How American Express Tracks Your Spending Habits Across Different Stores
A system that links store-specific product codes to universal manufacturer codes to help consumers track their spending and stay within personal budgets.
Original patent title: “System and method for monitoring consumer purchasing activity”
A system that links store-specific product codes to universal manufacturer codes to help consumers track their spending and stay within personal budgets. Granted to American Express Travel Related Services Co Inc in 2010 with 24 claims and 36 forward citations.
Key facts
Coverage
What does this patent actually cover?
This patent describes a method for a central processor to bridge the gap between different retailers' internal tracking systems and universal product standards. It takes a store's specific Stock Keeping Unit (SKU) and maps it to a manufacturer's Universal Product Code (UPC). By doing this, the system can categorize purchases automatically regardless of which store the item was bought at. For example, if you buy a gallon of milk at a grocery store and a gallon of milk at a pharmacy, the system recognizes both as 'Groceries' and subtracts the cost from your pre-set monthly food budget.
The gap
What does this patent NOT cover?
- Does not cover simple transaction logging that lacks the step of mapping store-specific SKUs to universal UPCs.
- Does not cover systems that only track spending at a single retailer without cross-referencing manufacturer-level data.
- Does not cover manual budget entry where the user must categorize each purchase themselves.
These exclusions are unique to PatentBrief — derived from the actual claim language, not patent-office boilerplate.
What made this novel
The innovation is the network-level association of retailer-specific SKUs with universal UPCs, allowing a bank to 'see' the item inside the transaction, not just the store where the transaction occurred.
Schematic visualization of the patent's claim structure. Hand-drawn diagrams in progress for each landmark patent.
Where you've seen this
Real-world examples
American Express spending analysis features
Modern banking apps that categorize purchases as 'Groceries' or 'Electronics'
Credit card reward programs linked to specific product categories
Why it matters
The bigger picture
Before this, tracking personal finances was difficult because different stores used proprietary codes that didn't talk to each other. This patent helped enable the 'automated personal finance' category, allowing credit card issuers to provide granular spending insights directly in mobile apps, moving beyond just showing the merchant name to showing exactly what was bought.
Filed
July 17, 2006
Granted
March 2, 2010
Market context
Who's building on this
Companies in this space
American Express continues to utilize this type of data aggregation for their 'Year-End Summary' and mobile app spending tools. Major financial institutions like JPMorgan Chase and fintech companies like Mint (now defunct) and YNAB (You Need A Budget) have built their entire business models on similar automated categorization logic.
Market impact
This technology helped shift the credit card industry from being simple payment processors to becoming personal financial management hubs. It triggered a wave of innovation where banks began competing on the quality of their spending insights, making it a standard feature for any competitive consumer banking platform today.
Claim 1 — Plain English
What this patent covers
This patent describes a method for a central processor to bridge the gap between different retailers' internal tracking systems and universal product standards. It takes a store's specific Stock Keeping Unit (SKU) and maps it to a manufacturer's Universal Product Code (UPC). By doing this, the system can categorize purchases automatically regardless of which store the item was bought at. For example, if you buy a gallon of milk at a grocery store and a gallon of milk at a pharmacy, the system recognizes both as 'Groceries' and subtracts the cost from your pre-set monthly food budget.
The clever bit
The innovation is the network-level association of retailer-specific SKUs with universal UPCs, allowing a bank to 'see' the item inside the transaction, not just the store where the transaction occurred.
What it does not cover
- Does not cover simple transaction logging that lacks the step of mapping store-specific SKUs to universal UPCs.
- Does not cover systems that only track spending at a single retailer without cross-referencing manufacturer-level data.
- Does not cover manual budget entry where the user must categorize each purchase themselves.
Patent timeline
Application submitted to the patent office
Application published, typically 18 months after filing
Patent officially issued
PatentBrief Score
Impact Score
Moderate
Citation count
31/40
Moderately cited
Claim breadth
16/20
Broad claimsclaimsThe numbered statements at the end of a patent that legally define what the inventor owns.Read more →
Recency
5/20
Granted 10–20 years ago
Assignee scale
0/20
Independent or smaller assigneeassigneeThe entity that owns the patent — usually the inventor's employer or a company.Read more →
PatentBrief Impact Score — based on citation count, claim breadth, recency, and assignee scale. Not a legal assessment.
