Systems and methods to facilitate an acquisition of information associated with a requested financial account

• US 20030061154A1
• Filed: 09/24/2001
• Published: 03/27/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 09/24/2001
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: General Electric Capital Corporation (General Electric Company)
• Original Assignee: General Electric Capital Corporation (General Electric Company)
• Inventors: Chacko, Bobby J.
• Application Number:
  US09/961,763
• Publication Number:
  US 20030061154A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/39
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/04 Payment circuits
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/10 specially adapted for electronic funds transfer [EFT] systems; specially adapted for home banking systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/20 Point-of-sale [POS] network systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/24 Credit schemes, i.e. "pay after"
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3221 Access to banking information through M-devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/326 Payment applications installed on the mobile devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/342 Cards defining paid or billed services or quantities
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/425 using two different networks, one for transaction and one for security confirmation
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 7/025 by means, e.g. cards, providing billing information at the time of purchase, e.g. identification of seller or purchaser, quantity of goods delivered or to be delivered

Abstract

Systems and methods are provided to facilitate an acquisition of information associated with a requested financial account. According to one embodiment, application information is received from a wireless device located at a merchant'"'"'s premises, the application information being associated with a requested financial account. For example, a customer'"'"'s credit card application information may be received from a wireless PDA at a merchant'"'"'s store. It is then arranged for the application information to be provided to a remote decision system associated with the requested financial account. For example, the customer'"'"'s credit card application information may be transmitted to a system associated with a credit card company.

Claims

1. A method of facilitating an acquisition of information associated with a requested financial account, comprising:

receiving application information from a wireless device located at a merchant'"'"'s premises, the application information being associated with the requested financial account; and

arranging for the application information to be provided to a remote decision system associated with the requested financial account.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the application information is associated with a customer at the merchant'"'"'s premises.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the requested financial account is not directly associated with the merchant.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the application information is received from at least one of:

(i) a mobile device, (ii) a portable computing device, and (iii) a personal digital assistant.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said arranging comprises:

transmitting the application information to the decision system.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein said receiving and transmitting are performed by a forwarding server located at the merchant'"'"'s premises.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the forwarding server comprises at least one of:

(i) a portable computing device, and (ii) a laptop computer.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the forwarding server verifies that the application information is complete before transmitting the application information to the decision system.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein said receiving is performed via at least one of:

(i) a wireless network, (ii) a wireless local area network, (iii) an infrared network, (iv) a Bluetooth network, and (v) a cellular digital packet data network.

10. The method of claim 6, wherein said transmitting is performed via at least one of:

(i) a telephone network, (ii) an Internet protocol network, (iii) the Internet, (iv) a wide area wireless network, and (v) a cellular network.

11. The method of claim 6, wherein said receiving is performed via a wireless network and said transmitting is performed via a wired network.

12. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

formatting the application information before the application information is transmitted to the decision system.

13. The method of claim 6, wherein at least one of said receiving and transmitting are performed via an encryption process.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the application information comprises at least one of:

(i) a customer name, (ii) an customer address, (iii) a Social Security number, (iv) a communication address, (v) a financial account identifier, (vi) a requested amount of credit, (vii) a requested financial account type, (viii) an application time, (ix) an application date, (x) a date of birth, (xi) an address type, and (xii) an indication of another authorized financial account user.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving an application response from the decision system.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

forwarding the application response to the wireless device.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the application response comprises at least one of:

(i) an indication of acceptance, (ii) an indication of denial, (iii) a financial account number, (iv) terms and conditions associated with the financial account, (v) an effective date, (vi) an approved amount of credit, (vii) a financial account type, (viii) a communication address, and (ix) discount information.

18. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

formatting the application response before the application response is transmitted to the wireless device.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein the financial account comprises at least one of:

(i) a credit card account, (ii) a debit card account, and (iii) a banking account.

20. A computer-implemented method of facilitating an acquisition of information associated with a requested credit card account, comprising:

receiving application information from a mobile device via a wireless network at a location, the application information being associated with the requested credit card account;

verifying that the application information is complete at a forwarding server located at the location;

transmitting the application information to a remote decision system via a wired network, wherein the decision system (i) is associated with the requested credit card account and (ii) is not directly associated with the location;

receiving an application response from the decision system via the wired network; and

transmitting the application response to the mobile device via the wireless network.

21. A forwarding server, comprising:

a processor; and

a storage device in communication with said processor and storing instructions adapted to be executed by said processor to;

receive application information from a wireless device located at a merchant'"'"'s premises, the application information being associated with a requested financial account, and

arrange for the application information to be provided to a remote decision system associated with the requested financial account.

22. The forwarding server of claim 21, wherein said storage device further stores at least one of:

(i) an application information database, (ii) an application response database.

23. The forwarding server of claim 21, further comprising:

a communication device coupled to said processor and adapted to communicate with at least one of;

(i) a wireless device, (ii) a forwarding server, and (iii) a decision system.

24. A medium storing instructions adapted to be executed by a processor to perform a method of facilitating an acquisition of information associated with a requested financial account, said method comprising:

receiving application information from a wireless device located at a merchant'"'"'s premises, the application information being associated with the requested financial account; and

arranging for the application information to be provided to a remote decision system associated with the requested financial account.

25. A method of facilitating an acquisition of information associated with a requested financial account, comprising:

receiving application information from a customer;

transmitting the application information to a forwarding server via a wireless network, the forwarding server being in communication with a decision system; and

receiving an application response from the forwarding server via the wireless network, the application response being generated by the decision system.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein said receiving is performed via at least one of:

(i) a card reading device, and (ii) an electronic signature capturing device.

27. The method of claim 25, further comprising providing information to the customer via at least one of:

(i) a printing device, and (ii) a card generating device.

28. A wireless device, comprising:

a processor; and

a storage device in communication with said processor and storing instructions adapted to be executed by said processor to;

receive application information from a customer,

transmit the application information to a forwarding server via a wireless network, the forwarding server being in communication with a decision system, and

receive an application response from the forwarding server via the wireless network, the application response being generated by the decision system.

29. The wireless device of claim 28, further comprising a card reading device coupled to said processor.

30. The wireless device of claim 28, further comprising an electronic signature capturing device coupled to said processor.

31. The wireless device of claim 28, further comprising a printing device coupled to said processor.

32. The wireless device of claim 28, further comprising a card generating device coupled to said processor.