WO2002054362A1

WO2002054362A1 - Pre-reward system and method using credit cards

Info

Publication number: WO2002054362A1
Application number: PCT/KR2001/000376
Authority: WO
Inventors: Hoon Lee
Original assignee: Thrunetshopping Inc.
Priority date: 2000-12-29
Filing date: 2001-03-10
Publication date: 2002-07-11

Abstract

A pre-reward system and method using credit cards which can issue a credit card to a person who gains access to a point management server (30) and is then approved as a member by the server, previously reward the member for the purpose of securing the member as a regular customer and giving him or her a point saving motive, thereby inducing the member to purchase necessities from stores affiliated with an existing credit card network using the issued credit card and automatically save integrated points to be redeemed later for minus points based on the pre-rewards.

Description

PRE-REWARD SYSTEM AND METHOD USING CREDIT CARDS

Technical Field

The present invention relates in general to pre-reward systems and methods using credit cards, and more particularly to a pre-reward system and method using credit cards which can issue a credit card to a person who gains access to a point management server and is then approved as a member by the server, previously reward the member for the purpose of securing the member as a regular customer and giving him or her a point saving motive, thereby inducing the member to purchase necessities from stores affiliated with an existing credit card network using the issued credit card and automatically save integrated points to be redeemed later for minus points based on the pre-re wards.

Background Art

Commodity or service sellers generally utilize a mileage system, which saves a certain rate of money for customers, as marketing means for the securing of continuing customers. The mileage system has its origin with airline companies and is now applied in various online and offline forms, for example, a point system, coupon system, etc.

A general point system is operated and managed by an individual seller to reward a customer for the purchasing of commodities from the seller if the amount of accumulated points of the customer exceeds a predetermined value, which may be called an after-reward system. However, this system is disadvantageous in that there is a limitation in the type of gifts for which the accumulated points can be redeemed, and the amount of actual rewards to customers is too little, thereby giving them weak motives to save points. On the other hand, for the payment of commodity purchasing prices, a credit card-based payment system is widely used in either offline stores or electronic commerce sites. But, up to now, there is no example where the credit card-based payment system is used together with a point-based payment system.

In order to solve the above problems, a variety of approaches have been proposed, one of which is shown in Korean Patent Laid-open Publication No. 2000-63149, entitled "NETWORK-BASED ELECTRONIC PAYMENT METHOD". This electronic payment method overcomes some of the above problems by paying commodity purchasing prices on the basis of saved points, but does not consider the aspect of integrated point management.

Another approach is shown in Korean Patent Laid-open Publication No. 2000-49595, entitled "COMMERCE SYSTEM AND METHOD BASED ON INTEGRATED BONUS POINT MANAGEMENT". This commerce system is desirable to integratedly manage points, but cannot perfectly solve the above problems in that it is an after-reward system for rewarding customers after purchasing commodities.

A further approach is shown in Korean Patent Laid-open Publication No. 2000-6725, entitled "INTEGRATED MILEAGE POINT SYSTEM". This mileage point system enables customers to purchase commodities at prices discounted by amounts corresponding to saved mileage points for payment by credit cards. However, this system shows no details about the relation between credit cards and a mileage point calculation program. Yet other approaches are OKcashbag of SK Corporation in Korea and other similar services managing integrated points. However, these services are disadvantageous in that customers encounter the inconvenience of having to use different bonus cards in respective stores affiliated with the services and present credit cards for payment, separately from the bonus cards. The OKcashbag and other similar services have a further disadvantage in that customers cannot utilize points unless the points exceed a predetermined value, for example, 5000 within a given period of time, for example, one year.

On the other hand, although conventional point systems integratedly manage a number of affiliated stores, customers cannot continuously purchase commodities from the affiliated stores because a great proportion of the stores do not carry daily necessities. In this regard, points accumulated by one or two-time purchasing are often kept in dead storage, not leading to actual rewards.

