Patent ID: 7665660

Claim:
In an electronic transaction processing system that includes a payment system operator processing a plurality of transactions each between a merchant and a consumer upon an account issued to the consumer by an issuer, and each being submitted by the merchant to an acquirer for processing by the payment system operator who requests the issuer to obtain payment for the transaction from the account and the issuer forwarding the payment to the acquirer to pay the merchant for the transaction, a computer implemented method comprising: electronically receiving an authorization request for a purchase amount, requested by one said merchant, for one said transaction upon one said account of one said consumer; electronically determining if the one said transaction is eligible for an award in a promotion by at least comparing data within the authorization request to at least one award criterion to find a match; after a found match: forming a first electronic transmission, for delivery to the issuer of the one said account, including: the authorization request; and data about the match; electronically receiving an authorization response, responsive to said authorization request, authorizing the one said transaction for a discount amount, wherein at least one alternate source is responsible to pay a difference between the purchase amount and the discount amount; forming a second electronic transmission with information for delivery to the one said merchant engaged in the one said transaction, including: the received authorization response; and data indicating that the difference will be paid by the at least one alternate source; and electronically facilitating, for the one said transaction, the transfer to the one said merchant of the payment of the discount amount from the one said account.