumer based on physical geography. The method includes receiving payment data associated with an electronic payment mode; transmitting the payment data, over a network, to a third party; receiving from the third party, over a network, information indicative of whether a geofence associated with the merchant matches a geofence associated with the consumer; and processing a transaction with the consumer based on the received information indicative of whether the geofence associated with the merchant matches the geofence associated with the consumer. 
     According to another exemplary embodiment, a system is disclosed for processing electronic transactions based on physical geography. The system includes a data storage device storing instructions for processing electronic transactions based on a unique characteristic; and a processor configured to execute the instructions to perform a method including receiving payment data associated with a consumer payment card; transmitting the payment data, over a network, to a third party; receiving, over the network, information for determining whether a geofence associated with the merchant matches a geofence associated with the consumer; and processing a transaction with the consumer based on whether the consumer geofence ID matches a geofence ID associated with the merchant. 
     Additional embodiments and advantages will be set forth in part in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the disclosure. The embodiments and advantages will be realized and attained by means of the elements and combinations particularly pointed out below. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate various exemplary embodiments and together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the disclosed embodiments. 
         FIG. 1  is a schematic diagram of an environment in which electronic transactions may be processed according to geography, according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. 
         FIG. 2  is a schematic diagram of another environment in which electronic transactions may be processed according to geography, according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. 
         FIG. 3  is a schematic diagram of a payment card and a data record stored by the payment card, according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. 
         FIG. 4  is a block diagram of an exemplary electronic network and environment for processing electronic transactions according to geography, according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. 
         FIG. 5  is a block diagram of an exemplary system for processing electronic transactions according to geography, according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. 
         FIG. 6  is a flow diagram of an exemplary method for processing electronic transactions according to geography, according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. 
         FIG. 7  is a flow diagram of another exemplary method for processing electronic transactions according to geography, according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. 
         FIG. 8  is a flow diagram of yet another exemplary method for processing electronic transactions according to geography, according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. 
     
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS 
     Reference will now be made in detail to the exemplary embodiments of the disclosure, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. Wherever possible, the same reference numbers will be used throughout the drawings to refer to the same or like parts. 
     In view of the challenges outlined above, systems and methods are disclosed for enabling merchants to generate unique incentives to attract cardholding consumers based on known characteristics, such as, for example, geographic locations, affiliations with organizations, including other merchants, educational institutions, sports organizations, political organizations, etc. For example, systems and methods are disclosed for enabling merchants to process consumer transactions differently based on an address or other geographical identifier of record for the cardholder. As alluded to above, other known characteristics may also be used in conjunction with or in the alternative to the principles of the present disclosure. In one embodiment, systems and methods are disclosed for enabling merchants to provide discounts to consumers whose address or other geographical identifier or characteristic(s) corresponds to a characteristic (e.g., geographical identifier) recognized by the merchant. More generally, systems and methods are disclosed for processing electronic transactions based on physical geography or other known characteristics (e.g., organizational affiliation, demographics, buying history, etc.). 
       FIG. 1  is a schematic diagram of an exemplary environment  100  in which electronic transactions may be processed according to geography, according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. Environment  100  may include a plurality of geographical areas  102 ,  103 ,  104 . Each geographical area  102 ,  103 ,  104  may be any defined area of physical space, such as a state, city, town, zip code, or municipal boundary. Alternatively, each geographical area  102 ,  103 ,  104  may be a neighborhood boundary or even a smaller “hyper-local” geographical boundary. Alternatively, each geographical area  102 ,  103 ,  104  may be defined by a grid or other organized division of area, whereby each defined area has a predetermined shape, such as a circle or rectangle. Each geographical area  102 ,  103 ,  104  may have a boundary that is referred to as a “geofence” and may be identified or referred to by a geofence ID. A geofence may be any type of geographical identifier, whether static or dynamic, and may be associated with any type of entity. For example, a geofence may be a geographic boundary, a geographic area, or any other physical characteristic. 