Disclosure of the Invention

Therefore, the present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a pre-reward system and method using credit cards which can strengthen point saving motives of customers by virtue of pre-rewards so that affiliated stores can increase the amount of sales by securing regular customers.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a pre-reward system and method using credit cards which can select as affiliated stores respective ones of oil refining companies, department stores, discount stores, credit card companies and other daily necessities selling stores so that customers can automatically save points as they purchase daily necessities from the affiliated stores.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide a pre-reward system and method using credit cards which can integratedly manage a large number of affiliated stores using the credit cards and an existing credit card network without a necessity for constructing a separate network.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide a pre-reward system and method using credit cards wherein customers can settle their accounts with affiliated stores using only credit cards integrated with point saving cards without a necessity for carrying a plurality of cards, so that they can simply and conveniently save points while using the credit cards.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a pre-reward system and method using credit cards wherein customers can conduct both payment and point saving using only credit cards, so that they can save both points based on the credit card use and points based on the purchasing of necessities from affiliated stores, resulting in the amount of actually saved points being twice or more a typical amount.

It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a pre-reward system and method using credit cards wherein customers can offset minus points based on pre-rewards at the moment that they save the same amount of points, thereby enabling the customers to use newly saved points freely without being subjected to additional restrictions such as an expiry period, threshold point value, etc.

In accordance with the present invention, the above and other objects can be accomplished by the provision of a pre-reward system using credit cards which includes at least one customer terminal, a point management server and a server of an affiliated credit card company interconnected through an Internet network, and a credit card reader of at least one affiliated store connected to the affiliated credit card company server through a telephone network, wherein the point management server comprises a first membership database for storing information of at least one member; a first member authentication module for authenticating the member; a pre-reward article database for storing information regarding pre-reward articles; an affiliated store database for storing information regarding the affiliated store; a member point database for storing information about minus points which are generated according to selection of a pre-reward article by the member and are to be cleared off within the term of contract, information about commodity points based on the purchasing of commodities from the affiliated store, information about accumulated points of the commodity points, and information about remainder points obtained by doing the sum of the minus points and accumulated points; a commodity point calculation module for calculating the commodity points based on the purchasing of the commodities from the affiliated store on the basis of purchased commodity records sent from the affiliated credit card company server and predetermined point assignment rates of the respective commodities; a point settlement module for interacting with the member point database to accumulate the commodity points calculated by the commodity point calculation module and update the remainder points by doing the sum of the minus points and accumulated points; and a Web server for controlling the first member authentication module and point settlement module, managing the pre-reward article database and member point database and transmitting and receiving data in response to an external request; and wherein the affiliated credit card company server comprises a second membership database for storing the information of the member and credit information of the member; a second member authentication module for authenticating the member in response to a member authentication request from the credit card reader and approving payment by a credit card of the member in response to a credit card-based settlement request from the credit card reader; a purchased commodity record database for storing records of commodities purchased by the member from the affiliated store using his or her credit card; and a purchased commodity record sending module for sending the purchased commodity records to the point management server.

Preferably, the point management server may further comprise a charged amount sending module for, if the contract term expires, converting the remainder points into the amount of money to be charged and sending information about the converted money amount to the affiliated credit card company server; and the affiliated credit card company server may further comprise a charged amount database for storing the charged money amount information sent from the point management server; and a charging module for requesting the member to settle his or her account for the money amount stored in the charged amount database.

Further, preferably, the point management server may comprise a pre- reward article return requesting module for requesting the member to return the selected pre-reward article if the remainder points have a minus value after the contract term expires.

Further, preferably, the point management server may comprise a contract term extension requesting module for asking the member whether he or she desires to extend the contract term, if the remainder points have a minus value after the contract term expires, and then adding a predetermined amount of points to the remainder points if the member desires to extend the contract term.

In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a pre-reward method using credit cards, comprising the steps of a) requesting member registration by a customer, and checking a credit state of the customer, approving the member registration of the customer in accordance with the checked result and issuing a credit card to the customer by a server of an affiliated credit card company; b) storing information regarding minus points generated according to selection of a pre-reward article by the member and the term of redemption of the minus points in a member point database by a point management server; c) purchasing commodities from at lease one affiliated store by the member using the issued credit card and reading information from the issued credit card by a credit card reader of the affiliated store; d) requesting and approving member authentication and payment by the issued credit card by the affiliated credit card company server; e) sending purchased commodity records to the point management server by the affiliated credit card company server; f) calculating commodity points assigned to the commodities by the point management server; g) accumulating the commodity points, calculating remainder points by doing the sum of the minus points and accumulated points and storing information about the calculated remainder points in the member point database by the point management server; and h) determining whether the redemption term has expired, by the point management server.

