FIRM OFFERS OF CREDIT SYSTEM

• US 20090182661A1
• Filed: 01/15/2009
• Published: 07/16/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 01/16/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Directmailers, Richard F. Irwin, Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Directmailers
• Inventors: Irwin, Richard F.
• Granted Patent: US 8,868,457 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/38
• 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 computer-implemented method for providing firm offers of credit to a consumer includes receiving consumer information from a consumer via a network, receiving a selection via the network from the consumer to permit at least one soft credit inquiry of the consumer'"'"'s credit record, submitting a soft credit inquiry to a credit reporting agency, the soft credit inquiry based on the consumer information, receiving at least one firm offer of credit from the credit reporting agency, the firm offer of credit resulting from the credit reporting agency performing the soft credit inquiry on the consumer'"'"'s credit record, each firm offer of credit provided by a credit issuer; and providing the at least one firm offer of credit to the consumer via the network.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for providing firm offers of credit to a consumer comprising:

receiving consumer information from a consumer via a network;

receiving, via the network from the consumer, a selection to permit at least one soft credit inquiry of the consumer'"'"'s credit record;

submitting a soft credit inquiry to a credit reporting agency, the soft credit inquiry based on the consumer information;

receiving at least one firm offer of credit from the credit reporting agency, the firm offer of credit resulting from the credit reporting agency performing the soft credit inquiry on the consumer'"'"'s credit record, each firm offer of credit provided by a credit issuer; and

providing the at least one firm offer of credit to the consumer via the network.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, from the consumer via the network, a selection of firm offer of credit selected from at least one firm offer of credit for which the consumer is preapproved; and

transmitting the terms of the selected firm offer of credit to the consumer via the network.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a selection from the consumer via the network to accept one of the at least one firm offer of credit to obtain an accepted firm offer of credit.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 3, further comprising:

forwarding to the credit issuer associated with the accepted firm offer of credit via the network information on the consumer and the accepted firm offer of credit.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 4, wherein the credit issuer associated with the accepted firm offer of credit performs a hard credit inquiry on the consumer.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein receiving consumer information from the consumer comprises:

providing the consumer with a network address and an identifying character string;

providing to the consumer consumer personal information based on the network address and identifying character string; and

receiving updated consumer personal information from the consumer.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein the consumer is provided with the network address and the identifying character string by a mail piece.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein submitting the soft credit inquiry to the credit reporting agency information comprises:

sending to the credit reporting agency at least a portion of the consumer'"'"'s consumer information; and

sending to the credit reporting agency the consumer'"'"'s selection to permit at least one soft credit inquiry of the consumer'"'"'s credit record; and

performing at the credit reporting agency a soft inquiry on the consumer'"'"'s credit record.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 8, further comprising:

comparing at the credit reporting agency the results of the soft inquiry on the consumer'"'"'s credit record against at least one cascade from at least one credit issuer; and

compiling at the credit reporting agency the at least one firm offer of credit for which the consumer is preapproved.

10. A computer-implemented method for providing firm offers of credit to a consumer comprising:

receiving via a network from a credit arranger consumer information of a consumer and a consumer selection to permit a soft credit inquiry;

performing a soft credit inquiry on credit history of the consumer based on the consumer information;

comparing the results of the soft credit inquiry on the credit record of the consumer against at least one cascade from at least one credit issuer to obtain a comparison result;

compiling a list of a plurality of firm offers of credit for which the consumer is preapproved based on the comparison result; and

transmitting via the network to the credit arranger at least one firm offer of credit for which the consumer is preapproved.

11. A system for providing firm offers of credit to a consumer comprising:

a credit arranger computer system adapted to receive consumer information from a consumer via a network, receive a selection to permit a soft credit inquiry from the consumer via the network, transmit the consumer information to a credit reporting agency, receive at least one firm offer of credit from the credit reporting agency, and transmit the at least one firm offer of credit to the consumer via the network.

12. The system of claim 11, further comprising:

a credit reporting agency adapted to receive the consumer information via the network from the credit arranger, perform a soft inquiry based on the consumer information to obtain a soft inquiry result, identify at the least one firm offer of credit based on the consumer information and the soft inquiry result, and transmit the at least one firm offer of credit to the credit arranger.

13. A computer-readable medium comprising instructions, which when executed by a computer system causes the computer system to perform operations for providing firm offers of credit to a consumer, comprising:

instructions for receiving consumer information from a consumer via a network;

instructions for receiving a selection via the network from the consumer to permit at least one soft credit inquiry of the consumer'"'"'s credit record;

instructions for submitting a soft credit inquiry to a credit reporting agency, the soft credit inquiry based on the consumer information;

instructions for receiving at least one firm offer of credit from the credit reporting agency, the firm offer of credit resulting from the credit reporting agency performing the soft credit inquiry on the consumer'"'"'s credit record, each firm offer of credit provided by a credit issuer; and

instructions for providing the at least one firm offer of credit to the consumer via the network.