     Other embodiments of the disclosure may define areas, e.g., areas  102 ,  103 ,  104 , based on known consumer characteristics, such as, for example, affiliations with organizations including, e.g., neighborhood organizations, commercial organizations, academic institutions, professional organizations, trade organizations, religious organizations, sports organizations, or any other suitable organization. 
     As shown in  FIG. 1 , within environment  100 , a plurality of homes  106  and merchants  108  may be located within geographical area  102 ; a plurality of homes  110  and merchants  112  may be located within geographical area  103 ; and a plurality of homes  114  and merchants  116  may be located within geographical area  104 . 
     In one embodiment, each consumer may be associated with a home address that defines the geographical location of his or her home, and each merchant may be associated with a merchant address that defines the geographical location of the merchant. According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, when a consumer&#39;s home address is determined to exist within the same geographical area  102 ,  103 ,  104  as a merchant&#39;s address, that merchant may process one or more transactions with that consumer differently than it does with consumers whose home addresses are determined to exist outside the respective geographical area  102 ,  103 ,  104  encompassing the merchant&#39;s address, as will be described in more detail below. For example, when consumers associated with one of homes  106  shop at merchants within their geographical area  102  (merchants  108 ), those transactions may be processed differently than transactions with merchants located outside of geographical area  102 . Likewise, when consumers associated with one of homes  110  shop at merchants within their geographical area  103  (merchants  112 ), those transactions may be processed differently than transactions with merchants located outside of geographical area  103 , and so on. 
     As described above, consumers and merchants may be associated with known consumer characteristics instead of geographical areas (e.g., areas  102 ,  103 ,  104 ). For example, consumers and merchants may be associated with characteristics, such as, for example, affiliations with organizations including, e.g., neighborhood organizations, commercial organizations, academic institutions, professional organizations, trade organizations, religious organizations, sports organizations, or any other suitable organization. As an alternative, each consumer may be associated with an IP address, a work address, or any other electronic or physical mailing address of significance to the consumer. Thus, when merchants are associated, not with a geographical area, but with other characteristics, such as organizations or categories, then consumers associated with those organizations or categories may have their transactions processed differently than those of consumers not associated with those organizations or categories. 
       FIG. 2  is a schematic diagram of another environment  200  in which electronic transactions may be processed according to geography, according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. Environment  200  may include a plurality of geographical areas  202 ,  204 . Each geographical area  202 ,  204  may be any defined area of physical space. In one embodiment, each geographical area  202 ,  204  may be an area of physical space defined by a distance from a merchant, e.g., merchants  203 ,  205 . For example, in one embodiment, geographical area  202  may be defined by a radius around merchant  203 , while geographical area  204  may be defined by a radius around merchant  205 . As shown in  FIG. 2 , a plurality of homes  206 ,  210  may be positioned within geographical area  202 , and a plurality of homes  208 ,  210  may be positioned within geographical area  204 . 
     According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, when consumers associated with one of homes  206 ,  210  shop at merchants within their geographical area  202  (merchant  203 ), those transactions may be processed differently than transactions with consumers outside of geographical area  202 . Likewise, when consumers associated with one of homes  208 ,  210  shop at merchants within their geographical area  204  (merchant  205 ), those transactions may be processed differently than transactions with consumers outside of geographical area  204 , and so on. As shown in  FIG. 2 , consumers associated with homes  210 , which exist within both geographical areas  202 ,  204 , may have transactions processed based on those home addresses being within each of geographical areas  202 ,  204 . Thus, it will be appreciated that each consumer&#39;s home may be located within any number of overlapping and/or co-located geographical areas. For example, all consumers having homes within a given radius of a merchant may have their transactions with that merchant processed differently than those of consumers whose homes are located outside of that radius. In addition, a consumer may have his or her transactions with merchants located within a given radius of the consumer&#39;s home address be processed differently than those with merchants located outside of that radius. 