Heuristic Value Estimate
What this patent might be worth
$20K – $63K
Midpoint $39K · expired or expiring · industry ×0.9
Heuristic only — blends forward/backward citation counts, claim scope, time remaining, litigation history, and CPC-derived industry baseline. Real valuations need a professional appraisal.
The original legal language
Original claims
24 claims as filed with the patent office.
Concepts involved
Citations
Patent lineage
Cite this patent
Ariff, F. B., Haines, M., Ferrell, R. R., & Voltmer, T. S. (2010). How American Express Tracks Your Spending Habits Across Different Stores (U.S. Patent No. 7,672,870). U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. https://patentbrief.org/patent/us/7672870/amazon-prime
Auto-generated from the patent record. Double-check author order and the issue date against the official USPTO document before submitting.
Embed
Add this patent to your site
Drop this plain-English patent card into any blog post or article — free, no signup. It always links back to the full breakdown here.
<div data-patentlens-widget data-patent-number="US7672870"></div> <script src="https://patentbrief.org/embed.js" async></script>
Stay in the loop
Get a weekly digest of new patents.
One email per week. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Keep exploring
Related patents you should know
US 4683195 · 1987
How to Make Billions of Copies of a DNA Segment
This patent describes the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR), a method to rapidly create many copies of a specific piece of DNA or RNA, enabling its detection and analysis.
Cetus Corp
US 8697359 · 2014
How to Edit Genes in Human Cells Using an Engineered CRISPR System
This patent describes an engineered CRISPR-Cas9 system for precisely cutting DNA in eukaryotic cells to change how genes work, opening the door for gene editing in complex organisms.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
US 7657849 · 2010
How the iPhone's Slide-to-Unlock Gesture Works
Apple's 2010 patent describes unlocking a device by dragging a specific graphical image across the touchscreen along a predefined path, a gesture that became iconic with the original iPhone.
Apple Inc
US 4733665 · 1988
How Doctors Implant a Permanent Stent Using a Balloon
This patent describes the method for placing a permanent, expandable wire mesh tube inside a blood vessel or other body tube using a balloon-tipped catheter to widen it and keep it open.
Expandable Grafts Partnership
US 4965188 · 1990
How to Make Many Copies of a DNA Piece with Heat
This patent describes the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) method, a technique to make millions of copies of a specific DNA segment using a heat-resistant enzyme and repeated temperature changes.
Cetus Corp
US 4235871 · 1980
How to Encapsulate Active Materials in Lipid Bubbles Efficiently
This patent describes a method for trapping biologically active substances inside tiny, multi-layered fat bubbles called liposomes, using a specific water-in-oil emulsion and gel-forming process to improve how much material gets captured.
Individual
More to explore
More in Software & Internet
US 4405829 · 1983 · Massachusetts Institute of Technology
How RSA Public-Key Encryption Keeps Digital Messages Secret
US 6285999 · 2001 · Leland Stanford Junior University
How Websites Get Ranked by Importance
US 5960411 · 1999 · Amazon com Inc
How Amazon's One-Click Ordering Works for Online Purchases
US 7669123 · 2010 · Facebook Inc
Displaying Friends' Activities in a Social Network Feed
New to patents?
Common Questions
Frequently Asked Questions
What does How American Express Tracks Your Spending Habits Across Different Stores cover?
A system that links store-specific product codes to universal manufacturer codes to help consumers track their spending and stay within personal budgets.
Who owns patent US 7672870?
American Express Travel Related Services Co Inc owns this patent, granted in 2010.
When does this patent expire?
This patent is expected to expire on March 2, 2030, when the invention enters the public domain.
What is patent US 7672870 cited by?
This patent has been cited by 36 later patents that build on its ideas.
What problem does this patent solve?
Before this, tracking personal finances was difficult because different stores used proprietary codes that didn't talk to each other. This patent helped enable the 'automated personal finance' category, allowing credit card issuers to provide granular spending insights directly in mobile apps, moving beyond just showing the merchant name to showing exactly what was bought.
What does this patent NOT cover?
Does not cover simple transaction logging that lacks the step of mapping store-specific SKUs to universal UPCs.
Same assignee
More from American Express Travel Related Services Co Inc
Patent monitoring