Importance

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Abstract

A customer incentive system involving a plurality of service or merchandise providers comprises a customer-carried, portable device (74), a provider device (76), and a base device (72). To earn incentive credits, the customer enters into a transaction with one of the providers participating in the incentive system (70). A transaction amount is derived from the transaction and, based on this amount, an incentive credit amount is computed. The base device (72) performs this computation by deriving an incentive code and cross-referencing this incentive code with all customer incentive codes stored on the customer-carried device (74) and incentive program codes stored on the provider device (76) to derive an incentive rate. This incentive rate is applied to the transaction amount to derive the incentive amount. The incentive amount is stored on the customer-carried device (74). To redeem the incentive credits stored on the customer-carried device (74), the customer enters into a second transaction with the same provider or another participating provider. A second transaction amount is derived from this transaction and the customer may choose to redeem some or all of the incentive credits stored on the customer-carried device (74) to lower the transaction amount. When incentive credits are redeemed, they are subtracted from the incentive amount on the customer-carried device (74). By using a customer-carried device (74), transactions may be conducted off-line. Thus, no concurrent communications link with a central authority is needed.

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First Claim