摘要 |
Coupons (105) are encoded with an account identifier such as a credit or debit card number of the coupon issuer. The coupon may be a bar-coded coupon, or a coupon card, such as a magnetic stripe card or smart card. The bar-coded coupon may use a compact two-dimensional symbology such as Reduced Space Symbology (RSS) to carry the account identifier and other information such as enhanced consumer demographic data. Coupon information including the account identifier, a product or service identifier, and a discount identifier, are obtained from the coupon (105) at a point of sale location (100). The consumer is credited for the discount. The coupon information, including a merchant identifier are communicated to a processing center (135) using an existing credit card terminal (115) and communication protocol, such as ANSI X9, and processed like a conventional credit or debit card transaction. |