Method and apparatus for implementing an activity watch for financial accounts

• US 20070192247A1
• Filed: 02/01/2006
• Published: 08/16/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 02/01/2006
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Intuit, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Intuit, Inc.
• Inventors: West, Lawrence
• Application Number:
  US11/346,090
• Publication Number:
  US 20070192247A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/42
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/108 Remote banking, e.g. home banking
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/02 Banking, e.g. interest calculation or account maintenance credit or loans G06Q40/03

Abstract

One embodiment of the present invention provides a system that facilitates an “activity watch” operation on a financial account. During operation, the system receives records for transactions associated with the financial account. These records are received at a third-party server from a financial institution which maintains the financial account, wherein the third-party server is independent from the financial institution. Next, the system applies one or more rules to the records to determine whether an alert should be triggered. If a rule indicates that an alert should be triggered, the system sends the alert to a user who has an interest in the financial account.

Claims

1. A method for performing an activity watch operation on a financial account, comprising:

receiving records for transactions associated with the financial account;

wherein the records are received at a third-party server from a financial institution which maintains the financial account, wherein the third-party server is independent from the financial institution;

applying one or more rules to the records to determine whether an alert should be triggered; and

if a rule indicates that an alert should be triggered, sending the alert to a user who has an interest in the financial account.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein sending the alert to the user involves:

sending an email to the user;

sending a pager notification to the user;

sending a recorded telephone message to the user;

sending a facsimile to the user;

or

causing a human operator to contact the user.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein sending the alert to the user involves sending an escalating series of alerts to the user if the user does not respond to any of the alerts.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein sending the escalating series of alerts involves:

sending a low-level alert in the form of an email message; and

if the user does not respond to the low-level alert, sending a medium-level alert in the form of a pager notification or a recorded telephone message to the user; and

if the user does not respond to the medium-level alert, sending a high-level alert to the user by causing a human operator to telephone the user.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein after sending the alert, the method further comprises allowing the user to login to the third party server to obtain details about the one or more transactions that triggered the alert.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the records for the transactions involves:

obtaining account-access information from the user; and

using the account-access information to obtain the records for the transactions associated with the financial account from the financial institution.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises allowing the user to specify and/or modify the one or more rules that determine whether an alert should be triggered.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises using feedback about whether alerts are false positive alerts, true positive alerts, false negative alerts or true negative alerts, to update the one or more rules that determine whether an alert should be triggered.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises using an expert system (or neural network or other adaptive system) to adjust the one or more rules that determine whether an alert should be triggered based upon transaction history information associated with the user and/or similar users.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the records for the transactions involves receiving records for multiple financial accounts belonging to the user, wherein the multiple financial accounts are associated with multiple financial institutions.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the financial account can include:

a bank account;

a credit-card account; and

a credit report for the user.

12. A computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that when executed by a computer cause the computer to perform a method for performing an activity watch operation on a financial account, the method comprising:

receiving records for transactions associated with the financial account;

wherein the records are received at a third-party server from a financial institution which maintains the financial account, wherein the third-party server is independent from the financial institution;

applying one or more rules to the records to determine whether an alert should be triggered; and

if a rule indicates that an alert should be triggered, sending the alert to a user who has an interest in the financial account.

13. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein sending the alert to the user involves:

sending an email to the user;

sending a pager notification to the user;

sending a recorded telephone message to the user;

sending a facsimile to the user;

or

causing a human operator to contact the user.

14. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein sending the alert to the user involves sending an escalating series of alerts to the user if the user does not respond to any of the alerts.

15. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein sending the escalating series of alerts involves:

sending a low-level alert in the form of an email message; and

if the user does not respond to the low-level alert, sending a medium-level alert in the form of a pager notification or a recorded telephone message to the user; and

if the user does not respond to the medium-level alert, sending a high-level alert to the user by causing a human operator to telephone the user.

16. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein after sending the alert, the method further comprises allowing the user to login to the third party server to obtain details about the one or more transactions that triggered the alert.

17. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein receiving the records for the transactions involves:

obtaining account-access information from the user; and

using the account-access information to obtain the records for the transactions associated with the financial account from the financial institution.

18. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the method further comprises allowing the user to specify and/or modify the one or more rules that determine whether an alert should be triggered.

19. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the method further comprises using feedback about whether alerts are false positive alerts, true positive alerts, false negative alerts or true negative alerts, to update the one or more rules that determine whether an alert should be triggered.

20. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the method further comprises using an expert system (or neural network or other adaptive system) to adjust the one or more rules that determine whether an alert should be triggered based upon transaction history information associated with the user and/or similar users.

21. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein receiving the records for the transactions involves receiving records for multiple financial accounts belonging to the user, wherein the multiple financial accounts are associated with multiple financial institutions.

22. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the financial account can include:

a bank account;

a credit-card account; and

a credit report for the user.

23. An apparatus that performs an activity watch operation on a financial account, comprising:

an receiving mechanism configured to receive records for transactions associated with the financial account;

wherein the records are received at a third-party server from a financial institution which maintains the financial account, wherein the third-party server is independent from the financial institution; and

an alert-triggering mechanism configured to,

apply one or more rules to the records to determine whether an alert should be triggered, and

if a rule indicates that an alert should be triggered, to send the alert to a user who has an interest in the financial account.