Patent ID: 7630935

Claim:
A method for fulfilling a request by a consumer to redeem rewards from a rewards account, the rewards account associated with a transaction account maintained by a financial institution and representing a dollar-value balance of rewards accrued to the consumer based on purchase transactions made by the consumer through the transaction account, comprising: electronically presenting to the consumer a web interface for managing the rewards account, the interface presented by a financial transactions computer system over a network and providing a plurality of redemption options for selection by the consumer, including an option to redeem at least a portion of the dollar-value balance through an electronic deposit to a bank account and at least one other option selected from the group consisting of: an option to redeem at least a portion of the dollar-value balance through a merchant certificate; an option to redeem at least a portion of the dollar-value balance through a credit to the transaction account; and an option to redeem at least a portion of the dollar-value balance through a charitable gift; receiving, via the web interface, a selection by the consumer of the option to redeem at least a portion of the dollar-value balance through an electronic deposit to a bank account; electronically presenting to the consumer, via the web interface, a field for the consumer to enter information identifying the bank account; electronically presenting to the consumer, via the web interface, a field for the consumer to enter information specifying a selected redemption amount, the selected redemption amount being less than or equal to the dollar-value balance; receiving, via the web interface, consumer-entered information identifying the bank account and the selected redemption amount; debiting the rewards account by the selected redemption amount; and initiating an electronic funds transfer over a financial transactions network, using the information identifying the bank account, to the bank account in the amount of the selected redemption amount.