Mastercard Incorporated
Methods and devices for collecting information about consumer spending

Abstract:

A server, with access to information about the spending of consumers, is operative to register when any of the consumers develops a new payment channel which is not tracked by a payment network. In respect of such consumers, the server automatically analyses the tracked spending behavior of the consumers before and after the new spending channel is opened, to identify differences between the spending behavior before and afterwards. By aggregating this information among multiple consumers, and multiple merchant classes, the server obtains data characterizing consumer spending using the new payment channel.