Preferably, the pre-reward method may further comprise the step of converting the remainder points into the amount of money to be charged, if the redemption term has expired, sending information about the converted money amount to the affiliated credit card company server and requesting the member to settle his or her account for the converted money amount.

Further, preferably, the pre-reward method may comprise the step of requesting the member to return the selected pre-reward article if the remainder points have a minus value after the redemption term expires. Further, preferably, the pre-reward method may comprise the step of asking the member whether he or she desires to extend the term of contract, if the remainder points have a minus value after the redemption term expires, and then adding a predetermined amount of points to the remainder points if the member desires to extend the contract term. Further, preferably, the pre-reward method may comprise the step of asking the member whether he or she desires to make a re-contract for pre-rewards, if the contract term has expired, making the pre-reward re-contract directly if the member desires to make the pre-reward re-contract and the remainder points are 0, adding the remainder points to new minus points if the member desires to make the pre-reward re-contract and the remainder points have a plus value and then making the pre-reward re-contract.

Preferably, the affiliated store may be at least one of an oil refining company, a department store, a discount store and the credit card company.

Brief Description of the Drawings

The above and other objects, features and other advantages of the present invention will be more clearly understood from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 is a block diagram showing the construction of a pre-reward system using credit cards in accordance with the present invention;

Fig. 2 is a table showing the structure of a membership database in accordance with the present invention;

Fig. 3 is a table showing the structure of a pre-reward article database in accordance with the present invention;

Fig. 4 is a table showing the structure of an affiliated store database in accordance with the present invention; Fig. 5 is a table showing the structure of a member point database in accordance with the present invention;

Fig. 6 is a table showing the structure of a purchased commodity record database in accordance with the present invention;

Fig. 7 is a table showing the structure of a charged amount database in accordance with the present invention;

Fig. 8 is a flowchart illustrating a pre-reward contract step of a pre-reward method in accordance with the present invention;

Fig. 9 is a flowchart illustrating a commodity purchasing/point saving step of the pre-reward method in accordance with the present invention; and Fig. 10 is a flowchart illustrating a pre-reward re-contract step of the pre- reward method in accordance with the present invention.

Best Mode for Carrying Out the Invention

1 . PRE-REWARD SYSTEM USING CREDIT CARDS

Fig. 1 is a block diagram showing the construction of a pre-reward system using credit cards in accordance with the present invention, Fig. 2 is a table showing the structure of a membership database (DB) in accordance with the present invention, Fig. 3 is a table showing the structure of a pre-reward article DB in accordance with the present invention, Fig. 4 is a table showing the structure of an affiliated store DB in accordance with the present invention, Fig. 5 is a table showing the structure of a member point DB in accordance with the present invention, Fig. 6 is a table showing the structure of a purchased commodity record DB in accordance with the present invention and Fig. 7 is a table showing the structure of a charged amount DB in accordance with the present invention. With reference to Fig. 1, a credit card reader 10 of an affiliated store is connected to a server 40 of an affiliated credit card company through a telephone network, and a customer terminal 20, a point management server 30 of an agent company and the server 40 are interconnected through an Internet network.

The affiliated store credit card reader 10 is connected to the affiliated credit card company server 40 through the telephone network to read information from a given credit card and send the read information to the server 40. If a customer of the given credit card is authenticated as a member of the affiliated credit card company by the server 40, then the affiliated store credit card reader 10 allows the customer to pay the price of commodities purchased from an associated affiliated store by the credit card.

