Abstract: Embodiments of a method of conducting a customer-retaining program of the present invention are disclosed comprising the steps of establishing a credit based account or a bank account with the sponsor of the incentive program for the benefit of a customer, providing to the customer an investment account employing a customer-chosen investment instrument which is arranged by the sponsor, funding the investment account, for the benefit of the customer, by sponsor-offered rebate which is determined by a predetermined but periodically adjustable percentage of the total amount of money that the customer has paid for purchasing goods or services from a merchant through the credit based account or the bank account established with the sponsor in a particular period of time, periodically transferring the amount of the rebate to the customer's investment account or, if there requires a division of the rebate which depends on the number of years of participation in the incentive program, periodically transferring a port