Patent ID: 7516883

Claim:
A financial transaction system in which a cardholder is issued a qualified payment card by an issuer through an association and which may be used at a plurality of benefit sponsors each benefit sponsor having an acquiring bank, which, when used, entitles the cardholder to a cash rebate, said system comprising: (a) providing an acquirer authorization processor; (b) providing an acquirer's billing settlement processor; (c) providing a cardholder investment account; (d) routing a card purchase from a benefit sponsor to the authorization processor upon presentation by a cardholder; (e) transmitting authorization to the benefit sponsor; (f) applying logic to qualified transactions to calculate marketing fee and rebate amounts; (g) transmitting settlement adjustment amount to the association with calculated fees and amounts; (h) funding purchasing by transmitting funds to the merchant acquiring account less fees and rebates; (i) concurrently with (h) crediting rebate amounts to the cardholder investment account; and (j) paying merchant marketing fees to the association.