The customer terminal 20 is connected to the point management server 30 through the Internet network to exchange data stored in a variety of DBs with the server 30 if an associated customer gains access to the server 30. The point management server 30 includes a membership DB 310, member authentication module 320, pre-reward article DB 330, affiliated store DB 340, member point DB 350, commodity point calculation module 360, point settlement module 370, charged amount sending module 380 and Web server 390. If a customer gains access to the point management server 30 via the customer terminal 20 and requests the server 30 to register himself or herself as a member, then the server 30 requests the affiliated credit card company server 40 to check the credit state of the customer and approves the member registration of the customer according to the credit state checked by the server 40. Thereafter, the point management server 30 stores information of the registered member in the membership DB 310. The customer is issued with a credit card from the affiliated credit card company simultaneously with or after the member registration.

With reference to Fig. 2, the membership DB 310 includes a member number field 311, member name field 312, resident registration number field 313, credit card number field 314, telephone number field 315, mobile telephone number 316, address field 317 and electronic mail (E-mail) address field 318, although they are not fixed but modifiable according to given embodiments.

Referring again to Fig. 1, the member authentication module 320 authenticates a customer as a member when he or she again gains access to the point management server 30, and then enables the customer to receive various information provided from the server 30.

The pre-reward article DB 330 is adapted to store information regarding pre-reward articles to be provided to a customer when he or she makes a contract for selection of a pre-reward article based on the right to pre-reward article selection resulting from the member registration.

With reference to Fig. 3, the pre-reward article DB 330 includes a category field 331, brand field 332, market price field 333, minus point field 334 and redemption term field 335. If a member makes a contract for selection of a pre-reward article, then he or she is assigned minus points corresponding to the selected article and the term of redemption. As a result, the member must purchase commodities from affiliated stores to offset the assigned minus points.

Referring again to Fig. 1, the affiliated store DB 340 is adapted to store information about affiliated stores from which the member can purchase commodities using the issued credit card to offset the minus points.

With reference to Fig. 4, the affiliated store DB 340 includes an affiliated store number field 341, affiliated store name field 342, main article field 343, location field 344 and telephone number field 345.

Referring again to Fig. 1, the member point DB 350 is adapted to store information about minus points which are generated according to selection of a pre-reward article and are to be cleared off within the term of contract, information about commodity points based on the purchasing of commodities from affiliated stores, information about accumulated points of the commodity points, and information about remainder points, or the sum of the minus points and accumulated points. The remainder points are an index showing how many minus points were offset by saved commodity points. The reason for obtaining the remainder points by doing the sum of the minus points and accumulated points is that the minus points have a minus value and the accumulated points have a plus value. The member point DB 350 updates the accumulated points and remainder points by an interaction with the point settlement module 370, which will be described later in detail.

With reference to Fig. 5, the member point DB 350 includes a serial number field 351, date field 352, commodity name field 353, commodity price field 354, point assignment rate field 355, commodity point field 356, accumulated point field 357, redemption date field 358, minus point field 359 and remainder point field 359'.

Referring again to Fig. 1, if a member purchases commodities from affiliated stores using a credit card and the affiliated credit card company server 40 sends purchased commodity records, then the commodity point calculation module 360 calculates commodity points on the basis of the sent purchased commodity records and predetermined point assignment rates of the respective commodities and stores information about the calculated commodity points in the member point DB.

The point settlement module 370 accumulates the commodity points calculated by the commodity point calculation module 360 and interacts with the member point DB 350 to calculate remainder points by doing the sum of the minus points and accumulated points and periodically update information about the accumulated points and remainder points in the member point DB 350. Further, the point settlement module 370 checks the date of redemption and the remainder of the minus points and sends the checked results to the Web server 390, which will be described later in detail, such that the Web server 390 notifies the member of the checked results.

The charged amount sending module 380 is adapted to, if there are remainder points after the term of redemption expires, convert the remainder points into the amount of money to be charged and send information about the converted money amount to the affiliated credit card company server 40.

The Web server 390 is adapted to manage the membership DB 310, pre- reward article DB 330 and member point DB 350 and control a member authentication operation through an interaction with the member authentication module 320. The Web server 390 is further adapted to control member point settlement and totaling operations through an interaction with the point settlement module 370. Furthermore, the Web server 390 controls the commodity point calculation module 360 and charged amount sending module 380.

If a member purchases commodities from an affiliated store using a credit card issued from the affiliated credit card company, then the server 40 of the affiliated credit card company stores information regarding the purchased commodities.

