System and method for locking and unlocking a financial account card

• US 20070045403A1
• Filed: 08/31/2005
• Published: 03/01/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 08/31/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fidelity Information Services, LLC (Fidelity National Information Services Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Metavante Corporation (Fidelity National Information Services Incorporated)
• Inventors: Slonecker, David
• Granted Patent: US 7,383,988 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 235/380
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/354 Card activation or deactivation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/403 Solvency checks
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/02 Banking, e.g. interest calculation or account maintenance credit or loans G06Q40/03
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 7/08 by coded identity card or credit card or other personal identification means without personal verification means G07F7/02

Abstract

A system and method whereby a holder of a financial account card, such as a credit card or debit card, is able to disable and re-enable use of the card by locking and unlocking the card repeatedly. A request to lock or unlock a card may be provided by a variety of delivery channels, e.g., telephone, automated teller machine, or online, to a card processor. For a locking transaction the card processor saves the current operable status of the card and changes the status to locked. For an unlocking transaction the saved operable status of the card is restored. The changed locked or unlocked status of the card is reported by the card processor to companion systems and an audit record created.

Claims

1. A system for locking and unlocking a financial account card, comprising:

a card processor implemented in a computer system, coupled to a delivery channel, and adapted to

(a) receive card identifying information, a request to perform a card lock operation, and a request to perform a card unlock operation via the delivery channel;

(b) authenticate the card identifying information;

(c) in response to a request to perform a card lock operation to

(i) verify that the card to be locked currently is in an operable state;

(ii) save the operable state of the card;

(iii) lock the card by changing the current state of the card to a locked state whereby use of the card is prevented;

(d) in response to a request to perform a card unlock operation to

(iv) verify that the card to be unlocked currently is in a locked state;

(v) retrieve the saved operable state of the card;

(vi) unlock the card by changing the current state of the card to the retrieved saved operable state of the card; and

(e) send a response message via the delivery channel indicating that the request to perform a card lock operation or the request to perform a card unlock operation has been received.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the card processor is coupled to a delivery channel selected from the group of delivery channels consisting of a voice response unit (VRU), an automated teller machine (ATM), and a computer network online interface.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the card processor is adapted to receive card identifying information including a card number and other identifying information.

4. The system of claim 3 wherein the other identifying information is selected from the group of identifying information consisting of a personal identification number (PIN), a card verification value (CVV), and a card verification code (CVC).

5. The system of claim 3 wherein the card processor is adapted to authenticate the card identifying information by verifying that the received card number corresponds to the received other identifying information.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein the card processor is adapted to receive card identifying information identifying a financial account card selected from the group of financial account cards consisting of credit cards and debit cards.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein the card processor is adapted to lock the card by setting a locked/unlocked status code associated with the card number to a locked state and wherein the locked/unlocked status code is used only to indicate whether the card is locked or unlocked.

8. The system of claim 7 wherein the card processor is adapted to unlock the card by setting the locked/unlocked status code to an unlocked state.

9. The system of claim 1 wherein the card processor is adapted to send a message to at least one companion system informing the at least one companion system that the card has been locked or unlocked.

10. The system of claim 1 wherein the card processor is adapted to save an audit record of a requested card lock operation and of a requested card unlock operation.

11. A method implemented in a computer system of locking and unlocking a financial account card, comprising:

(a) receiving card identifying information and a request to perform a card lock operation or a request to perform a card unlock operation via a delivery channel;

(b) authenticating the card identifying information;

(c) in response to a request to perform a card lock operation

(i) verifying that the card to be locked currently is in an operable state;

(ii) saving the operable state of the card;

(iii) locking the card by changing the current state of the card to a locked state whereby use of the card is prevented;

(d) in response to a request to perform a card unlock operation

(iv) verifying that the card to be unlocked currently is in a locked state;

(v) retrieving the saved operable state of the card;

(vi) unlocking the card by changing the current state of the card to the retrieved saved operable state of the card; and

(e) sending a response message via the delivery channel indicating that the request to perform a card lock operation or the request to perform a card unlock operation has been received.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the delivery channel is selected from the group of delivery channels consisting of a voice response unit (VRU), an automated teller machine (ATM), and a computer network online interface.

13. The method of claim 11 wherein the card identifying information includes a card number and other identifying information.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein the other identifying information is selected from the group of identifying information consisting of a personal identification number (PIN), a card verification value (CVV), and a card verification code (CVC).

15. The method of claim 13 wherein authenticating the card identifying information includes verifying that the received card number corresponds to the received other identifying information.

16. The method of claim 11 wherein the card identifying information identifies a financial account card selected from the group of financial account cards consisting of credit cards and debit cards.

17. The method of claim 11 wherein locking the card includes setting a locked/unlocked status code associated with the card number to a locked state and wherein the locked/unlocked status code is used only to indicate whether the card is locked or unlocked.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein unlocking the card includes setting the locked/unlocked status code to an unlocked state.

19. The method of claim 11 comprising additionally sending a message to at least one companion system informing the at least one companion system that the card has been locked or unlocked.

20. The method of claim 11 comprising additionally saving in a database an audit record of a requested card lock operation and of a requested card unlock operation.

21. A method of locking and unlocking a financial account card, comprising:

(a) providing a card processor implemented in a computer system, coupled to a delivery channel, and adapted to receive card identifying information, a request to perform a card lock operation, and a request to perform a card unlock operation via the delivery channel, to authenticate the card identifying information, in response to a request to perform a card lock operation to

(i) verify that the card to be locked currently is in an operable state;

(ii) save the operable state of the card;

(iii) lock the card by changing the current state of the card to a locked state whereby use of the card is prevented; and

in response to a request to perform a card unlock operation to

(iv) verify that the card to be unlocked currently is in a locked state;

(v) retrieve the saved operable state of the card;

(vi) unlock the card by changing the current state of the card to the retrieved saved operable state of the card;

(b) requesting via a delivery channel that a card lock operation be performed by the card processor for a particular identified card;

(c) requesting via a delivery channel that a card unlock operation be performed by the card processor for the particular identified card; and

(d) making the requests of (b) and (c) in sequence repeatedly a plurality of times.

22. The method of claim 21 wherein the card processor is coupled to a plurality of different delivery channels and wherein requesting that a card lock operation be performed and requesting that a card unlock operation be performed are made via different delivery channels.