Patent ID: 8523063

Claim:
A method comprising: an entity agreeing to permit transfers or conversions of non-negotiable credits to entity independent funds in accordance with a fixed credits-to-funds ratio, wherein the entity agrees to compensate a commerce partner by paying an amount in cash or credit for each non-negotiable credit redeemed by the commerce partner, wherein the non-negotiable credits are loyalty points of a loyalty program of the entity, wherein the entity independent funds are loyalty points of a different loyalty program of the commerce partner, wherein the entity independent funds are redeemable under terms-of-use of the different loyalty program for consumer partner goods or for consumer partner services, wherein terms-of-use of the different loyalty program does not permit commerce partner goods or commerce partner services to be exchanged for the non-negotiable credits in absence of the non-negotiable credits being transferred or converted into the entity independent funds of the different loyalty program; a computer for the loyalty program of the entity establishing an account for non-negotiable credits of a loyalty program member; the computer detecting a set of two or more interactions earning additional non-negotiable credits for the loyalty program member in accordance with terms-of-use of the loyalty program, wherein the computer adds the additional non-negotiable credits to the account; and responsive to an indication of a conversion operation occurrence, the computer subtracting a quantity of the non-negotiable credits from the account, said subtracted quantity of non-negotiable credits comprising at least a quantity of non-negotiable credits that were converted or transferred to a new quantity of entity independent funds using the fixed credits-to-funds ratio.