The affiliated credit card company server 40 includes a membership DB

310', member authentication module 320', purchased commodity record DB 410, charged amount DB 420 and charging module 430. Upon receiving a customer credit state check request from the point management server 30, the affiliated credit card company server 40 checks the credit state of a given customer and issues a credit card to the customer if the credit state of the customer is good. The membership DB 310' stores information of members registered in this manner.

The member authentication module 320' is adapted to authenticate a given customer as a member when information of his or her credit card is read by the affiliated store credit card reader 10.

The purchased commodity record DB 410 is adapted to store records of commodities purchased by members using credit cards.

With reference to Fig. 6, the purchased commodity record DB 410 includes a serial number field 411, date field 412, commodity name field 413, commodity price field 414 and affiliated store name field 415.

The charged amount DB 420 is adapted to store the charged money amount information sent from the charged amount sending module 380. As stated previously, the charged amount sending module 380 functions to, if remainder points calculated by the point settlement module 370 after the term of redemption expires have a minus value, convert the remainder points into the amount of money to be charged and send information about the converted money amount to the affiliated credit card company server 40.

With reference to Fig. 7, the charged amount DB 420 includes a member name field 421, remainder point field 422, remainder point conversion rate field 423, charged money amount field 424, credit card settlement date field 425 and settlement confirm field 426.

The charging module 430 is adapted to, after the term of redemption expires, request a member to settle his or her account for a money amount stored in the charged amount DB 420.

Although the preferred embodiment of the credit card-based pre-reward system of the present invention has been disclosed for illustrative purpose, those skilled in the art will appreciate that various modifications, additions and substitutions are possible, without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention.

In the present embodiment, provided that the term of redemption expires and the remainder points have a minus value, the charged amount sending module 380, charged amount DB 420 and charging module 430 are together operated to convert the remainder points into the amount of money to be charged and then charge the converted money amount to a member. As an alternative, a pre- reward article return requesting module (not shown) may be provided in the point management server 30 to request the member to return a given pre-reward article.

Alternatively, a contract term extension requesting module (not shown) may be provided in the point management server 30 to ask the member whether he or she desires to extend the term of contract, if the term of redemption expires and the remainder points have a minus value, and then add a predetermined amount of points to the remainder points if the member desires to extend the term of contract.

2. PRE-REWARD METHOD USING CREDIT CARDS

Fig. 8 is a flowchart illustrating a pre-reward contract step of a pre-reward method in accordance with the present invention, Fig. 9 is a flowchart illustrating a commodity purchasing/point saving step of the pre-reward method in accordance with the present invention and Fig. 10 is a flowchart illustrating a pre-reward re- contract step of the pre-reward method in accordance with the present invention. With reference to Fig. 8, first, a customer gains access to the point management server 30 through the customer terminal 20 (S10). Then, on a Web page, the point management server 30 asks the customer whether he or she is a member (S20). If the customer is not a member, the point management server 30 asks him or her whether he or she desires to register himself or herself as a member (S22). If the customer does not desire to register himself or herself as a member, the point management server 30 ends the current operation. However, in the case where the customer desires to register himself or herself as a member, the point management server 30 requests the affiliated credit card company server 40 to check the credit state of the customer (S24). For a bad credit state, the point management server 30 ends the current operation. Alternatively, for a good credit state, the point management server 30 approves the member registration and issues a credit card to the customer (S30). Then, the point management server 30 returns to the above step S20 to ask another customer whether he or she is a member. Notably, in the present invention, the credit card may be issued by the affiliated credit card company in response to a request from an operator of the point management server or directly by the operator of the point management server.

In the case where the customer is a member, the point management server 30 asks him or her whether he or she desires to make a contract for pre-rewards (S40) and then ends the current operation if the member does not desire to make the pre-reward contract. However, in the case where the member desires to make the pre-reward contract, the point management server 30 allows him or her to select a small-sized radio set, an MP3 player or other pre-reward article of the hundred thousand won level (see Fig. 3) and then determine the amount of minus points corresponding to the selected pre-reward article and the term of redemption of the minus points (S50). Preferably, the amount of minus points are determined within a certain range in consideration of member information, for example, income, dependent family, occupation and the like. The term of redemption is chosen from among three months, six months, ten months and one year. Thereafter, the point management server 30 ends the pre-reward contract operation through a final confirmation process (S60).