     In one embodiment, merchant  203  may select a radius that defines the size of geographical area  202 , and merchant  205  may select a radius that defines the size of geographical area  204 . In one embodiment, merchants  203 ,  205  may define the radius based on how differently a transaction is processed (i.e., an extent of a discount offered to consumers living within that radius). In another embodiment, each consumer may select a radius that defines a size of a geographical area encompassing the merchants with whom the consumer&#39;s transactions are processed differently than those merchants outside that geographical area. In yet another embodiment, each affiliated organization (e.g., neighborhood, school, workplace, sports team, etc.) may select a radius that defines a size of a geographical area encompassing the merchants with whom the consumer&#39;s transactions are processed differently than those merchants outside that geographical area. 
       FIG. 3  is a schematic diagram of a payment card  300  and a data record  308  associated with a payment mode, such as a mobile device or payment card  300 , according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. For example, data record  308  may be stored on a payment card in any suitable manner, such as within a magnetic stripe, or in an RFID chip embedded in a payment card or mobile device. In one embodiment, payment card  300  may contain indicia  302  identifying a geographical area, geofence, and/or geocode ID. For example, indicia  302  may include the name of a city, zip code, neighborhood, or ID number (e.g., GEO1234). Indicia  302  may indicate a geographical area or geofence associated with the cardholder&#39;s home address. For example, if a cardholder lives within Manhattan, N.Y., and has a Manhattan home address on file with the cardholder&#39;s card issuer or has a Manhattan billing address, the payment card  300  may contain indicia  302  labeled “Manhattan,” to identify that the cardholder&#39;s home is within a Manhattan geofence. In another embodiment, indicia  302  may identify, either by name or a corresponding ID, an affiliated organization (e.g., neighborhood, school, workplace, sports team, etc.) for which merchants may process a consumer&#39;s transactions differently than other those of other consumers. 
     In addition, as shown in  FIG. 3 , an opposite side of payment card  300  may contain a magnetic stripe  304 , as is typical of many payment cards. Magnetic stripe  304  may contain encoded data which, when read by a magnetic card reader, enables access to a data record  308 . In certain embodiments, data record  308  may contain a plurality of “tracks,” each track containing different data elements regarding the cardholder, card issuer, or other information relevant to a commercial transaction. For example, as shown in  FIG. 3 , data record  308 , as stored in magnetic stripe  304 , may store data including: a cardholder&#39;s account number  310 , a cardholder&#39;s name  312 , a card expiration date  314 , a service (e.g., security) code  316 , and discretionary data  318 . In one embodiment, discretionary data  318  may be provisioned for storing the geographical area, geofence, and/or geofence ID contained in indicia  302 . Alternatively or additionally, data record  308 , including, e.g., an account number, a payer&#39;s name, a security code, and discretionary data (e.g. geographical area, geofence, and/or geofence ID) may be contained in a chip or other storage device of a mobile device. 
     Discretionary data field  318  may also or alternatively store any other characteristic of a consumer, as described above, such as, e.g., a school name, workplace name, sports team name, etc. For example, if the cardholder lives within Manhattan, N.Y., and has a Manhattan home address on file with the cardholder&#39;s card issuer, the discretionary data  318  may contain the word “Manhattan,” (or an identifying geofence ID) to identify that the cardholder&#39;s home is within a Manhattan geofence. Thus, when a merchant swipes a cardholder&#39;s payment card  300 , the merchant may transmit, e.g., to an acquirer or other party, the cardholder&#39;s geographical area, geofence, and/or geocode ID, as encoded in magnetic stripe  304 . 
       FIG. 4  is a block diagram of an exemplary environment  400  and electronic network  401  for processing electronic transactions according to geography, according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in  FIG. 4 , a plurality of consumers  402  may be disposed in communication with a plurality of merchants  404 . Consumers  402  may be able to offer payments to merchants  404  by a plurality of methods, including: through an electronic network  401  (e.g., by online e-commerce over the Internet), by swiping a payment card  300  through a merchant&#39;s card reader  502 ; by engaging a mobile device  410  with a merchant&#39;s corresponding mobile device reader  512  (e.g. using Near Field Communications, Bluetooth, or the like); or by using mobile device  410  to communicate over electronic network  410 , such as over the Internet or a mobile network. In any event, merchants  404  may be configured to receive payment information from consumers  402 . 
