DEBIT CARD SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR IMPLEMENTING INCENTIVE AWARD PROGRAM

摘要

A debit card system for implementing an incentive award program. A plurality of debit cards (114), each assigned to one participant, having a unique account number corresponding to participant's award account. A bank filter processor (116) accesses program data including data identifying the authorized unique account numbers of the participants, the authorized merchants (108) and the balance in each participant's award account. The filter processor (116) compares this program data to the following transaction data: the card account number initiating the transaction, the initiating merchant identification data regarding the amount of the initiated transaction. The filter processor generates validating data for the transaction when an authorized merchant using the unique account number of a participant having a sufficient balance in the participant's award account to cover the transaction. Otherwise, invalidating data is generated.