JP2002083240A - Point exchange method and system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To attain effective use of points by allowing mutual exchange of the points of cards of a plurality of brands among the cards. SOLUTION: In this method, a point exchange center 11 accepts a request for point exchange from a customer member via a member terminal 15 provided in the exchange center or a terminal, such as PC or the like possessed by the member, and transmits the request of exchange to card companies 12 and 13 requested for the exchange. Each card company converts the point value to be exchanged according to an exchange rate, renews the point balance decreased or increased by the exchange of the customer member, and notifies the point exchange center of a new converted exchange point value. The point exchange center completes the point exchange of the customer's card according to the response from the card company, and notifies the customer to that effect.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a technology for exchanging points for an IC card used as a credit card or the like, and in particular, is provided by a card issuing company at the time of using the card and can receive various services. The present invention relates to a point exchange technology that enables points to be exchanged for points of another company.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In general, as a method of purchasing a product or receiving some service without paying cash directly, for example, a method of using a credit card is used. When a customer pays a fee for a transaction using a credit card, the credit company that issued the card gives the user a certain percentage of points for each use. (Credit card). These points can be exchanged for a predetermined prize or the like when the points reach a point value totalized for each predetermined period.

[0003]

In the above-mentioned credit card, the points given for use are exclusive to the credit card company, and the service that can be received using the points is provided by the credit company. Is limited to those who do. This is because it is difficult for credit companies to share services that are given to credit cards in order to differentiate services.

[0004] Therefore, once a user receives a service using points, the user cannot effectively use the remaining points. In addition, when a user owns and uses multiple credit cards, even if there is an attractive service of a certain credit company, the point value is insufficient to receive the service, Even if the above-mentioned service can be received by adding points of another card, points cannot be exchanged, so that the user cannot receive the desired service.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In view of the above situation, it is an object of the present invention to make effective use of points given to the use of cards such as credit cards, and to make effective use of the points between cards of a plurality of brands. It is another object of the present invention to provide a point exchange method and a point exchange system which can collect points of cards having different names held by family members or the like.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION According to the present invention, there is provided a method for exchanging points between cards, the points being given to a card, wherein the points are given according to the amount of the transaction using the card. This is achieved by receiving a request for a point exchange from the company, transmitting the request for the exchange to the card issuing company, receiving approval, and then completing the point exchange between the cards. The aforementioned point exchange between cards can be performed between cards of the same holder of different brands, between cards of different holders of different brands, or between cards of different holders of the same brand.

[0007]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, an embodiment of a point exchange method and a point exchange system according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a point exchange system according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining processing at the time of ordinary card settlement, and FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining contents of customer data. is there. 1 and 2, 11 is a point exchange, 12, 13, and 23 are card companies, 14, 15, and 24 are customer databases (DB),
16 is a member terminal, 21 is a card member, and 22 is a store. The card company of the present invention is a company that issues points, and may be, for example, a credit company, a store, an organization that issues points as a shopping district, or a point issuing organization of an airline company. .

As shown in FIG. 1, a point exchange system according to one embodiment of the present invention includes a point exchange station 11 provided according to the present invention and
A plurality of card companies A12 and B13 having 4 and 15 and a member terminal 16 are configured to be mutually connectable via a network (not shown). Card companies 12, 13
Is to issue a credit card with the brand of each company and to mediate the transfer of fees related to transactions between customers and merchants, processing at the time of transactions with customers,
A processing server (not shown) for performing processing at the time of exchanging points according to the present invention is provided. In addition, point exchange 11
Can be directly connected to a member terminal 16 provided at a clearing house via a network or by connecting the member terminal 16 to each card company and performing point exchange processing in accordance with this system. It has a processing server to perform. The member terminal 16 includes a card reader / writer capable of handling a credit card such as a magnetic stripe card or an IC card, and has a communication function.
C or the like.

