INSTANT BANK ACCOUNT VERIFICATION THROUGH DEBIT CARD NETWORK

• US 20120310828A1
• Filed: 06/01/2011
• Published: 12/06/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 06/01/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: PayPal, Inc. (PayPal Holdings, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: eBay Inc.
• Inventors: Hu, Qilin
• Granted Patent: US 10,846,789 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/44
• 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

A bank account can be authenticated or confirmed by a user providing an account number and a debit card number. The payment provider then obtains user account information from the bank through a debit card network. The payment provider authenticates the account if the account numbers match. In another embodiment, authentication further requires a portion of a current bank balance in the account provided by the user to match the current balance received from the bank.

Claims

1. A method of authenticating an account with a financial institution, comprising:

receiving, by a processor of a payment provider and from a user, an account number with the financial institution;

receiving, by the processor and from the user, a debit card number associated with the account number;

receiving, by the processor and from the financial institution, information about the account number; and

authenticating the account if the account number received from the user matches the account number information received from the financial institution.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, by the processor and from the user, current account balance information; and

receiving, by the processor and from the financial institution, information about the current account balance, wherein the authenticating further requires the current account balance information received from the user to match the current account balance information received from the financial institution.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the current account balance information is the decimal portion of the current account balance.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein matching comprises matching the last four digits of the account number.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the information received from the financial institution is through a debit card network.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the information received about the account number from the financial institution is a portion of the account number.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the portion is the last four digits of the account number.

8. The method of claim 2, wherein the current account balance information is a portion of the current account balance.

9. A non-transitory machine-readable medium comprising a plurality of machine-readable instructions which when executed by one or more processors of a server are adapted to cause the server to perform a method of authenticating an account with a financial institution comprising:

receiving, by a payment provider and from a user, an account number with the financial institution;

receiving, from the user, a debit card number associated with the account number;

receiving, from the financial institution, information about the account number; and

authenticating the account if the account number received from the user matches the account number information received from the financial institution.

10. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 9, wherein the method further comprises:

receiving, from the user, current account balance information; and

receiving, from the financial institution, information about the current account balance, wherein the authentication further requires the current account balance information received from the user to match the current account balance information received from the financial institution.

11. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 10, wherein the current account balance information is the decimal portion of the current account balance.

12. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 10, wherein matching comprises matching the last four digits of the account number.

13. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 9, wherein the information received from the financial institution is through a debit card network.

14. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 9, wherein the information received about the account number from the financial institution is a portion of the account number.

15. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 14, wherein the portion is the last four digits of the account number.

16. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 10, wherein the current account balance information is a portion of the current account balance.

17. A method for confirming a bank account, comprising:

receiving, by a processor of a payment provider and from a user, an account number with the bank;

receiving, by the processor and from the user, a debit card number associated with the account number;

receiving, by the processor and from the bank, information about the account number based on the debit card number;

determining whether the account number received from the user matches the information about the account number received from the bank; and

confirming the bank account if the determining step results in a match.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

receiving, by the processor and from the user, current account balance information;

receiving, by the processor and from the bank, information about the current account balance based on the debit card number;

determining whether the current account balance information received from the user matches the information about the current account balance received from the bank, wherein the confirming further requires the current account balance information received from the user to match the information about the current account balance received from the bank.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the current account balance information is the decimal portion of the current account balance.

20. The method of claim 17, the information about the account number received from the bank is the last four digits of the account number.