Systems and methods for providing location based coupon-less offers to registered card members

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9684909-B2
Application number	US-201213466445-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 8, 2012
Priority date	Jul 18, 2006
Publication date	Jun 20, 2017
Grant date	Jun 20, 2017

Abstract

The system provides location based coupon-less offers based upon a location of a card member (CM). A location of a CM may be determined based upon one or more of a travel itinerary, a GPS signal, a proximity of a mobile communication device to a cellular base station, and/or a zip code. An offer from a merchant registered to provide coupon-less offers may be transmitted to a mobile communication device based upon the location. An offer, once accepted by a CM, may be matched to a record of charge associated with a transaction account held by the CM. A credit may be applied to the CM's transaction account and a debit may be applied to a transaction account of the registered merchant. One or more offer categories and/or one or more offer category classes may be transmitted to the mobile communication device based upon the CM's location.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
associating, by an offer registration system of a computer based system, a transaction account with profile information,
wherein the profile information is associated with an account affiliate and an application capable of providing location information,
wherein the application is capable of operating on a computing device of the account affiliate, and
wherein the computer based system comprises a processor and a tangible, non-transitory memory;

receiving, by a travel system of the computer based system, a travel itinerary;
analyzing, by the computer based system, the travel itinerary to determine a first location of the account affiliate and to determine a date range, and a plurality merchants associated with the first location,
wherein at least a first portion of the plurality of merchants associated with the first location are not associated with a home location of the account affiliate;

determining, by the computer based system, a first subset of offers based on the first location;
analyzing, by the computer based system, a changing location of the account affiliate,
wherein the changing location is determined within the date range associated with the travel itinerary, and
wherein the changing location is determined based on a dynamically changing location of the computing device from the first location;

dynamically updating, by the computer based system, the first subset of offers based on the changing location of the account affiliate,
wherein the first subset of offers are presented to the account affiliate via the computing device in substantially real-time and in response to the determining the changing location;

creating, by a rewards system of the computer based system, a user selectable link that is configured to provide access to the first subset of offers;
transmitting, by the computer based system, a message to the computing device of the account affiliate identifying within the message the changing location of the account affiliate,
wherein the message comprises the user selectable link;

receiving, by the computer based system, a selection of the link based on selection of the link in the message on the computing device;
presenting, by the computer based system and via the computing device, offer details to the account affiliate for the first subset of offers;
providing, by the computer based system, a first notification instruction for the first subset of offers;
associating, by the computer based system, a first offer with the transaction account, in response to an acceptance of the first offer by the account affiliate based on a second input by the account affiliate to the computing device;
analyzing, by the computer based system, transaction information to determine that a transaction associated with the transaction account satisfies the first offer; and
crediting, by the computer based system, the reward associated with the first offer to the transaction account.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising receiving profile information from at least one of the account affiliate, a location determining entity, or the application capable of providing location information.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first offer is from at least one of a merchant, a transaction account issuer, an acquirer, or a third party.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first offer is displayed on the computing device, in response to the first notification instruction.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the account affiliate is at least one of an account holder, an account owner, a supplemental account holder, a beneficiary of an account or a rewards account holder.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first offer provides at least one of a discount, monetary value, loyalty points, item, experience, access, tickets or rebate amount.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining, by the computer based system, an amount of the reward based on the transaction satisfying the criteria governing the first offer.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the reward is shown as a credit at least one of at the point of sale, on the computing device, in an electronic wallet or on a statement associated with the transaction account.

9. The method of claim 7 , wherein the analyzing the changing location of the account affiliate is based on a first input to the application via the computing device.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least a portion of the first subset of offers are customized to the account affiliate based on the changing location of the account affiliate.

11. The method of claim 7 , wherein a debit is provided to a merchant account.

12. The method of claim 10 , wherein the debiting is in response to the applying of the reward.

13. The method of claim 10 , further comprising receiving a fee from the merchant in response to the applying of the reward.

14. The method of claim 7 , wherein the reward is based on a predetermined spend level associated with a merchant.

15. The method of claim 7 , wherein the reward is a product level discount.

16. The method of claim 1 , wherein the computing device is a smart phone.

17. The method of claim 1 , wherein a second location is determined by real time transaction information associated with the transaction associated with the transaction account.

18. The method of claim 17 , further comprising providing, by the computer based system, second notification instruction for a second offer based on the second location.

19. The method of claim 1 , wherein the location is based on a merchant identifier associated with the first input.

20. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first offer is within an area associated with the first location.

21. The method of claim 1 , further comprising receiving, by the computer based system, preferences associated with the transaction account, wherein the preferences at least partially define at least one of a type of offers that is provided to the account affiliate or a source of information of the location.

22. A tangible, non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having computer-executable instructions stored thereon that, if executed by a computer based system, causes the computer based system to be capable of performing operations comprising:
associating, by an offer registration system of the computer based system, a transaction account with profile information,
wherein the profile information is associated with an account affiliate and an application capable of providing location information,
wherein the application is capable of operating on a computing device of the account affiliate, and
wherein the computer based system comprises a processor and a tangible, non-transitory memory;

receiving, by a travel system of the computer based system, a travel itinerary;
analyzing, by the computer based system, the travel itinerary to determine a first location of the account affiliate and to determine a date range, and a plurality merchants associated with the first location,
wherein at least a first portion of the plurality of merchants associated with the first location are not associated with a home location of the account affiliate;

determining, by the computer based system, a first subset of offers based on the first location;
analyzing, by the computer based system, a changing location of the account affiliate,
wherein the changing location is determined within the date range associated with

Assignees

• Baker Miles
• Derocher Diane
• Durvasula Sastry Vsm
• Newhouse Sherree
• Puranik Manjushri H
• Tiku Sripriya V
• American Express Travel Related Services Co Inc

Inventors

• Baker Miles
• Derocher Diane
• Durvasula Sastry Vsm
• Newhouse Sherree
• Puranik Manjushri H
• Tiku Sripriya V

Classifications

• G06Q30/0259

  based on store location · CPC title

• G06Q30/0207 Primary

  Discounts or incentives, e.g. coupons or rebates · CPC title

• G06Q30/0234

  Rebates after completed purchase · CPC title

• G06Q30/0261

  based on user location · CPC title