[0010] It is now assumed that a card member as a customer purchases goods at a member store or the like, and performs settlement using the card. In this case, as shown in FIG. 2, the process in which the card member 21 purchases an article in the store 22 or the like as a member store and performs the processing with the card having the settlement is performed by the member store installed in the store 22. When the customer's card is set, the terminal connects to the credit card issuer's card company 23 and transmits transaction information to the card company 23. Then, the card company 23 registers the transaction information in the customer DB 24. At this time, the registered transaction information includes
Information on the point value given in this transaction and the accumulated point value are also entered.

If the credit card used is of the magnetic stripe type, the information on the point value given in the transaction and the total point value are stored in the customer DB of the card company.
24, but if the credit card to be used is an IC card, it is also possible to register information on the point value given in the transaction and the accumulated point value in the IC card.

Normally, transaction information registered in the customer DB 24 is tabulated for each customer at regular intervals, and is sent to the customer as a usage statement in a format as shown in FIG. 3, for example. In this usage statement, the date of use, the name of the store used, the store code, the amount used, the points generated, the total point balance, and the like are recorded. The above-mentioned generated points and cumulative points may be converted into monetary amounts.

The customer can exchange the points given as described above by using a credit card with points of another credit company via the point exchange 11 constituting the system according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart for explaining a processing operation in the server of the point exchange office at the time of point exchange, FIG. 5 is a flowchart for explaining a processing operation in the server of the card company A at the time of point exchange, and FIG. It is a flowchart for explaining the processing operation in the server of the card company B at the time. Hereinafter, the point exchange processing will be described with reference to these flows. Here, in order to make the description easy to understand, it is assumed that one customer has cards of two credit card companies A and B and exchanges points of these card companies. First, FIG.
Will be described.

(1) The server of the point exchange station 11 receives a point exchange request from a card member via the member terminal 16. In this case, the information included in the point exchange request includes the name of the card company included in the customer information for which points are to be exchanged, and in this example, the card companies A and B
And exchange information indicating which card points are to be transferred to which card points. In this example, card company A
And the point value of the card company A to be exchanged, for example, X
(0) (step 41).

(2) Next, the server of the point exchange office 11 transmits to the card company A a request to purchase points for exchanging points. The information included in the purchase request in this case is the customer information, the information of the card company A included therein, and the point value X (1) of the card company A to be exchanged. The point exchange 11 and the card companies A and B have contracted in advance to pay the point exchange 11 a fee of several percent of the point value exchanged by each card company when exchanging points. In consideration of the points, the point value X (0) requested to be exchanged by the card member is converted into the point value X (1) and the exchange is requested to the card company A (step 42). The exchange fee can be a fixed fee.

(3) The card company A, as described later,
Confirm that the requested point value X (1) is equal to or less than the point balance of the customer who has requested the exchange, and
The exchange rate for (1) is calculated, and the calculated exchange point value X (2) is transmitted to the point clearinghouse 11. The point exchange 11 receives this information from the card company A. In this case, the card company A may sell the exchange points for the point value X (2) (step 43).

(4) Next, the server of the point clearinghouse 11 calculates a point value (3) in consideration of a fee based on the point value X (2) received from the card company A, and Send a request for point exchange to. When the card company B accepts this, the card company B notifies the point exchange 11 of that fact. In this case, card company B
May purchase an exchange point with an amount equivalent to the point value X (3) (step 44).

(5) The server of the point clearinghouse 11 receives the information of the purchase of the exchange points from the card company B described above and acknowledgment. The exchange point value transmitted from the card company B at this time is the exchange point value X (4) after the operation of calculating the exchange rate for the point value X (3).
(Step 45).

(6) Next, the server of the point exchange office 11 reports the establishment of the point value exchange to the card member who has requested the point exchange. At this time, it informs that the point value of the card company B is X (5).
This point value X (5) is a value in consideration of the commission received by the point exchange 11 based on the contract described above, with respect to the exchange point value X (4) reported from the card company B. (Step 46). In this process, the fact that the point value of the card company B is X (5) is notified, and this is performed by the customer or the card company as needed. If the point storage medium is a customer's IC card, points can be written in this process.