With reference to Fig. 9, after making the pre-reward contract, the member continues to offset the minus points by purchasing commodities from affiliated stores and saving the resulting points. Notably, in the present invention, affiliated stores are not selected at random. Preferably, an oil refining company, department store, discount store and other daily necessities selling stores (see Fig.

4), including the credit card company as settlement means, are selected as affiliated stores so that customers can automatically save points as they purchase daily necessities from the affiliated stores. Because the credit card company is included in the affiliated stores, the member can save both points based on the credit card use and points based on the purchasing of necessities from the other affiliated stores, resulting in the amount of actually saved points being twice or more a typical amount.

If a customer presents a credit card while purchasing commodities from an affiliated store (SI 00), the credit card reader 10 of the affiliated store reads information from the presented credit card and requests the member authentication of the affiliated credit card company server 40 (S200). The credit card company server 40 checks whether the customer is a member (S210) and then ends the current operation if the customer is not a member. For a member, the credit card company server 40 approves the member authentication (S220). Upon being approved as a member, the customer will be able to purchase commodities from the affiliated store using the credit card. If the member purchases commodities from the affiliated store using the credit card, then purchased commodity records are stored in the affiliated credit card company server 40 (S300). The credit card company server 40 sends the purchased commodity records to the point management server 30 (S310), which then stores the sent purchased commodity records (S320, see Fig. 6).

In the point management server 30, the commodity point calculation module 360 calculates commodity points on the basis of the stored purchased commodity records and predetermined point assignment rates of the respective commodities (S400), and the point settlement module 370 accumulates the commodity points calculated by the commodity point calculation module 360, calculates remainder points by doing the sum of the minus points and accumulated points and stores information about the calculated remainder points in the member point DB 350 (S410).

Subsequently, the point management server 30 checks whether the remainder points are 0 (S420). If the remainder points are 0 or have a plus value, the point management server 30 notifies the member that the pre-reward contract has expired irrespective of the term of contract (S600). However, in the case where the remainder points have a minus value, the point management server 30 checks whether the current date exceeds the date of redemption (S500). If the current date does not exceed the date of redemption under the condition that the reminder points have a minus value, the point management server 30 returns to the above commodity purchasing step SI 00. Provided that commodity points are accumulated by continuous commodity purchasing, the accumulated commodity points and remainder points are calculated and updated by the point settlement module 370. To the contrary, in the case where the current date exceeds the date of redemption under the condition that the reminder points have a minus value, the point management server 30 converts the remainder points into the amount of money to be charged and sends information about the converted money amount to the affiliated credit card company server 40 (S700). The affiliated credit card company server 40 stores the money amount information sent from the point management server 30 in the charged amount DB 420 and requests the member to settle his or her account for the money amount stored in the charged amount DB 420 (S710). Thereafter, the point management server 30 ends the current operation if the member pays the charged money amount by transfer to the account (S720). At this time, the point management server 30 sets the remainder points to 0 because the contract has expired.

After the contract expiration notification or account transfer completion, the point management server 30 proceeds to the pre-reward re-contract step.

With reference to Fig. 10, if the member is notified of the contract expiration or the account transfer is completed, then the point management server 30 asks the member whether he or she desires to make a re-contract for pre- rewards (S800) and then ends the current operation if the member does not desire to make the pre-reward re-contract. However, in the case where the member desires to make the pre-reward re-contract, the point management server 30 allows him or her to again select a desired pre-reward article and determine the term of redemption (S810). Then, the point management server 30 checks whether the remainder points have a plus value (S820). Here, the remainder points will be 0 or have a plus value because the previous pre-ward contract has expired. If the remainder points are 0, the point management server 30 makes the pre-reward re- contract directly (S840). In the case where the remainder points have a plus value, namely, the previous pre-ward contract has expired under the condition that the accumulated points are greater in amount than the minus points, the point management server 30 adds the remainder points to new minus points based on the pre-reward re-contract (S830), makes the pre-reward re-contract (S840) and then ends the pre-reward re-contract operation through a final confirmation process (S850).

