Patent ID: 8407148

Claim:
A computer-implemented method, comprising: storing, in a computing apparatus having a transaction handler, a plurality of trigger records; processing, by the transaction handler, an authorization request received from an acquirer processor, the authorization request being processed for a payment to be made by an issuer processor on behalf of a user having an account identifier associated with the issuer processor, the acquirer processor to receive the payment on behalf of a merchant; determining, by the transaction handler, whether the authorization request matches one of the plurality of trigger records; if the authorization request matches a trigger record in the plurality of the trigger records, identifying, by the computing apparatus, a communication reference of the user in accordance with the trigger record, generating, by the computing apparatus, a message regarding a benefit to be provided to the user upon completion of the payment, and transmitting, from the computing apparatus, the message to the user via the communication reference in real-time with the processing of the authorization request; and detecting a settlement of the payment corresponding to the authorization request; and in response to the settlement being detected, providing the benefit to the user via statement credit to an account represented by the account identifier; wherein the settlement of the payment corresponding to the authorization request does not occur in real-time with the processing of the authorization request.