     Merchants  404  may be provided in communication with acquirers  406  through electronic network  401 , which may include the Internet, a credit card network, or any other wired or wireless network. Thus, merchants  404  may be configured to transmit data received from consumers  402  to acquirers  406 . As discussed above, acquirers  406  may be banks, financial institutions, or other entities that engage with merchants  404  to process transactions and communicate with a plurality of card issuers  408 , either directly or indirectly. Acquirers  406  may implement any type of fixed or mobile computing devices, including processing devices and storage devices, to process data received from merchants  404  and/or issuers  408 , over electronic network  401 . Acquirers  406  may also be configured to transmit and receive information to and from credit card issuers  408  over electronic network  401 , which, again, may include the Internet, a credit card network, or any other wired or wireless network. 
       FIG. 5  is a block diagram of an exemplary system  500  for processing electronic transactions according to geography, according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. System  500  reflects a system that may be implemented by either or both of the merchants  404  and acquirers  406 , for communicating with each other over electronic network  401  (e.g., using any suitable modem, wireless adapter, etc.). 
     As shown in  FIG. 5 , system  500  may include a computing device  504 , including a processing device  506  and a storage device  508 . Computing device  504  may be disposed in communication with a card reader  502 , configured to decrypt a payment card magnetic stripe to obtain payment information, including a geographic area, geocode, and/or geocode ID from a consumer. Computing device  504  may also be disposed in communication with a mobile device reader  512 , which may be any other type of magnetic, radio frequency ID, near field communication, Bluetooth, or any other type of device configured to receive payment information, including a geographic area, geocode, geocode ID from a consumer, and/or any other suitable characteristic. Information or data obtained through card reader  502  and/or mobile device reader  512  may be stored in storage device  508  and processed by processing device  506  according to embodiments described herein. Specifically, when implemented by a merchant, processing device  506  may receive payment information from a consumer and transmit that information to an acquirer. When implemented by an acquirer, processing device  506  may receive payment information from an acquirer, and process the received payment information according to embodiments described herein. It will be appreciated that, whether implemented by merchants or acquirers, computing devices  504  may incorporate any combination of modems, antennae, or any other ports used for communicating data over a wired or wireless network. 
       FIG. 6  is a flow diagram of an exemplary method  600  for processing electronic transactions according to geography, according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. In one embodiment, method  600  may include a merchant method  602  and an acquirer method  603 , each being performed by a merchant  404  and acquirer  406 , respectively, through communication of system(s)  500  over electronic network  401 , for example. However, it should be appreciated that merchant and acquirer methods  602 ,  603  may be combined, and/or any step(s) thereof may be performed by the other party (merchant vs. acquirer). 
     As shown in  FIG. 6 , method  600  may include a merchant receiving consumer payment data, including a geofence ID, from a consumer payment card (step  604 ). For example, as discussed above, a merchant  404  may receive consumer payment card data, including geofence or geofence ID, through a magnetic stripe  304  of a payment card  300 , via a card reader  502 . Of course, merchant  404  may receive consumer payment data, including geofence or geofence ID through any other means, such as a mobile token, mobile device, NFC-enabled device, or any other electronic payment device. The merchant  404  may encrypt and transmit the received consumer payment data, including the geofence or geofence ID, to an acquirer, e.g., over electronic network  401  (step  605 ). The acquirer may receive the encrypted consumer payment data from the merchant (step  606 ) and, e.g., using system  500 , decrypt the received consumer payment data to determine a geographic area, geofence, and/or geofence ID associated with the cardholder (step  607 ). 