Although the preferred embodiment of the credit card-based pre- reward/after-integrated point settlement method of the present invention has been disclosed for illustrative purpose, those skilled in the art will appreciate that various modifications, additions and substitutions are possible, without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention.

In the present embodiment, provided that the term of redemption expires and the remainder points have a minus value, the point management server converts the remainder points into the amount of money to be charged and then requests the member to pay the charged money amount by the credit card. As an alternative, the point management server may request the member to return a given pre-reward article.

Alternatively, if the term of redemption expires and the remainder points have a minus value, the point management server may ask the member whether he or she desires to extend the term of contract and then add a predetermined amount of points to the remainder points if the member desires to extend the term of contract.

3. ILLUSTRATIVE EXAMPLE

Assume that an affiliated store A is a credit card company, B is an oil refining company, C is a department store and D is a discount store, and a member is a deputy manager drawing an annual salary of thirty million won and being the head of a family of four and in his thirties. The following table 1 illustratively shows monthly purchasing prices corresponding to the totals of the average monthly commodity purchasing prices, monthly saved commodity points corresponding to the average monthly saved points based on the commodity purchasing, and the amounts of money corresponding to yearly accumulated points, into which the monthly saved commodity points are converted. Here, commodity point assignment rates are set to values actually allowable by the respective affiliated stores. For example, the commodity point assignment rate is 1% of the purchasing price for the credit card company A, 2% of the purchasing price for the oil refining company B, 1% of the purchasing price for the department store C and 0.5% of the purchasing price for the discount store D. Further, one won is assigned to each commodity point.

[TABLE 1]

As seen from the above table 1 , the total amount of yearly accumulated point money of the member was 168,000 won in value. As a result, the member can receive a pre-reward article of about 168,000 won, for example, a CD player free of charge every year by paying the purchasing prices of necessities from the affiliated stores by the credit card.

Industrial Applicability

As apparent from the above description, the present invention provides a pre-reward system and method using credit cards which can strengthen point saving motives of customers by virtue of pre-rewards, thereby enabling affiliated stores to increase the amount of sales by securing regular customers.

Further, according to this invention, the pre-reward system and method can select as affiliated stores respective ones of oil refining companies, department stores, discount stores, credit card companies and other daily necessities selling stores. Therefore, customers can automatically save points as they purchase daily necessities from the affiliated stores.

Further, according to this invention, the pre-reward system and method can integratedly manage a large number of affiliated stores using the credit cards and an existing credit card network without a necessity for constructing a separate network.

Further, according to this invention, customers can settle their accounts with affiliated stores using only credit cards integrated with point saving cards without a necessity for carrying a plurality of cards. Therefore, the customers can simply and conveniently save points while using the credit cards.

Moreover, according to this invention, customers can conduct both payment and point saving using only credit cards. Thus, the customers can save both points based on the credit card use and points based on the purchasing of necessities from affiliated stores, resulting in the amount of actually saved points being twice or more a typical amount.

Furthermore, according to the present invention, customers can offset minus points based on pre-rewards at the moment that they save the same amount of points, thereby enabling the customers to use newly saved points freely without being subjected to additional restrictions such as a period, threshold point value, etc.

Although the preferred embodiments of the present invention have been disclosed for illustrative purposes, those skilled in the art will appreciate that various modifications, additions and substitutions are possible, without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention as disclosed in the accompanying claims.

Claims

Claims:

