a computerized method for operating a loyalty account is proposed in which a customer registers a payment card with a loyalty program of a merchant , and a loyalty account is associated with the payment card . when the customer uses the payment card to make a payment transaction involving the merchant , loyalty points are credited to the loyalty account . thus , the payment process is a single - step process from the point of view of the customer . the customer presents the payment card to the merchant to make a payment in the conventional manner , and the rest of the process steps to credit loyalty points to the corresponding loyalty account are performed without the involvement of the customer . conveniently , some of those steps can be performed by computing equipment of the payment network associated with the payment card , which arranges for loyalty points to be credited to a loyalty account associated with the payment card .