Patent ID: 8533037

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for operating a reward exchange system comprising: a) a reward exchange computer transmitting to a remote computing device purchase price information comprising: (i) a purchase price for an item for sale from a merchant, wherein the purchase price may be paid with a monetary consideration portion and a reward payment portion equivalent to a value of rewards that may be redeemed by a user from a reward account held by a reward issuer towards payment of the purchase price for the item; and (ii) a maximum allowable reward payment portion amount established by the merchant as a function of a discount provided by the merchant to the reward issuer for the purchase transaction; b) the reward exchange computer receiving from the remote computing device a purchase request comprising a desired amount of the reward payment portion and a desired amount of the monetary consideration portion, wherein the desired amount of the reward payment portion does not exceed the maximum allowable reward payment portion for the reward payment portion amount of the purchase price, and the total value of the desired amount of the reward payment portion and the desired amount of the monetary consideration portion is equivalent to the purchase price for the item; and c) the reward exchange computer executing a transaction for the purchase of the item by executing a monetary transaction for the monetary consideration portion and redeeming the rewards of the reward payment portion received in the purchase request by requesting the reward issuer to reduce the reward account by the desired amount of the reward payment portion, receiving consideration from the reward issuer equivalent to the reward payment portion less the discount provided by the merchant to the reward issuer for the purchase transaction, and conveying to the merchant the purchase price less the discount provided by the merchant to the reward issuer for the purchase transaction.