System and method for facilitating a subsidiary card account

• US 6,796,497 B2
• Filed: 04/23/2002
• Issued: 09/28/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 04/23/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Liberty Peak Ventures, LLC (Dominion Harbor Enterprises, LLC)
• Original Assignee: American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc. (American Express Company)
• Inventors: Rubinshtein, Tomer, Park, Grace, Benkert, Marc
• Primary Examiner(s): Le, Thien M.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Caputo, Lisa M
• Application Number:
  US10/128,949
• Publication Number:
  US 20030197058A1
• Time in Patent Office: 889 Days
• Field of Search: 235/379, 235/380, 705/44
• US Class Current: 235/380
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/227 characterised in that multiple accounts are available, e.g. to the payer
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/385 using an alias or single-use codes
• 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

Abstract

The present invention provides a system and method for providing a flexible limit subsidiary card account. In particular, the present provides a system and method for allowing a parent to provide funds to a subsidiary and to control the spending of subsidiary or spending capacity. The card account may be issued at the request of the parent who may retain the ability to define, modify, and/or terminate the spending and/or debt accumulation limits for the subsidiary card account as well as other features as described in the attached disclosure.

Claims

1. A method for facilitating the administration of a subsidiary credit card account comprising the steps of:

receiving a request from a parent for a subsidiary card account, said parent identifying a parent account, said parent account being a financial account controlled by the parent, the parent account having a parent spending power;

establishing a subsidiary card account having a subsidiary spending capacity; and

reducing said parent spending power by an amount less than said subsidiary spending capacity.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of modifying said subsidiary spending capacity in response to a request from said parent.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising the step of modifying said parent spending power based on a modification of the subsidiary spending capacity.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of determining a parent spending power for the parent card account and a subsidiary spending capacity for the subsidiary card account in accordance with a predetermined set of rules.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of tracking the spending of a subsidiary card account.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of limiting total spending facilitated by a subsidiary card account.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of limiting spending for a specific class of goods or services facilitated by a subsidiary card account.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of limiting spending at a specific class of merchants facilitated by a subsidiary card account.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of limiting spending at a specific merchant facilitated by a subsidiary card account.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of enforcing specific restrictions against a subsidiary card account, wherein the specific restrictions exist to condition the use of the parent account.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of accommodating an emergency transaction.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of generating a statement for a subsidiary card account.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of generating a statement for a parent account.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of terminating said subsidiary card account in response to a request from said parent.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein said subsidiary card account is configured to carry-over spending capacity from one cycle to the next.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein said subsidiary card account is configured to prevent carry-over of spending capacity from one cycle to the next.

17. A method for providing a plurality of subsidiary card accounts comprising the steps of:

receiving a request from a parent for a plurality of subsidiary card accounts, each of said subsidiary card accounts having a subsidiary spending capacity, said parent identifying a financial account controlled by a parent, the financial account having a parent spending power; and

reducing said parent spending power by an amount less than the sum of said subsidiary spending capacities of each of said subsidiary card accounts.

18. A system for administering a subsidiary card account having a subsidiary spending capacity, the system comprising an account administrator in communication with a transaction administrator, a settler, and a statement generator, the account administrator configured to receive a request from a parent having a parent account and to facilitate the establishment of one or more subsidiary card account by reducing said parent spending power by an amount less than said subsidiary spending capacity, the transaction administrator configured to facilitate transactions consuming said subsidiary spending capacity, the settler configured to facilitate providing a settling payment to a merchant, the statement generator configured to facilitate generating a parent account statement.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the account administrator is configured to facilitate adjustment of a parent spending power of said parent account and a subsidiary spending capacity of said subsidiary card account in accordance with a predetermined set of rules.

20. The system of claim 19, the predetermined set of rules configured to require an allocation of risk between the administrator and the parent, whereby said parent spending power account is reduced by an amount less than said subsidiary spending capacity.

21. The system of claim 18, wherein the account administrator is configured to facilitate execution of a request from a parent to modify said subsidiary spending capacity.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein the account administrator is further configured to facilitate modification of said parent spending power based on said subsidiary spending capacity.

23. The system of claim 18, wherein the account administrator is further configured to track the spending of a parent account and a subsidiary card account.

24. The system of claim 18, wherein the account administrator is further configured to place a hold on subsidiary card account if parent fails to remit payment as promised.

25. The system of claim 18, wherein the transaction administrator is configured to limit total spending facilitated by the subsidiary card account based on said subsidiary spending capacity.

26. The system of claim 18, wherein the transaction administrator is configured to limit spending for a specific class of goods or services.

27. The system of claim 18, wherein the transaction administrator is configured to limit spending at specific classes of merchants or service providers.

28. The system of claim 18, wherein the transaction administrator is configured to limit spending at specifically identified merchants or service providers.

29. The system of claim 18, wherein the transaction administrator is configured to enforce specific restrictions against a subsidiary card account, wherein the specific restrictions exist to condition the use of the parent account.

30. The system of claim 18, wherein the transaction administrator is configured to accommodate emergency transactions.

31. The system of claim 18, wherein the statement generator is configured to generate and dispatch a statement for each subsidiary card account.

32. The system of claim 18, wherein the settler is configured to arbitrate disputed transactions associated with subsidiary card account.