System and method for providing financial account rewards programs

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11756382-B2
Application number	US-202117534062-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 23, 2021
Priority date	Jul 10, 2018
Publication date	Sep 12, 2023
Grant date	Sep 12, 2023

Abstract

The present disclosure relates generally to a system that provides zero, one or more benefits to a consumer in association with the consumer utilizing an instrument associated with a qualifying financial account to purchase goods and/or services, wherein an amount of any benefits may be disproportionate to the value of the purchased goods and/or services.

First claim

The invention is claimed as follows:

1. A system comprising:
a processor; and
a memory device that stores a plurality of instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:
responsive to receiving data of an approved purchase associated with a financial account maintained by a financial institution, allocate, based on an amount of the approved purchase, a quantity of entries in association with the financial account, and
for each of the allocated quantity of entries:
determine if that entry qualifies as a winning entry, and
responsive to that entry being determined to qualify as the winning entry:
determine an amount of an award, and
communicate data that results in a display, by a display device, of the amount of the award.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the memory device stores a plurality of further instructions that when executed by the processor responsive to receiving data of the approved purchase associated with the financial account, cause the processor to contribute an amount to an escrow, the amount contributed to the escrow being based on the amount of the approved purchase.

3. The system of claim 2 , wherein at least one of: the escrow is associated with an amount of the approved purchase, the escrow is associated with a merchant associated with the approved purchase, and the escrow is associated with a good/service associated with the approved purchase, such that at least one of: different amounts of different approved purchases are associated with different escrows, different merchants associated with different approved purchases are associated with different escrows, and different goods/services associated with different approved purchases are associated with different escrows.

4. The system of claim 2 , wherein the amount of the award is less than an amount of the escrow.

5. The system of claim 2 , wherein, for each of the allocated quantity of entries, the determination of if that entry qualifies as the winning entry occurs when the escrow has incremented to at least a threshold value.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein, for each of the allocated quantity of entries, the determination of if that entry qualifies as the winning entry occurs responsive to receiving data of the approved purchase within a period of time following a randomly determined point in time.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein each entry comprises a play of a game that occurs independent of the approved purchase.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein the financial account is any of a credit card account, a debit card account, and a pre-paid debit card account.

9. The system of claim 1 , wherein the memory device stores a plurality of further instructions that when executed by the processor responsive to the determination being that one of the allocated quantity of entries qualifies as the winning entry, cause the processor to communicate fund data associated with the amount of the award to the financial account maintained by the financial institution.

10. A system comprising:
a processor; and
a memory device that stores a plurality of instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:
for each of a plurality of approved purchases associated with a plurality of financial accounts maintained by a financial institution, escrow an amount that is determined based on an amount of that approved purchase, wherein the amount of that approved purchase is greater than that escrowed amount, and
responsive to an occurrence of a triggering event associated with one of the plurality of financial accounts:
determine, based on the escrowed amounts, an award, wherein an amount of the award is greater than the amount of each of the approved purchases, and
communicate data that results in a display, by a display device, of the amount of the award.

11. The system of claim 10 , wherein the amount of the award is less than the escrowed amounts.

12. A method of operating a system, the method comprising:
responsive to receiving data of an approved purchase associated with a financial account maintained by a financial institution, allocating, by a processor and based on an amount of the approved purchase, a quantity of entries in association with the financial account, and
for each of the allocated quantity of entries:
determining, by the processor, if that entry qualifies as a winning entry, and
responsive to that entry being determined to qualify as the winning entry:
determining, by the processor, an amount of an award, and
displaying, by a display device, the amount of the award.

13. The method of claim 12 , further comprising, responsive to receiving data of the approved purchase associated with the financial account, contributing, by the processor, an amount to an escrow, the amount contributed to the escrow being based on the amount of the approved purchase.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein at least one of: the escrow is associated with an amount of the approved purchase, the escrow is associated with a merchant associated with the approved purchase, and the escrow is associated with a good/service associated with the approved purchase, such that at least one of: different amounts of different approved purchases are associated with different escrows, different merchants associated with different approved purchases are associated with different escrows, and different goods/services associated with different approved purchases are associated with different escrows.

15. The method of claim 13 , wherein the amount of the award is less than an amount of the escrow.

16. The method of claim 13 , wherein, for each of the allocated quantity of entries, the determination of if that entry qualifies as the winning entry occurs when the escrow has incremented to at least a threshold value.

17. The method of claim 12 , wherein, for each of the allocated quantity of entries, the determination of if that entry qualifies as the winning entry occurs responsive to receiving data of the approved purchase within a period of time following a randomly determined point in time.

18. The method of claim 12 , wherein each entry comprises a play of a game that occurs independent of the approved purchase.

19. The method of claim 12 , wherein the financial account is any of a credit card account, a debit card account, and a pre-paid debit card account.

20. The method of claim 12 , further comprising, responsive to the determination being that one of the allocated quantity of entries qualifies as the winning entry, communicating fund data associated with the amount of the award to the financial account maintained by the financial institution.

Assignees

• Igt Reno Nev

Inventors

• Higgins Kevin
• Shepherd Jeffery
• Davis Dwayne A
• Fisher Andrew

Classifications

• G06Q30/0212 Primary

  Chance discounts or incentives · CPC title

• G07F17/3255 Primary

  Incentive, loyalty and/or promotion schemes, e.g. comps, gaming associated with a purchase, gaming funded by advertisements · CPC title

• G06Q30/0226

  Incentive systems for frequent usage, e.g. frequent flyer miles programs or point systems · CPC title

• G06Q30/0238

  at point-of-sale [POS] · CPC title

• G07F17/3211

  Display means · CPC title