Patent ID: 7392224

Claim:
A method of operating a financial service by a financial institution for a user to encourage debit card transactions consistent with a designated theme, the method comprising: providing a debit card to the user, wherein the debit card is associated with a financial account such that the user may use the debit card to make purchases, and an amount corresponding, at least in part, to the cost of the purchase made using the debit card is debited from the financial account; establishing a user reward account that is associated with the user; defining periods of time, providing a report to the user at the end of each defined period identifying, at least in part, the purchases made with the debit card during the defined period; designating debit card activities that are consistent with said theme, the designated debit card activities comprising purchases of a plurality of items offered by one or more providers, wherein each item comprises at least one good or service consistent with the theme, and each provider comprises at least one merchant or service provider; calculating a reward amount using a data processor for the user based, at least in part, on the designated debit card activities during a current period, wherein the reward amount (R) is effectively calculated as the sum of: (1) a first percentage (P 1 ) of the cost (C 1 ) of all purchases made by the user using the debit card, and (2) a second percentage (P 2 ) of the cost (C 2 ) of purchases made at the one or more providers related to said theme, such that R = { P 1 × C 1 if C 2 = 0 P 1 × C 1 + P 2 × C 2 if C 2 > 0 ; crediting the reward amount generated during the current period to the user reward account; activating the user reward amount at the end of the current period; debiting the amount of the cost of a purchase in a subsequent period from the financial account; and crediting the activated user reward amount to the financial account.