Patent ID: 8751294

Claim:
A method performed by one or more computing devices of a first party, comprising the computer-implemented steps of: while owning, by the first party, a closed-loop stored-value instrument that has a positive current balance that has been issued by a particular merchant, wherein the particular merchant is different than the first party: receiving at the one or more computing devices of the first party purchase data that indicates a particular amount that must be paid in order to purchase one or more items from the particular merchant; providing by the one or more computing devices of the first party an offer message to be displayed to a user that initiated the purchase of the one or more items from the particular merchant, wherein the offer message includes an offer that indicates that the particular amount can be reduced if the user accepts the offer, wherein the offer is based on at least the positive current balance of the closed-loop stored-value instrument owned by the first party; receiving at the one or more computing devices of the first party input that indicates that the user accepted the offer; in response to receiving the input, providing by the one or more computing devices of the first party to the particular merchant an identifier of the closed-loop stored-value instrument as value for a first portion of the particular amount, wherein the first portion is based on the current balance of the closed-loop stored-value instrument; and receiving payment at the one or more computing devices of the first party from the user in exchange for the first party providing the particular merchant the identifier of the closed-loop stored-value; and wherein the first party provides a gift card exchange service.