Methods, transactional cards, and systems using account identifers customized by the account holder

• US 20070136193A1
• Filed: 12/13/2005
• Published: 06/14/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 12/13/2005
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Bellsouth Intellectual Property Corporation (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Starr, Robert
• Application Number:
  US11/301,916
• Publication Number:
  US 20070136193A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/41
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/105 involving programming of a portable memory device, e.g. IC cards, "electronic purses"
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/342 Cards defining paid or billed services or quantities
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/385 using an alias or single-use codes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/02 Banking, e.g. interest calculation or account maintenance credit or loans G06Q40/03
• 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

Account identifiers for accounts such as credit and debit accounts are customized by the account holder. The account identifiers may include both numerical and non-numerical characters. The account identifiers may include various combinations of letters and numbers and may include words or even phrases. The name of the account holder, the name of the bank associated with the account and associated card, words specifying the type of the account and card, arbitrary words chosen by the account holder, and others may be included in the account identifier. The account identifier is obtained during a transaction and is processed Such processing may include looking up the account identifier in a financial database that associates financial information of the account holder with the account identifier or by looking up the account identifier in a database that associates the account identifier to a standard numerical account number.

Claims

1. A transactional card, comprising:

a sheet of material;

an account identifier visible on a side of the sheet of material, wherein the account identifier has been customized by the account holder; and

a machine readable encoded area having the account identifier that has been customized by the account holder encoded thereon.

2. The transactional card of claim 1, wherein the account identifier includes numerical and non-numerical characters.

3. The transactional card of claim 2, wherein the account identifier includes words.

4. The transactional card of claim 3, wherein the account identifier includes an indication that the transactional card is for a credit account.

5. The transactional card of claim 3, wherein the account identifier includes an indication that the transactional card is for a debit account.

6. The transactional card of claim 3, wherein the account identifier includes an indication of a bank that is associated with the transactional card.

7. The transactional card of claim 3, wherein the words include a name of the card holder.

8. The transactional card of claim 1, wherein the encoded area comprises a magnetic strip having magnetically encoded thereon the account identifier that has been customized by the account holder.

9. The transactional card of claim 1, wherein the account identifier is encoded as ASCII character values.

10. A transactional processing system, comprising:

a transactional input device that receives an account identifier that has been customized by the account holder;

a network that is in communication with the transactional input device and that transfers the account identifier that has been customized by the account holder; and

a database that is in communication with the network and that relates account information to the account identifier that has been customized by the account holder, and wherein the database receives a query for the account identifier received through the network and returns the account information in response to the query.

11. The transactional processing system of claim 10, wherein the account identifier includes words.

12. The transactional processing system of claim 10, wherein the words include an indication of the type of transactional account and wherein the type of transactional account is one of credit and debit.

13. The transactional processing system of claim 11, wherein the words include an indication of a bank that is associated with the transactional account and wherein the account identifier is routed within the network to the database according to the indication of the bank.

14. The transactional processing system of claim 10, wherein the transactional input device comprises a card reader that reads a strip of a transactional card to obtain the account identifier that is encoded on the strip of the transactional card.

15. The transactional processing system, of claim 10 wherein the account information of the database is an exclusively numerical account number associated with the account identifier and wherein the account number includes non-numerical characters.

16. The transactional processing system of claim 15, further comprising a second database that associates financial information with the exclusively numerical account number.

17. A method of providing for customized account numbers for transactional accounts, comprising:

receiving a customized account identifier from an account holder;

associating the customized account identifier with account information that is located within a transactional database;

for a transaction, obtaining the account identifier that has been customized by the account holder; and

finding account information relevant to the transaction by looking up the account identifier in the transactional database.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the account information comprises at least one of a monetary amount of remaining credit and a monetary amount remaining in a debit account.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein obtaining the account identifier comprises reading a machine readable strip of a transactional card where the machine readable strip has the account identifier encoded thereon.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein the account information comprises an exclusively numerical account number associated with the account identifier, the method further comprising finding additional account information by looking up the exclusively numerical account number in a second database that associates the exclusively numerical account number with the additional account information.