Patent ID: 8156000

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; associating at least one rebate account with each participating member; utilizing at least one participating member's account purchase transaction information, spending habits, or member profile information to assist at least one current or prospective participating merchant in designing and offering to fund a qualifying rebate offer to said at least one participating member; receiving account purchase transaction information from at least one processor that is located at a location or locations other than the location of the merchant funding the rebates and tracks account purchases to provide account purchase transaction information, said account purchase transaction information including account purchase transaction information of 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 including account purchase transaction information of at least one 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 between an enrolled member and 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 by an enrolled member with a particular participating merchant, whether the purchase was a qualifying purchase entitling the participating member to a merchant funded rebate; and calculating, using at least one processor, an earned sum due an enrolled member based on at least one qualifying purchase with at least one participating merchant funding rebates.