Next, the operation of the server of the card company A will be described with reference to the flow shown in FIG. This process is started from the process of receiving the request from the point clearinghouse in step 42 of FIG.

(1) The server of the card company A sends the point value X (1) for the point exchange from the point exchange office 11.
Receive a debit request. As described above, the information to be received includes the customer information, the information of the card company A included therein, and the point value X of the card company A to be exchanged.
(1) (step 51).

(2) The server of the card company A retrieves the customer information from the customer DB 14 of the company and checks whether or not the point balance of the customer is larger than the exchange point value X (1). If the value is smaller than the exchange point value X (1), points cannot be exchanged, so that an exchange rejection is transmitted to the point exchange 11 and the process is terminated (steps 52 and 53).

(3) If the server of the card company A checks in step 52 that the point balance of the customer is larger than the exchange point value X (1) and points can be exchanged, the server of the customer in the customer DB 14 Update the point balance. This process may be a process of updating a value obtained by subtracting the exchange point value X (1) from the customer's point balance as a new balance (step 54).

(4) Thereafter, the server of the card company A
The calculation of the point value X (1) based on the exchange rate is performed to obtain the calculated exchange point value X (2), and the result is transmitted to the point exchange 11 to approve the point exchange. The point exchange 11 receives this information from the card company A. Note that, in this case, the card company A may sell the exchange points for the point value X (2) (steps 55 and 56).

Next, the operation of the server of the card company B will be described with reference to the flow shown in FIG. This process is started from the process of receiving a request from the point clearinghouse in step 44 of FIG.

(1) The server of the card company B sends the point value X (3) for the point exchange from the point exchange 11
To receive a request for addition by exchange of. The information received will be
As described above, the customer information, the information of the card company B included therein, and the point value X (3) to the card company B to be exchanged (step 61).

(2) The server of the card company B calculates the exchange point value X (4) based on the exchange rate for the point value X (3) and obtains the corresponding exchange point value X (4) in its DB15. Update your balance. This process may be a process of updating a value obtained by adding the exchange point value X (3) to the point balance of the customer as a new balance. In this case, the card company B may purchase exchange points for an amount equivalent to X (4) points (step 62,
63).

(3) Thereafter, the server of the card company B
The calculated exchange point value X (4) obtained by performing the calculation based on the exchange rate is transmitted to the point exchange office 11, and the exchange of the points is approved, and the process is terminated (step 64).

In the point exchange processing according to the embodiment of the present invention described above, the point balance after the exchange is stored and managed in the customer DB of each card company. Also, a card such as a credit card held by a customer is
In the case of the C card, the point balance after the exchange can be stored in the IC card of the customer. The processing in this case is performed by the member terminal 16 that has received the report in step 406 in FIG.

The processing performed by the servers of the point exchange 11 and the card companies 12 and 13 can be executed by a processing program, and the processing program for that is stored in a portable recording medium such as a magnetic disk or an optical disk. Can be provided.

Although the above-described embodiment of the present invention has been described as exchanging points between different cards, the present invention can also be such that point values are converted into monetary values and then bought and sold.

In the above-described point exchange processing according to the embodiment of the present invention, exchange of points between cards of different brands owned by the same person has been described as an example for the sake of simplicity. According to the present invention, points can be exchanged between cards of different holders of different brands, or between cards of different holders of the same brand, and between cards of different brands of others. In this case, a DB for storing customer information requesting point exchange is provided at the point exchange office 11, and customer information requesting point exchange is stored in advance in this DB upon request from the customer, the point value to be exchanged, and the partner card company. The name and the like are stored, and the server of the point exchange office 11 performs the same processing as described above based on the information in the DB so as to notify each member as a customer of the completion of the point exchange. do it.

In the point exchange described above, a popular card company and a non-preferred card company occur, so that it is considered that an imbalance occurs in the exchange.
In this case, it is possible to respond by changing the point exchange rate between the guard companies. Such exchange rates and exchange fees are based on the market value of the points, credit card companies and points, the popularity of point types and services,
Update in a timely manner according to the popularity of point issuing companies.
It can be updated periodically. The number of exchanges with the card company may be counted to determine the degree of popularity. Such a market price may be set at a point exchange. You may input and reflect the market price from the outside.

