Selecting a financial account associated with a proxy object based on fund availability

• US 10,692,059 B1
• Filed: 03/13/2014
• Issued: 06/23/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 03/13/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Block, Inc. (f/k/a Square, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Block, Inc. (f/k/a Square, Inc.)
• Inventors: Thome, James Paul, Khan, Imran Sana, Lamba, Kartik
• Primary Examiner(s): Madamba, Clifford B
• Application Number:
  US14/208,800
• Time in Patent Office: 2,294 Days
• Field of Search: 705 40
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/102 Bill distribution or payments
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/227 characterised in that multiple accounts are available, e.g. to the payer
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3221 Access to banking information through M-devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/36 using electronic wallets or electronic money safes

Abstract

A method and apparatus for selecting a financial account associated with a payment object based on fund availability are disclosed. A payment object, such as a proxy card associated with multiple financial accounts, is used by a consumer to make a purchase. In one example, the consumer selects a debit card associated with the proxy card to use for the purchase. A computer system determines that the debit card account has insufficient funds available for the purchase, and determines that an alternate account associated with the proxy card has sufficient funds. The computer system notifies the consumer, via a mobile device of the consumer, that the debit account has insufficient funds, and provides the consumer with the option of using the alternate account. The consumer indicates a desire to use the alternate account, and the computer system processes the payment based on the alternate account.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

enabling, by a buyer/seller platform implemented on a networked computer system, a plurality of merchants to engage in financial transactions with a plurality of consumers,

the financial transactions including payments made using payment cards by the plurality of consumers,

the buyer/seller platform processing the payments made using the payment cards, the processing including obtaining funds from financial accounts associated with the payment cards and depositing a portion of the funds in accounts of the plurality of merchants;

receiving, by the buyer/seller platform, from a point of sale (POS) system of a merchant, transaction information of a financial transaction involving a payment card of a consumer, the payment card being associated with a plurality of financial accounts of the consumer including a first financial account, the financial transaction involving a payment by the consumer for an amount of funds initially indicated to be obtained based on the first financial account; and

preventing, by the buyer/seller platform, an insufficient funds condition associated with the payment from occurring at the POS system by;

determining that the first financial account does not have sufficient funds available for the payment;

determining that a second financial account of the plurality of financial accounts of the consumer has sufficient funds available for a portion of the amount of the payment;

in response to the determination that the first financial account does not have sufficient funds available for the payment, sending a first communication, for delivery to a mobile device associated with the consumer, that, upon receipt by the mobile device, causes the mobile device to display a selection interface that indicates that obtaining funds for the payment based on the first financial account will trigger an insufficient funds condition, that indicates, based on the determination that the second financial account has sufficient funds available, that the portion of the amount of the payment can be obtained based on the second financial account, and that enables the consumer to indicate a selection of the second financial account;

receiving a second communication, from the mobile device, that indicates to allocate the portion of the amount of the payment to the second financial account; and

in response to the receiving of the second communication, processing the payment, wherein the processing of the payment causes the portion of the amount of the payment to be obtained based on the second financial account.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the causing of the portion of the amount of the payment to be obtained based on the second financial account includes sending a third communication that causes a transfer of funds for the payment based on the second financial account.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining that the first financial account does not have sufficient funds available for the payment includes determining that the first financial account does not have sufficient funds available for the payment based on a determination that attempting to obtain the funds for the payment based on the first financial account will trigger an insufficient funds condition at the first financial account.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining that the first financial account does not have sufficient funds for the payment includes determining that a difference between a current balance of the first financial account and an overdraft threshold of the first financial account is less than the amount of the payment.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining that the first financial account does not have sufficient funds for the payment includes determining that a difference between a current credit balance of the first financial account and a credit limit of the first financial account is less than the amount of the payment.

6. The method of claim 1,

wherein the determination that the first financial account does not have sufficient funds for the payment includes a determination that the first financial account does not have access to the amount of funds.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the preventing the insufficient funds condition from occurring further includes:

determining eligible accounts of the plurality of financial accounts, a determination that a selected account is an eligible account being based on a determination that the selected account has sufficient funds available for a portion of the payment, the portion being greater than zero percent, wherein the first communication is further configured to trigger the mobile device to display a listing of the eligible accounts, and wherein the eligible accounts include the second financial account.

8. The method of claim 7,

wherein the payment associated with the financial transaction is from the consumer to a payee, and

wherein the determination of the eligible accounts is further based on a determination that the selected account is accepted by the payee.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a reduced amount of funds that are available for the payment based on the first financial account, the reduced amount of funds being less than the amount of the payment;

allocating the reduced amount of funds to the first financial account; and

allocating a second amount of funds to the second financial account, a total of the reduced amount of funds and the second amount of funds corresponding to the amount of the payment.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the portion of the amount of the payment is one hundred percent of the amount of the payment.

10. A magnetic stripe card comprising:

a substantially flat substrate,

a processor coupled to the substrate;

a communication interface coupled to the processor, through which to communicate with remote devices; and

a non-volatile memory coupled to the processor, the non-volatile memory storing instructions which when executed by the processor cause the magnetic stripe card to perform operations including;

receiving digital data, via the communication interface, that indicates a financial transaction involving the magnetic stripe card, the digital data being received after the digital data was sent by a point of sale (POS) system via short-range wireless communication, the magnetic stripe card being associated with a plurality of financial accounts of a payer via association information, the association information representing an association between the magnetic stripe card and the plurality of financial accounts, the financial transaction involving a payment by the payer for an amount of funds initially indicated to be obtained based on a first financial account of the plurality of financial accounts; and

preventing an insufficient funds condition associated with the payment from occurring at the POS system by;

determining that the first financial account does not have sufficient funds available for the payment;

obtaining account information for a second financial account from a device configured to obtain the account information based on the association information;

determining that the second financial account has sufficient funds available for a portion of the amount of the payment; and

causing the portion of the amount of the payment to be obtained based on the account information of the second financial account.