     The acquirer may then determine, e.g., using system  500 , whether the consumer geofence ID matches the merchant geofence ID (step  608 ). For example, the acquirer may determine and store each merchant&#39;s geofence ID, or each merchant may define and provide its own geofence ID to an acquirer for storage and comparison to consumer geofence IDs. For example, in one embodiment, the acquirer may have stored in storage device  508  of system  500 , a plurality of indices or look-up tables that list merchants relative to merchant geofences or geofence IDs. Accordingly, once an acquirer has obtained a cardholder&#39;s consumer payment data (including geofence or geofence ID), the acquirer may look-up the merchant&#39;s geofence ID, and determine if it matches the received consumer&#39;s geofence ID. The acquirer may then transmit a positive or negative result of the geofence matching to the merchant (step  609 ). The merchant may receive the determined positive or negative result of the geofence matching (step  610 ), and process the cardholder&#39;s transaction based on whether a positive or negative result was received (step  611 ). In one embodiment, if a positive result was received (i.e., the cardholder&#39;s geofence ID matches the merchant&#39;s geofence ID), then the merchant may process the cardholder&#39;s transaction with a discount or any other incentive to the cardholder. If a negative result was received (i.e., the cardholder&#39;s geofence ID does not match the merchant&#39;s geofence ID), then the merchant may process the cardholder&#39;s transaction as it does for all consumers. 
     Thus, use of the present systems and methods may incentivize consumers to shop at local merchants within the same geographical area as the consumers&#39; homes. Alternatively or additionally, the systems and methods may incentivize consumers of certain organizational affiliations to shop at certain merchants. The present systems and methods may be used more with independently-owned merchants, as opposed to national retailers. Accordingly, local businesses and small businesses may benefit from being able to attract and reward local and loyal customers. Moreover, because the disclosed systems and methods implement use of data encoded in a payment card, it is unnecessary for consumers to independently sign up for separate rewards programs or provide any additional demographic data to retailers, in order to obtain the disclosed discounts or other benefits. 
       FIG. 7  is a flow diagram of another exemplary method  700  for processing electronic transactions according to geography, according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. Again, method  700  may include a merchant method  702  and an acquirer method  703 , each being performed by a merchant  404  and acquirer  406 , respectively, through communication of system(s)  500  over electronic network  401 . However, it should be appreciated that merchant and acquirer methods  702 ,  703  may be combined, and/or any step(s) thereof may be performed by the other party (merchant vs. acquirer). 
     As shown in  FIG. 7 , method  700  may include a merchant receiving consumer payment data from a consumer payment card (step  704 ). For example, as discussed above, a merchant may receive consumer payment card data, including geofence or geofence ID through a magnetic stripe  304  of a payment card, via a card reader  502 . The merchant may transmit encrypted consumer payment data to an acquirer, e.g., over electronic network  401  (step  705 ). The acquirer may receive the encrypted consumer payment data from the merchant (step  706 ) and, e.g., using system  500 , decrypt the received consumer payment data to determine a geographic area, geofence, and/or geofence ID associated with the cardholder (step  707 ). 
     The acquirer may then transmit the determined geofence ID to the merchant, e.g., over electronic network  401  (step  708 ). The merchant may receive the cardholder&#39;s geofence ID from the acquirer (step  709 ) and determine whether the cardholder&#39;s geofence ID matches the merchant&#39;s own geofence ID (step  710 ). For example, if the merchant knows its own geofence ID is “Manhattan” and the merchant receives “Manhattan” (or a corresponding code) from the acquirer, then the merchant may identify the consumer as having a matching geofence ID. The merchant may then process the consumer&#39;s transaction based on whether the consumer&#39;s geofence ID matches the merchant&#39;s geofence ID (step  711 ). In one embodiment, if a positive result was determined (i.e., the cardholder&#39;s geofence ID matches the merchant&#39;s geofence ID), then the merchant may process the cardholder&#39;s transaction with a discount or any other incentive to the cardholder. If a negative result was determined (i.e., the cardholder&#39;s geofence ID does not match the merchant&#39;s geofence ID), then the merchant may process the cardholder&#39;s transaction as it does for all consumers. 