According to the above-described embodiment of the present invention, it is possible for the customer to receive the service of the points of the card company desired by the customer, and the card company expects an increase in the number of transactions using the card as a whole. Can be.

In the present embodiment, as a method of paying a fee instead of cash when purchasing a product or receiving some service, for example, a method using a debit card or a card storing electronic money is adopted. Have been.
In such a case as well, points according to the use may be given to the user. The exchange of points in such a case is also possible by applying the present invention. When payment is made in cash, points may be stored in a card. In such a case, points can be exchanged by applying the present invention.

The second embodiment will be described below.

In the embodiments described above, the card itself has an ID and has a memory that can be rewritten each time, or the card has an ID and has a memory that can be rewritten each time. However, the following embodiment is applicable to the latter case where the card itself has an ID and does not have a rewritable memory every time. This is an embodiment that can be effectively applied.

Hereinafter, a detailed embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. First, it is assumed that the card member 21 knows the balance of the points currently owned by the card member 21 by notifying the point balance previously received from the card company. The card member 21 points the points of the card company A (shown as 12) owned by the card member 21 to the card company B (1).
If you have a desire to move to (shown as 3)
The card member 21 sends the value of the point X (10) out of the point balance owned by the card company A to the card company A via the route of Y (10) to the card exchange A 11. (Step 81). It is determined whether the point balance owned by the player is equal to or more than the value of the point of X (10) (step 82). If the determination is satisfied, the process proceeds to step 83. The rate of this purchase is
It depends on the degree of popularity of the card company A. This request is made via the Internet, e-mail, document, telephone, or the like.

At this time, since the card company A withdraws from the company's points and transfers the points to the points, it is general to charge a fee. Card company A transfers X (11) minus the fee to the point exchange (step 8).
3, 84, 91). The commission corresponding to the difference between X (10) and X (11) may be zero or less than zero depending on the policy of the card company. It is conceivable that such a situation occurs at the time of enclosing customers or guiding point exchange.

As a result, the card company A updates the point balance of the customer DB 14 to a value reduced by X (10) points obtained by adding a commission amount to X (11) (step 8).
5). The updated result will be reported to the card member later on the route of Y (11). This transmission is performed via the Internet, e-mail, documents, or the like (step 86).

The card member temporarily goes to the point exchange,
Leave some of your points. Next, if the card member decides to transfer the deposited points to the points of the card company B, the exchange rate fluctuates every day depending on the market conditions and the degree of popularity. Refer to the published point market price announced by the third institution not mentioned in the above, grasp the market price of the purchase at that time, at the timing that you think it is advantageous, to the card company B, point exchange A request to transfer a point from is made through the route of Y (13) (step 101). The means for this request may be the Internet, a document, a telephone, or the like.

Based on this request, the card company B transfers a predetermined point X (12) from the point exchange to its own company (steps 92, 93, 101).

The point clearinghouse accepts the difference between X (11) and X (12) as a fee (step 94). Also,
The value of X (12) fluctuates depending on the market price at that time, and it may be zero or less than zero depending on the policy of the card company as in the case described above. It is conceivable that such a situation occurs at the time of enclosing customers or guiding point exchange.

The card company B transfers X (13) obtained by subtracting the company's predetermined commission from X (12) to the company's point balance (step 102). Based on this result, the data of the point balance in the customer DB 15 of the card company B is updated (step 103).

At this time, the fee X (12) -X (13) applied by the card company B is a direction in which the value decreases for the customer in the view of a normal fee. If the credit card company B has a strategy of collecting points of each company into its own points, it may be possible to collect the points at a higher rate than the value of the points. That is, in this case, the value of X (12) -X (13) becomes negative. Alternatively, it may be possible to withdraw at a zero fee. As a result, the balance of the points of the card company B, which has been increased, is calculated as Y (1
Report to cardholders via route 4) (Step 1)
04).

