Abstract: System and method for augmenting standard financial services products (e.g., bank accounts) for specialized needs such as for children. This involves augmenting existing types of financial services accounts and adding new types of accounts not now offered by financial institutions such as banks. For instance in the present system, a parent can allow a child to access his actual bank account via the parent's actual bank account to support transactions between the parent and child such as paying an allowance, cash withdrawals and deposits, and paying additional interest on the child's account.

Abstract: A system and method for performing and settling an electronic scrip transaction between a merchant and a member includes a database storing accounts for one or more participating merchants, scrip distributors, sponsoring organizations, and members. The system also includes merchant terminals, scrip distributor terminals, sponsoring organization terminals, and a system manager terminal, which are interconnected to one another, as well as to the database, over a network, and a member scrip card, such as a magnetic stripe card or a smart card. Transaction information, including the transaction amount, is entered at a merchant terminal and sent over the network to a scrip distributor terminal or system manager terminal, and the member's account is automatically debited by the transaction amount. Additionally, merchant loyalty point credit or tuition credit can be awarded and stored for the member in connection with the transaction amount.