Authorization system with split messaging

This application claims priority to and is a non-provisional of U.S. provisional patent application No. 61/048,814, filed on Apr. 29, 2008, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety for all purposes.

Many businesses currently make use of so-called “loyalty” programs that reward consumers for frequent purchase of their products or services. Well known loyalty programs include frequent flyer mileage programs, frequent guest programs at hotels, programs to reward frequent purchases at food markets, etc.

In a typical illustration of how a traditional loyalty program works, a consumer may have a credit card, which has been co-branded with a particular loyalty provider and the bank that issued the credit card (e.g., an example of an issuer). The loyalty provider may also be a merchant. The loyalty provider provides points for purchases made using the credit card at the merchant. For example, the loyalty provider could be a bookseller that provides points to a customer when the consumer purchases books at the bookseller using a credit card co-branded with the bookseller. Once the number of points reaches a predetermined threshold, the points can be redeemed for a predetermined benefit such as a book or coupon.

A number of improvements can be made to traditional loyalty processes and systems. For example, after the customer earns points by purchasing books using the credit card, the consumer must undesirably wait until the next billing cycle before accrued points can be redeemed for the predetermined benefit. It would be desirable if points or the like could be redeemed soon after the customer earns them.

In addition, in some cases, the consumer may have accrued points, but may not have a sufficient number of points to make a particular purchase. If a certain threshold of points is required before a purchase can be made, the consumer will simply need to wait until a sufficient number of points is accrued. This can be undesirable, since the consumer may be willing to pay for a portion of a purchase, if he could get some benefit from the points that he has in a corresponding loyalty account. For example, if the consumer has 500 points in a loyalty account with the bookseller, and if it takes 1000 points to obtain a particular book that is sold by the bookseller, the consumer may be willing to pay for 50% of the purchase price of the book if his 500 points could be redeemed for the other 50% of the purchase price of the book.

While some have suggested that it is possible to pay for purchases using a combination of points or credit, this is often discussed in terms of a closed system whereby any points accrued or credits provided are within the same system so that messaging is not needed. In addition, in such systems, specialized loyalty financial instruments are used, and the use of loyalty redemptions using a standard payment device or standard portable consumer device is not contemplated.

Embodiments of the invention address these and other problems, individually and collectively.

Embodiments of the invention are directed to methods and systems involving split messaging in the context of a payment transaction or the like. Embodiments of the invention can allow a consumer to pay for a single transaction by sending messages to different service providers requesting that any value held by the service providers on behalf of the consumer be applied to the product or service being purchased in the single transaction.

One embodiment of the invention is directed to a method, which can be performed by a central server or other entity. The method comprises receiving a first authorization request message from a merchant and at a server computer, analyzing the first authorization request message using the server computer, sending a second authorization request message to a first service provider, sending a third authorization request message to a second service provider, receiving a first response message from the first service provider, receiving a second response message from the second service provider, and sending a third authorization response message to the merchant.

Another embodiment of the invention is directed to a method, which can be performed by an access device (e.g., POS or point-of-sale terminal) or other entity. The method comprises sending a first authorization request message to a server computer. The server computer thereafter receives a first authorization request message from a merchant and at a server computer, analyzes the first authorization request message using the server computer, sends a second authorization request message to a first service provider, sends a third authorization request message to a second service provider, receives a first response message from the first service provider, receives a second response message from the second service provider, and sends a third authorization response message. The method also includes receiving the third authorization response message.

Other embodiments of the invention are directed to computer readable medium computer readable program code embodied therein. The computer readable program code is adapted to be executed to implement the above-described methods and other methods. Yet other embodiments of the invention are directed to server computers incorporating such computer readable media.

Embodiments of the invention are directed to specific combinations of these different aspects, as well as specific embodiments related to those specific aspects.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of a system that can be used in some embodiments of the invention.

FIG. 2 shows a diagram of a server computer and some components of the server computer according to an embodiment of the invention.

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