In the above description, an example of transferring from the card company A to the card company B has been described. However, the present invention is not limited to B, and may be transferred to a plurality of card companies such as C, D, and E at the request of the member. It may be. In the embodiment, for convenience of explanation, all point values are represented by X (n). However, since unit prices of points of each company are usually different, this value is converted to the same value. Is represented.

In practice, the card member can use the points after the transfer to exchange for another valuable resource. Although the above point exchange has been described as an example of one exchange, the points exchanged with the card company B can be exchanged again with the card company A or with the card company C. The points possessed by the family can be collected to any one of the family members in the card company A, or the points of any one of the family members can be distributed to several family members. You can also give your points to other people. Although the card has been described as an example, the present invention can be applied to a case where points are stored in a storage medium such as a computer and a mobile phone.

[0049]

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to effectively use the points between cards of a plurality of brands, and further, the points of cards having different names of family members are collected. It is possible to provide a point exchange method and a point exchange system that enable the above.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a point exchange system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a process at the time of ordinary card settlement.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating the contents of customer data.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a processing operation in a server of a point exchange office at the time of point exchange.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a processing operation in a server of the card company A at the time of point exchange.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a processing operation in a server of the card company B at the time of point exchange.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a point exchange system according to another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating a processing operation at the time of point exchange according to another embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 11 point exchanges 12, 13, 23 card companies 14, 15, 24 customer database (DB) 16 member terminals 21 card members 22 stores

Continued on the front page (72) Inventor Masahiro Sakashita 890 Kashimada, Saiwai-ku, Kawasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture Inside the Hitachi, Ltd.Business Solutions Division (72) Inventor Masayuki Nakagawa 890 Kashimada, Saiwai-ku, Kawasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture Hitachi, Ltd. Business Within Solution Business Department (72) Inventor Shinya Hirata 2- 15-12 Nishi-Shimbashi, Minato-ku, Tokyo Inside Hitachi Capital Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Masashi Takeda 2- 15-12 Nishi-Shimbashi, Minato-ku, Tokyo Hitachi Capital Co., Ltd.

Claims (7)

[Claims] Claims: 1. In a method of exchanging points for a card to which points are awarded according to the amount of a transaction using the card, a request for a point exchange from a customer is received, and the card issuing company receives the request. It conveys a request for exchange and receives approval, establishes point exchange between cards, calculates the company's points to be exchanged based on the exchange rate with the exchange destination card, and exchanges points How to exchange points. 2. The point exchange between the cards is performed between cards of the same holder of different brands, between cards of different holders of different brands, or between cards of different holders of the same brand. 2. The point exchange method according to claim 1, wherein the points are exchanged. 3. A request for a point exchange from a customer is received, the request for the exchange is transmitted to a card issuing company, and the consent is obtained. 2. The point exchange method according to claim 1, wherein the point exchange method is received from a customer who has made an exchange request. 4. In a point exchange system between cards, in which points are awarded to a card according to the amount of a transaction using the card, a point exchange having a server and a card company are connected via a network. The server of the point exchange includes a means for receiving a request for a point exchange from a customer via a member terminal, a means for transmitting a request for the exchange to a card issuing company and receiving approval thereof, A point exchange system for calculating an in-house point to be exchanged based on an exchange rate with the previous card and approving the exchange of points. 5. The point exchange between the cards is performed between cards of the same holder of different brands, between cards of different holders of different brands, or between cards of different holders of the same brand. 6. The point exchange system according to claim 5, wherein the points are exchanged. 6. A request for a point exchange from a customer is received, the request for the exchange is transmitted to a card issuing company, and consent is obtained, and points are exchanged between the cards. A storage medium storing a processing program for calculating own points to be exchanged based on the program and exchanging points. 7. A request for a point exchange from a customer is received, the request for the exchange is transmitted to a card issuing company, and the card is exchanged, a point exchange between the cards is completed, and an exchange rate between the card and a destination card is exchanged. A point exchange program that calculates in-house points to be exchanged on the basis of and exchanges points.