Patent ID: 7828206

Claim:
A merchant system for automating a partial exchange of loyalty points in a loyalty account for an acquisition amount, relating to an acquisition, charged to a transaction account by the merchant system, the merchant system comprising: a computer network communicating with a memory; the memory communicating with a processor; and the processor, when executing a computer program, is configured to: receive account data related to the transaction account from a user; offer an option of partially paying for the acquisition using the loyalty points from the loyalty account; transmit transaction data through a data communication network to a transaction account system server configured to charge the transaction account for the acquisition amount of the acquisition, wherein the transaction data comprises the account data; and transmit loyalty data through a data communication network to an exchange system server, wherein the exchange system server debits the loyalty account for the acquisition, based on loyalty data corresponding to the acquisition, by an amount of loyalty points equivalent to a currency value of a reimbursement amount that is a portion of a total amount of the acquisition and, in response to the debiting, credits the transaction account by the reimbursement amount for the acquisition.