Purchasing Alert Methods And Apparatus

• US 20080010203A1
• Filed: 09/09/2005
• Published: 01/10/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 09/13/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Toronto-Dominion Bank
• Original Assignee: Toronto-Dominion Bank
• Inventors: Grant, David
• Granted Patent: US 8,311,941 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/044
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/102 Bill distribution or payments
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/227 characterised in that multiple accounts are available, e.g. to the payer
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/40 Authorisation, e.g. identification of payer or payee, verification of customer or shop credentials; Review and approval of payers, e.g. check credit lines or negative lists
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/405 Establishing or using transaction specific rules
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/42 Confirmation, e.g. check or permission by the legal debtor of payment
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/02 Banking, e.g. interest calculation or account maintenance credit or loans G06Q40/03
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/565 Conversion or adaptation of application format or content adding application control or application functional data H04L67/561
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/5651 Reducing the amount or size of exchanged application data
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 15/68 Payment of value-added services
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2215/0196 Payment of value-added services, mainly when their charges are added on the telephone bill, e.g. payment of non-telecom services, e-commerce, on-line banking

Abstract

Systems and techniques for receiving transaction information at an authentication system. The transaction information may be processed using different rule sets, based on the financial instrument used for the transaction (for example, a particular credit card, debit card, bank account, brokerage account, and the like). One or more alerts may be generated and communicated to the user. The alerts may be formatted based on user device configuration information, such as a cell phone type, email type, and the like.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving at an authentication system first transaction information generated by a first financial institution for a first financial instrument registered to a user;

processing the first transaction information using a first rule set comprising one or more pre-selected rules associated with the first financial instrument;

receiving at the authentication system second transaction information generated by a second different financial institution for a second different financial instrument registered to the user; and

processing the second transaction information using a second different rule set.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating a first alert including first transaction information, wherein generating the first alert comprises formatting the first alert based on user device configuration information indicative of at least one of a cell phone type and an email type associated with the user.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first transaction information comprises purchase information, and wherein the first financial instrument is a credit card, and wherein the second transaction information comprises withdrawal information, and wherein the second financial instrument is a debit card.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving at the authentication system transaction information for a plurality N transactions, wherein the first transaction information and the second transaction information is included in the transaction information; and

transmitting M alerts to the user, wherein M is less than N.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein processing the first transaction information using the first rule set comprises generating at least one communication to the user, and wherein the at least one communication comprises at least one of a cell phone text message, an email, and a voice message.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more pre-selected rules comprise at least one of a vendor-specific rule, a vendor-type rule, a geographic rule, and a transaction profile rule.

7. An article comprising a machine-readable medium embodying information indicative of instructions that when performed by one or more machines result in operations comprising:

receiving at an authentication system first transaction information from a first financial institution for a first financial instrument registered to a user;

processing the first transaction information using a first rule set comprising one or more pre-selected rules associated with the first financial instrument;

receiving at the authentication system second transaction information from a second different financial institution for a second different financial instrument registered to the user; and

processing the second transaction information using a second rule set.

8. The article of claim 7, further comprising:

generating a first alert including first transaction information, wherein generating the first alert comprises formatting the first alert based on user device configuration information indicative of at least one of a cell phone type and an email type associated with the user.

9. The article of claim 7, wherein the first transaction information comprises purchase information, and wherein the first financial instrument is a credit card, wherein the second financial instrument is a credit card, and wherein the first rule set is the same as the second rule set.

10. The article of claim 7, wherein processing the first transaction information using the first rule set comprises generating at least one communication to the user.

11. The article of claim 10, wherein the at least one communication comprises at least one of a cell phone text message, an email, and a voice message.

12. The article of claim 7, wherein the one or more pre-selected rules comprise at least one of a vendor-specific rule, a vendor-type rule, a geographic rule, and a transaction profile rule.

13. A system comprising:

an account registration system, the account registration system comprising information indicative of a user profile for a first user;

a financial an instrument registration system, the financial instrument registration system comprising information indicative of a plurality of financial instruments associated with the first user, the plurality of financial instruments including a first financial instrument of a first financial institution and a second financial instrument of a second different financial institution; and

a transaction alert system, the transaction alert system including information indicative of a first rule set associated with the first financial instrument and further including information indicative of a second rule set associated with the second financial instrument, wherein the first rule set is different than the second rule set.

14. The system of claim 13, further comprising an financial integration adapter configured to receive transaction information for a first transaction associated with the first financial instrument, the financial integration adapter further configured to associate the transaction information with an identifier of the first financial instrument.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the financial instrument has an associated account number with the first financial institution, and wherein the identifier is not an encrypted or un-encrypted account number.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the system does not store the encrypted or un-encrypted account number.

17. The system of claim 13, further comprising a response system configured to receive information indicative one or more responses from the first user, and further configured to reconcile the one or more responses with associated transaction information.

18. The system of claim 17, further comprising a transaction analysis and reporting module configured to receive the information indicative of the one or more responses and the associated transaction information, and further configured to generate reporting information based on at least some of the information indicative of the one or more responses and the associated transaction information.

19. The system of claim 13, wherein the transaction alert system is configured to generate a first alert formatted based on at least one of a user cell phone type and a user email type.

20. The system of claim 13, wherein the first rule set comprises at least one of a vendor-specific rule, a vendor-type rule, a geographic rule, and a transaction profile rule.

21. A method comprising:

receiving at an authentication system first transaction information generated by a first institution for a first instrument registered to a user;

processing the first transaction information using a first rule set comprising one or more pre-selected rules associated with the first instrument;

receiving at the authentication system second transaction information generated by a second different institution for a second different instrument registered to the user; and

processing the second transaction information using a second different rule set.