       FIG. 8  is a flow diagram of yet another exemplary method  800  for processing electronic transactions according to geography, according to an exemplary embodiment in which a geofence ID is not necessarily encoded into the cardholder&#39;s payment card. Again, method  800  may include a merchant method  802  and an acquirer method  803 , each being performed by a merchant  404  and acquirer  406 , respectively, through communication of system(s)  500  over electronic network  401 . However, it should be appreciated that merchant and acquirer methods  802 ,  803  may be combined, and/or any step(s) thereof may be performed by the other party (merchant vs. acquirer). 
     As shown in  FIG. 8 , method  800  may include a merchant receiving consumer payment data from a consumer payment card (step  804 ). As discussed above, in this embodiment, the consumer&#39;s geofence or geofence ID may or may not be encoded in the cardholder&#39;s payment card. The merchant may encrypt and transmit the received consumer payment data to an acquirer, e.g., over electronic network  401  (step  805 ). The acquirer may receive the encrypted consumer payment data from the merchant (step  806 ) and, e.g., using system  500 , decrypt the received consumer payment data to determine at least the cardholder&#39;s account number (step  807 ). 
     The acquirer may then determine, e.g., using system  500 , the consumer&#39;s geofence ID (step  808 ). For example, in one embodiment, the acquirer may have stored in storage device  508  of system  500 , a plurality of indices or look-up tables that list consumer cardholders&#39; account numbers in relation to their geofence or geofence ID. For example, the acquirer may receive or determine a cardholder account number, and then look up the account number to determine which geofence ID is stored in relation to the account number. The acquirer may then determine, e.g., using system  500 , whether the consumer&#39;s looked-up geofence ID matches the merchant&#39;s geofence ID (step  809 ). For example, in one embodiment, the acquirer may have stored in storage device  508  of system  500 , a plurality of indices or look-up tables that list merchants relative to merchant geofences or geofence IDs. Accordingly, once an acquirer has obtained a cardholder&#39;s geofence or geofence ID, the acquirer may look-up the merchant&#39;s geofence ID, and determine if the merchant&#39;s geofence ID matches the received consumer&#39;s geofence ID. 
     The acquirer may then transmit a positive or negative result of the geofence matching to the merchant (step  810 ). The merchant may receive the determined positive or negative result of the geofence matching (step  811 ), and process the cardholder&#39;s transaction based on whether a positive or negative result was received (step  812 ). In one embodiment, if a positive result was received (i.e., the cardholder&#39;s geofence ID matches the merchant&#39;s geofence ID), then the merchant may process the cardholder&#39;s transaction with a discount or any other incentive to the cardholder. If a negative result was received (i.e., the cardholder&#39;s geofence ID does not match the merchant&#39;s geofence ID), then the merchant may process the cardholder&#39;s transaction as it does for all consumers. 
     Again, it will be appreciated that practice of the above-disclosed systems and methods may incentivize consumers to shop at local merchants within the same geographical area as the consumers&#39; homes. The present systems and methods may be used more with independently-owned merchants, as opposed to national retailers. Accordingly, local businesses and small businesses may benefit from being able to attract and reward local and loyal customers. Moreover, because the disclosed systems and methods implement use of data encoded in a payment card, it is unnecessary for consumers to independently sign up for separate rewards programs or provide any additional demographic data to retailers, in order to obtain the disclosed discounts or other benefits. 
     Additional objects and advantages of the disclosed embodiments will be set forth in part in the description that follows, and in part will be apparent from the description, or may be learned by practice of the disclosed embodiments. The objects and advantages of the disclosed embodiments will be realized and attained by means of the elements and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims. 
     It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory only and are not restrictive of the disclosed embodiments, as claimed. 
     Other embodiments of the disclosure will be apparent to those skilled in the art from consideration of the specification and practice of the invention disclosed herein. It is intended that the specification and examples be considered as exemplary only, with a true scope and spirit of the invention being indicated by the following claims.