11. The magnetic stripe card of claim 10, wherein the second financial account is associated with a second payment card, further comprising:

a magnetic stripe emulator coupled to the processor,

wherein the causing the portion of the amount of the payment to be obtained based on the second financial account includes sending a signal to cause the magnetic stripe emulator to emulate a magnetic stripe of the second payment card, to enable a card reader associated with the POS system to read account information for the second financial account from the magnetic stripe card.

12. The magnetic stripe card of claim 10, wherein the operations further include:

receiving a first indication that initially indicates to obtain the amount of funds based on the first financial account, the first indication input via a user interface; and

after receiving the first indication, receiving a second indication that indicates to obtain the portion of the amount of the payment based on the second financial account, the second indication input via the user interface.

13. The magnetic stripe card of claim 12, wherein the user interface is one of a button of the magnetic stripe card, a display of a mobile device of the payer, or a voice recognition interface, and wherein the receiving the digital data that indicates the financial transaction includes receiving the first indication.

14. The magnetic stripe card of claim 10,

wherein the device configured to obtain the account information based on the association information is one of:

the magnetic stripe card, wherein the magnetic strip card is configured to obtain the account information from a memory of the magnetic stripe card, and wherein the memory includes the association information;

a mobile device of the payer, wherein the mobile device is configured to obtain the account information from a storage device of the mobile device, and wherein the storage device includes the association information;

the mobile device of the payer, wherein the mobile device is configured to obtain the account information from a first remote computer system, and wherein the first remote computer system is located remotely from the magnetic stripe card and the mobile device at a time when the account information is obtained;

or

a second remote computer system, wherein the second remote computer system is configured to obtain the account information from a storage device accessible to the second remote computer system, and wherein the second remote computer system is located remotely from the magnetic stripe card and the mobile device at the time when the account information is obtained.

19. The magnetic stripe card of claim 10, wherein the determining that the first financial account does not have sufficient funds for the payment includes the magnetic stripe card performing operations that include sending a first communication for delivery to a buyer/seller platform to trigger the buyer/seller platform to determine whether the first financial account has sufficient funds available for the payment, and wherein the determining that the second financial account has sufficient funds available for the portion of the amount of the payment includes sending a second communication for delivery to the buyer/seller platform to trigger the buyer/seller platform to determine whether the second financial account has sufficient funds available for the portion of the amount of the payment.

15. A method comprising:

enabling, by a buyer/seller platform implemented on a networked computer system, a plurality of merchants to engage in financial transactions with a plurality of consumers,

the financial transactions associated with sales of goods or services to the plurality of consumers and including payments made using payment cards by the plurality of consumers,

the buyer/seller platform processing the payments made using the payment cards, the processing including obtaining funds from financial accounts associated with the payment cards and depositing a portion of the funds in bank accounts of the plurality of merchants,

the payment cards including any of a credit card, a debit card, an automated teller machine (ATM) card, or a stored value card;

receiving, by the buyer/seller platform, transaction information of a plurality of financial transactions for each of a plurality of financial accounts linked via a database with a payment card of a consumer,

wherein transaction information of a selected financial transaction of the plurality of financial transactions is received from a point of sale (POS) system of a merchant,

wherein each of the plurality of financial transactions includes a separate payment initiated based on a swipe of the payment card at one of one or more POS systems,

wherein the one or more POS systems is each used in association with one or more of the plurality of financial transactions, and

wherein each of the separate payments is processed by the buyer/seller platform based on one or more of the plurality of financial accounts;

selecting, by the buyer/seller platform, a selected financial account of the plurality of financial accounts to analyze for use for a selected payment associated with the selected financial transaction, the selected payment being for a selected amount of funds; and

preventing, by the buyer/seller platform, an insufficient funds condition associated with the selected payment from occurring at the POS system by;

analyzing the selected payment account for use for the selected payment by determining that the selected financial account does not have sufficient funds available for the payment;

calculating an outstanding balance for one or more of the plurality of financial accounts, wherein the calculating of the outstanding balance for a financial account of the plurality of financial accounts includes summing payments initiated at a plurality of merchants based on the payment card and processed by the buyer/seller platform based on the financial account;

calculating an amount of funds available for each of the one or more financial accounts, wherein the calculating the amount of funds for the financial account includes subtracting the outstanding balance for the financial account from a limit of funds available via the financial account;

determining that a second financial account of the one or more financial accounts has sufficient funds available for the selected payment;

sending a message for delivery to a mobile device associated with the consumer that, upon receipt by the mobile device, causes the mobile device to display a selection interface that indicates that obtaining the selected amount of funds from the selected financial account will trigger an insufficient funds condition, that indicates that the selected amount of funds can be obtained based on the second financial account, and that enables the consumer to indicate a selection of a particular financial account;

identifying the particular financial account based on a response message received from the mobile device, the response message having been sent by the mobile device in response to the consumer indicating, via the selection interface, the selection of the particular financial account; and

when the particular financial account is the second financial account, sending a communication to cause the selected payment to be processed based on the second financial account.

16. A system comprising:

a communication device through which to communicate with remote devices;

a processor coupled to the communication device; and

a memory coupled to the processor, the memory storing instructions which when executed by the processor cause the system to perform operations that implement the method of claim 15.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the causing the mobile device to display the display message includes sending a second communication for delivery to the mobile device to prompt the mobile device to display the display message.

20. The method of claim 15,

wherein the buyer/seller platform has access to stored association information, via the database, representing an association between the payment card and the plurality of financial accounts.