1. A pre-reward system using credit cards which includes at least one customer terminal, a point management server and a server of an affiliated credit card company interconnected through an Internet network, and a credit card reader of at least one affiliated store connected to said affiliated credit card company server through a telephone network, wherein said point management server comprises: a first membership database for storing information of at least one member; a first member authentication module for authenticating said member; a pre-reward article database for storing information regarding pre-reward articles; an affiliated store database for storing information regarding said affiliated store; a member point database for storing information about minus points which are generated according to selection of a pre-reward article by said member and are to be cleared off within the term of contract, information about commodity points based on the purchasing of commodities from said affiliated store, information about accumulated points of the commodity points, and information about remainder points obtained by doing the sum of the minus points and accumulated points; a commodity point calculation module for calculating said commodity points based on the purchasing of the commodities from said affiliated store on the basis of purchased commodity records sent from said affiliated credit card company server and predetermined point assignment rates of the respective commodities; a point settlement module for interacting with said member point database to accumulate said commodity points calculated by said commodity point calculation module and update said remainder points by doing the sum of said minus points and accumulated points; and a Web server for controlling said first member authentication module and point settlement module, managing said pre-reward article database and member point database and transmitting and receiving data in response to an external request; and wherein said affiliated credit card company server comprises: a second membership database for storing the information of said member and credit information of said member; a second member authentication module for authenticating said member in response to a member authentication request from said credit card reader and approving payment by a credit card of said member in response to a credit card- based settlement request from said credit card reader; a purchased commodity record database for storing records of commodities purchased by said member from said affiliated store using his or her credit card; and a purchased commodity record sending module for sending said purchased commodity records to said point management server.

2. The pre-reward system as set forth in Claim 1, wherein said point management server further comprises a charged amount sending module for, if said contract term expires, converting said remainder points into the amount of money to be charged and sending information about the converted money amount to said affiliated credit card company server; and wherein said affiliated credit card company server further comprises: a charged amount database for storing the charged money amount information sent from said point management server; and a charging module for requesting said member to settle his or her account for said money amount stored in said charged amount database.

3. The pre-reward system as set forth in Claim 1, wherein said point management server further comprises a pre-reward article return requesting module for requesting said member to return said selected pre-reward article if said remainder points have a minus value after said contract term expires.

4. The pre-reward system as set forth in Claim 1, wherein said point management server further comprises a contract term extension requesting module for asking said member whether he or she desires to extend said contract term, if said remainder points have a minus value after said contract term expires, and then adding a predetermined amount of points to said remainder points if said member desires to extend said contract term.

5. A pre-reward method using credit cards, comprising the steps of: a) requesting member registration by a customer, and checking a credit state of said customer, approving the member registration of said customer in accordance with the checked result and issuing a credit card to said customer by a server of an affiliated credit card company; b) storing information regarding minus points generated according to selection of a pre-reward article by said member and the term of redemption of said minus points in a member point database by a point management server; c) purchasing commodities from at lease one affiliated store by said member using the issued credit card and reading information from said issued credit card by a credit card reader of said affiliated store; d) requesting and approving member authentication and payment by said issued credit card by said affiliated credit card company server; e) sending purchased commodity records to said point management server by said affiliated credit card company server; f) calculating commodity points assigned to said commodities by said point management server; g) accumulating said commodity points, calculating remainder points by doing the sum of said minus points and accumulated points and storing information about the calculated remainder points in said member point database by said point management server; and h) determining whether said redemption term has expired, by said point management server.

6. The pre-reward method as set forth in Claim 5, further comprising the step of: i) converting said remainder points into the amount of money to be charged, if said redemption term has expired, sending information about the converted money amount to said affiliated credit card company server and requesting said member to settle his or her account for the converted money amount.

7. The pre-reward method as set forth in Claim 5, further comprising the step of: i) requesting said member to return said selected pre-reward article if said remainder points have a minus value after said redemption term expires.

8. The pre-reward method as set forth in Claim 5, further comprising the step of: i) asking said member whether he or she desires to extend the term of contract, if said remainder points have a minus value after said redemption term expires, and then adding a predetermined amount of points to said remainder points if said member desires to extend said contract term.

9. The pre-reward method as set forth in any one of Claim 5 to Claim 8, further comprising the step of: j) asking said member whether he or she desires to make a re-contract for pre-rewards, if said contract term has expired, making the pre-reward re-contract directly if said member desires to make said pre-reward re-contract and said remainder points are 0, adding said remainder points to new minus points if said member desires to make said pre-reward re-contract and said remainder points have a plus value and then making said pre-reward re-contract.

10. The pre-reward method as set forth in Claim 9, wherein said affiliated store is at least one of an oil refining company, a department store, a discount store and said credit card company.