System for automatically transferring account information, such as information regarding a financial services account

• US 20060116949A1
• Filed: 01/13/2006
• Published: 06/01/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 06/18/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: JP Morgan Chase Bank, N.A. (JP Morgan Chase & Co)
• Original Assignee: WMI Holdings Corporation
• Inventors: Cunningham, Gregory L., Lux, Scott A., Boyles, Helen P., Blair, Jeanne, Jacobson, Tara L., Gradwohl, Jeffrey J., Dickinson, Steven J., Stoll, Audra K., Houssiere, Christian, Wehunt, Nathan P.
• Granted Patent: US 7,844,519 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/35
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; 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 20/102 Bill distribution or payments
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/02 Banking, e.g. interest calculation or account maintenance credit or loans G06Q40/03
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/03 Credit; Loans; Processing thereof

Abstract

A system for transferring a customer'"'"'s account information from one account to a new account is described. The system utilizes a switch kit application and associated system that can determine services at the old account and facilitate the transfer of these services to the new account.

Claims

1. A method in a computing system for facilitating the transfer of information to a user account, the method comprising:

automatically accessing data associated with at least one previous electronic account held by a user, wherein the electronic account is associated with the user'"'"'s account with a first financial institution;

automatically querying the previous electronic account for information related to the user'"'"'s account;

automatically capturing at least some of the information related to the user'"'"'s account stored in the previous electronic account;

automatically transmitting the captured information into a new electronic account held by the user, wherein the new electronic account is associated with a second financial institution unrelated to the first financial institution; and

automatically updating the new electronic account based on the captured information.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein transmitting the captured information further comprises migrating transaction services including electronic bill reception, transfers, or alerts to the new electronic account;

and

upon migrating, generating reports containing information about the migration of transaction services to the new electronic account, and

wherein the reports include exception information generated for transactions that do not meet predefined criteria, and

wherein the method comprises prompting the user for instructions regarding exception information for transactions that do not meet predefined criteria.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising automatically identifying masked or incomplete information from the previous electronic account and automatically prompting the customer to provide additional information in response thereto.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising automatically receiving data from other data sources, wherein the other data sources include personal financial management data, credit reports, or publicly available information.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

automatically migrating automatic electronic transaction services from the previous electronic account to the new electronic account, and automatically canceling the migrated automatic electronic transaction services with respect to the previous electronic account.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising migrating automatic transaction services to the new electronic account, and automatically notifying the user of a status of the previous electronic account after the migrating.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising automatically migrating electronic transaction services to the new electronic account, and monitoring at least one of the previous electronic accounts held by the user.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising automatically accessing data associated with multiple previous electronic accounts associated with the user, and automatically capturing at least some of the information related to the multiple previous electronic accounts.

9. A system for facilitating transfers of information from an old account to a new account, the system comprising:

a connection subsystem, the connection subsystem configured to access, over at least one network, an old electronic account of a customer of a previous financial services institution;

a data gathering subsystem, the data gathering subsystem configured to gather, from the old electronic account, information related to transactions associated with the old electronic account; and

a transfer subsystem, coupled among the connection subsystem and the data gathering subsystem, wherein the transfer subsystem is configured to transfer at least some of the gathered information to a new electronic account established for a customer, wherein the new electronic account is associated with another financial services institution that is independent from the previous financial services institution.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the data gathering subsystem is further configured to capture online or electronic documents associated with the customer from the old electronic account, and wherein the transfer subsystem is further configured to transfer the online or electronic documents to an electronic storage facility associated with the customer.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the connection subsystem includes an interactive voice response facility to interact automatically with an interactive voice response system of the previous financial services institution.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein the connection subsystem employs customer provided credentials or ancillary credential information to connect to the old electronic account.

13. The system of claim 9, wherein the old electronic account comprises at least one of a bank account, a brokerage account, a credit card account, and an online payment service account.

14. The system of claim 9, wherein the data gathering subsystem receives a data message from a third party vendor or merchant, and wherein the data message identifies a certain transactional service to be switched from the old to the new account of the customer.

15. The system of claim 9, wherein the data gathering subsystem gathers data from a third party financial data aggregation data store to obtain data associated with at least one old account attributed to the customer.

16. The system of claim 9, wherein the information related to the customer comprises transaction services performed under the old account of the customer.

17. The system of claim 9, wherein the information related to the customer comprises transaction services performed by the old account of the customer, including automatic bill payments, scheduled monetary transfers, or electronic bill data.

18. The system of claim 9, wherein the information related to the customer comprises transaction services performed under the old account of the customer, and wherein the services performed including payments made by credit cards or debit cards associated with the old account of the customer.

19. The system of claim 9, wherein the data gathering system gathers ancillary information including savings account interest rate, certificate of deposit maturity date, or loan rate associated with the customer and the previous financial services institution, and wherein the system is further configured to provide the customer with competitive alternatives in relation to the savings account interest rate, certificate of deposit maturity date, or loan rate.

20. The system of claim 9, wherein the information comprises account set-up preference information, or alert information.

21. The system of claim 9 wherein the data gathering subsystem includes at least one facility for screen scraping, speech recognition, or optical character recognition to gather the information.

22. A computer-readable medium whose contents cause at least one data processing device to facilitate automatic transfers of information from one account held by a user to another account held by a user over at least one network, the method comprising:

accessing at least a first financial account held by the user, wherein the first financial account includes electronic transactional services information for permitting electronic exchange of financial data, over the network, with respect to the first financial account;

automatically determining transactional services related to the transactional services information; and

, automatically transferring transactional services information for determined transactional services to a second financial account held by the user to permit the second account to electronically exchange financial data, over the network, with respect to the second account, and wherein the first and second financial accounts are respectively associated with two different and competing companies.

23. The computer-readable medium of claim 22 wherein the computer-readable medium is a logical node in a computer network receiving the contents.

24. The computer-readable medium of claim 22 wherein the computer-readable medium is a computer-readable disk.

25. The computer-readable medium of claim 22 wherein the computer-readable medium is a data transmission medium carrying a generated data signal containing the contents.

26. The computer-readable medium of claim 22 wherein the computer-readable medium is a memory of a computer system.

27. A system for establishing aspects of a new electronic account for a user, the system comprising:

information gathering means for gathering information for a first pecuniary account associated with the user, wherein the first pecuniary account is also associated with a first financial institution;

an automated switch kit means for automatically setting up at least some electronic transaction information from the first pecuniary account in a second pecuniary account, wherein the second pecuniary account if for the user and is associated with another financial institution; and

report means for creating at least one electronic message related to electronic payments, electronic monetary transfers, or system alerts associated with the second pecuniary account.

28. The system of claim 27 wherein the report means includes notification means for electronically notifying the user of at least one of:

a status of the first pecuniary account, a need for credentials information, a status of at least one electronic transfer, a status of at least one electronic bill pay, or a status of the second pecuniary account.

29. A method in a computing system for facilitating the transfer of information to a user account, the method comprising:

automatically accessing data associated with at least one previous electronic account held by a user, wherein the electronic account is associated with the user and is associated with a first financial institution;

automatically querying the previous electronic account for information;

automatically gathering at least some of the information related from the previous electronic account;

automatically forwarding the captured information for insertion into appropriate data fields of a new electronic account for the user, wherein the new electronic account is associated with a second financial institution unrelated to the first financial institution.

30. The method of claim 29, wherein the method further comprises:

obtaining from the user a user ID and password associated with the previous electronic account; and

providing to the first financial institution the user ID, the password, and any ancillary credentials necessary for accessing the previous electronic account.