Patent ID: 8065183

Claim:
A method of providing a merchant funded rebate program, the method comprising: enrolling at least one participating member account, the enrolled account capable of being used to make both online internet-based and point of sale purchases with participating merchants funding rebates; associating at least one rebate account with each participating member; having at least one participating merchant funding rebates for qualifying purchases made by a participating member from such participating merchant using a member's enrolled account; receiving account purchase transaction information from at least one processor that tracks account purchases to provide account purchase transaction information, said account purchase transaction information associated with at least one participating merchant funding rebates, and including purchase transaction information for at least one enrolled participating member account and at least one non-enrolled account; monitoring said account purchase transaction information associated with at least one participating merchant funding rebates, via at least one processor that is located at a location or locations other than the location of the merchant funding the rebates, to determine whether or not a purchase transaction was consummated (i) using an enrolled member account and (ii) with a particular participating merchant funding a rebate; determining, via at least one processor that is located at a location or locations other than the location of the merchant funding the rebates, for those purchase transactions determined to be consummated with a particular participating merchant using an enrolled member account, whether the purchase was a qualifying purchase entitling the participating member to a merchant funded rebate; and calculating, using a processor, a merchant funded rebate in correlation with a qualifying purchase with a particular participating merchant.