Abstract: An apparatus and method for providing a marketing program for a selected group of merchants which provides incentives to consumers to purchase goods and/or services from the selected group of merchants. The method comprises establishing one or more merchant selection rules, registering a consumer wishing to participate in the program, receiving merchant information, matching the received merchant information with available merchant selection rules and adding merchants to one or more selected group of merchants after determining that the respective merchants have the required characteristics. A machine readable database operable to store specified information representing earned credits for participating consumers is provided. The program is universal in the sense that the method of payment is unrestricted and participating consumers receive an identification and which can be used for purchases from a participating merchant, in a store, by phone or online.