Systems and methods for digitally issued loyalty enrollment

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12299684-B2
Application number	US-202217589044-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 31, 2022
Priority date	Jan 31, 2022
Publication date	May 13, 2025
Grant date	May 13, 2025

Abstract

Systems and methods for implementing an auto-pause functionality for recurring payment transactions that continue to be charged, despite being associated with an unavailable merchant service as mandated by a public closure restriction. One operational aspect of the disclosed system/method is active detection of a possible closure condition based on monitoring a ratio of on-line (Card Not Present) to in-person (Card Present) transactions, internally computed over several time windows. The outcome of the ratio test falling below a predefined value is indicative of a possible public closure condition. There is an external verification step based on externally provided information associated with a published closure notification. Disclosed process further involves an indexing operation for parsing and tracking of recurring transaction string data to facilitate the identification of invalid recurring transaction strings, once a public closure condition is verified.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for location-based digitally issued loyalty enrollment, the method comprising:
interfacing with one or more navigation based applications running on a user mobile device;
collecting global positioning data for the user mobile device from a Global Positioning System (GPS) associated with the one or more navigation based applications;
comparing the global positioning data with at least one known merchant location;
determining, based on the comparison, that the user mobile device has entered one of the at least one known merchant location;
creating a digital pairing between the user mobile device and a Bluetooth or near field communication beacon placed within communication range of an entrance of the at least one known merchant location;
confirming, based on a combination of the global positioning data and digital pairing, that the user mobile device has entered one of the at least one known merchant location;
upon the mobile device entering the at least one merchant location based on the confirmation, providing a dynamic notification about merchant-specific loyalty status and reward points to the user mobile device, the dynamic notification comprising:
receiving, from the user mobile device, a uniquely identifying data element, the uniquely identifying data element being partially obscured to protect sensitive user data;
verifying loyalty status by using the uniquely identifying data element to search a corresponding merchant system using one or more Application Programming Interface (API) calls;

upon finding no matching entries in the corresponding merchant system:
generating an actionable notification for the user to initiate a registration process;

encoding relevant user identifying data stored on one of the user's mobile device and a corresponding application server;
transmitting encoded information to the corresponding merchant system for automatic creation of a loyalty account for the user; and
generating a digital loyalty card, on behalf of the merchant, wherein the digital loyalty card is transmitted to the application running on the user's mobile device;

upon identifying an existing entry in the corresponding merchant system, notifying the user via one or more notifications transmitted to the user's mobile device.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the location of the merchant further comprises using one of a Bluetooth and a Near Field Communication (NFC) process on the user's mobile device to pair with a device disposed at the location of the merchant.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising, collecting one or more parking payment transaction data from one or more parking systems in proximity of the merchant location and supplementing the global positioning data with the parking payment transaction data to improve a confidence level of the comparison the global positioning data with the at least one known merchant location.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the location of the merchant being visited by the user further comprises processing of internal data, collected from one or more applications stored on the user's mobile device, using one or more machine learning and data analytics routines.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the user is provided with an interface to enter registration information, registration information being transmitted to the corresponding merchant system to generate a user loyalty account.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein an initiation of the registration process is triggered by a user purchase at the merchant.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein a financial account server associated with a user purchase transmits an actionable notification to the user's mobile device regarding available loyalty programs at the merchant.

8. The method of claim 6 , wherein the actionable notification to enable the user to initiate registration process, is generated by the financial account server associated with the user, the financial account sever transmitting one or more user identifying information to the merchant system to facilitate the registration.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein transmitting one or more user identifying information by the financial account server is contingent upon an affirmative authorization response from the user entered in response to an authorization request, the authorization request being sent, by the financial account server, to the application running on the user's mobile.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the one or more user identifying information comprises approximate information comprising an age range and a zip code to thereby protect user privacy.

11. The method of claim 9 , wherein the verification of a user's loyalty status at the merchant comprises matching one or more portions of a user identifying information to one or more records stored on the corresponding merchant system without a full exposure of user identifying information.

12. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
monitoring information regarding online and in-person purchasing pattern of the user,
wherein a loyalty score is generated based on information associated with online and in-person purchasing pattern of the user at the merchant relative to one or more transactional activities of the user conducted at one or more businesses competing with the merchant.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the information regarding online and in-person purchasing pattern of the user is encoded and transmitted to the corresponding merchant system as part of the registration process for a user customized loyalty program.

14. The method of claim 1 , wherein the verification of a user's loyalty status is further based on a frequency and an amount of past transactions conducted by the user at the merchant.

15. The method of claim 1 , further comprising, analyzing recorded historical data before verifying loyalty status, wherein the historical data comprises user transaction history and historical user GPS data.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein verifying loyalty status is performed when the analysis of recorded historical data results in a threshold likeliness of an existing user loyalty account.

17. A system for automatic verification and generation of a merchant loyalty program based on a user location, the system comprising:
a computer hardware arrangement configures to:
Interface with one or more navigation based applications running on a user mobile device;
collect global positioning data for the user mobile device from a Global Positioning System (GPS) associated with the one or more navigation based applications;
compare the global positioning data with at least one known merchant location;
determine, based on the comparison, that the user mobile device has entered one of the at least one known merchant location;
create a digital pairing between the user mobile device and a Bluetooth or near field communication beacon placed within communication range of an entrance of the at least one known merchant location;
confirm, based on a combination of the global positioning data and digital pairing, that the user mobile device has entered one of the at least one known merchant location;
upon the mobile device entering the at least one merchant location based on the confirmation, provide a dynamic notification about merchant-specific loyalty status and reward points to the user mobile device, the dynamic notification comprising:
receive, from the user mobile device, a uniquely identifying data element, the uniquely identifying data element being partially obscured

Assignees

• Capital One Services Llc

Inventors

• Benkreira Abdelkader
• Maiman Tyler
• Way Brendan

Classifications

• G06Q30/0226

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

• G06Q30/0609

  Qualifying participants for shopping transactions (payment transaction verification G06Q20/401) · CPC title

• G06F21/6263 Primary

  during internet communication, e.g. revealing personal data from cookies · CPC title

• G06Q20/3278

  RFID or NFC payments by means of M-devices · CPC title

• G06Q30/0236

  Incentive or reward received by requiring registration or ID from user · CPC title