| 摘要 |
A system and method for receiving a value on or associated with a consumer card in lieu of actually receiving coin change. In particular embodiments, and RFID device or other card reader/writer device is connected either in place of, or parallel to, an electric coin dispenser on a Point-of-Sale (POS) terminal or cash register. Instead of receiving an odd amount of coin change after a purchase, the RFID device can augment a total value either stored on the card itself or in an account associated with the card. Alternatively a clerk can cause value to be added to a card equal to the amount that would have given as coin change. A consumer can redeem value up to the amount on the value card at participating stores as if it were a gift card. In one embodiment, a customer ID, total value and optionally a password or PIN can be stored on a smartcard usually in encrypted form. Alternatively, the card or telephone can simply present a barcode which relates to an account. The present invention can either be implemented to work with a particular merchant or merchant chain, or it can be implemented to work across a large number of participating merchants. The latter case usually requires a single remote value account accessible by all the participating merchants.
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