Lost credit card notification system and method

• US 20030217001A1
• Filed: 05/17/2002
• Published: 11/20/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 05/17/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: At&T Delaware Intellectual Property, Inc. (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Bellsouth Intellectual Property Corporation (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Koch, Robert A., Roberts, Linda A., McQuaide, A. C. Jr.
• Granted Patent: US 8,180,704 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/41
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/10 specially adapted for electronic funds transfer [EFT] systems; specially adapted for home banking systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/105 involving programming of a portable memory device, e.g. IC cards, "electronic purses"

Abstract

A system and method for notifying one or more credit card companies of lost or stolen credit cards relatively automatically upon noticing that the one or more credit cards are missing. A user profile is created and stored on a server computer system, wherein the user profile has user verification information, credit card account information and credit card company contact information, typically for each credit card owned by a particular user. Using the user profile, the server computer system receives a request to cancel one or more of the owner'"'"'s credit cards. The server computer system then communicates with each individual credit card company, relatively automatically, to notify of the loss. The communication may involve the request to cancel the credit card(s), as well as a request for a replacement credit card. Additionally, the owner may be notified by the server computer system that the request(s) have been made and/or by the credit card companies of the received request(s) and respective account status.

Claims

1. A method of notifying a credit card company of a missing credit card, the credit card owned by a credit card owner, the method comprising:

creating a profile, the profile comprising at least one identification value and account information for at least one credit, the at least one credit card being issued by the credit card company;

storing the profile on a server computer system;

receiving a notification request from a client computer system, the notification request identifying at least one credit card; and

automatically notifying the credit card company in response to receiving the notification request.

2. A method as defined in claim 1 further comprising canceling the credit card in response to the receiving the notification request.

3. A method as defined in claim 2 further comprising notifying the credit card owner of the cancellation.

4. A method as defined in claim 3 wherein the credit card owner is notified by email.

5. A method as defined in claim 3 wherein the credit card owner is notified by phone.

6. A method as defined in claim 3 wherein the credit card owner is notified by mail.

7. A method as defined in claim 1 further comprising freezing the credit card in response to the receiving the notification request.

8. A method as defined in claim 1 wherein the at least one identification value of the profile is a user name.

9. A method as defined in claim 1 wherein the at least one identification value of the profile is a user name and password.

10. A method as defined in claim 9 wherein the profile further comprises credit card company contact information.

11. A computer program product having computer-executable instructions for performing the steps recited in claim 9.

12. A method as defined in claim 1 wherein the method further comprises processing new account information in response to notifying the credit card company.

13. A computer program product having computer-executable instructions for performing the steps recited in claim 1.

14. A method of providing loss notifications to company computer systems, each loss notification identifies at least one user account controllable by the receiving company computer system and wherein each receiving company computer system modifies the account status upon receiving the loss notification, the method comprising:

storing a profile on a server computer system, the profile having user identification information and user account identification information, wherein at least one user account corresponds to the company computer system;

establishing a link between a client computer system and the server computer system;

accessing the profile stored on the server computer system;

upon accessing the profile, selecting one or more user accounts from the profile;

transmitting a request to the server computer system to notify the company computer system to modify the account status for the selected one or more user accounts.

15. A method as defined in claim 14 wherein the server computer system automatically notifies the associated company computer systems in response to receiving the request from the client computer system.

16. A method as defined in claim 14 wherein the company computer systems are credit card companies.

17. A method as defined in claim 14 wherein each company computer system may be associated with a company selected from the group of credit card company;

driver'"'"'s license company;

health club company;

airline company;

membership association;

retail company; and

hotel company.

18. A method as defined in claim 17 wherein each company computer system receiving a loss notification freezes the account and notifies the owner of the account of the frozen status.

19. A method as defined in claim 18 wherein the profile is downloaded to the server computer system from the client computer system.

20. A computer program product having computer-executable instructions for performing the steps recited in claim 14.

21. A computer system for notifying a credit card company of a missing credit card issued to an owner, the system comprising:

a server layer for receiving a request to notify the credit card company of the missing credit card, the request having owner identification information and information related to the credit card, the server layer comprising;

a profile database for storing profiles of a plurality of credit card profiles;

a cancellation module for processing a request to cancel the credit card; and

a communication module for communicating with a credit card server system, the credit card server system freezing the credit card upon notification of the missing credit card.

22. A computer system as defined in the claim 21 wherein the credit card server system further comprises a notification module for notifying the credit card owner of the status of the credit card account.

23. A computer system as defined in claim 22 wherein the notification module notifies the credit card owner independently.

24. A computer system as defined in claim 21 further comprising:

a profile setup module for creating a new profile.

25. A computer system as defined in claim 24, wherein the profile setup module modifies existing profiles.

26. A computer system as defined in claim 21 wherein the profile is downloaded from a client computer system.

27. A computer system as defined in claim 21 wherein the request to cancel the credit card comprises information related to multiple credit cards and the computer system automatically communicates with a plurality of credit card companies in response to the request to cancel the credit card.

28. A computer program product having stored thereon a profile data structure, the data structure comprising:

a user identification field for storing at least one user identification value; and

one or more user account fields for storing, each user account field storing information related to one user account, each user account field further comprising;

a company server computer system contact portion, the company server computer system contact portion used by a server computer system to contact the company server in response to a notification request.

29. A profile data structure as defined in claim 28 further comprising user contact information, wherein the user contact information is independent from a communication link used to supply the notification request.

30. A profile data structure as defined in claim 29 wherein the user account field comprises alias information identifying a predetermined user account, wherein the alias information is used only for freezing the associated user account.