Home asset management account

• US 7,860,792 B1
• Filed: 01/25/2008
• Issued: 12/28/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 02/07/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Wells Fargo Bank NA (Wells Fargo & Company)
• Original Assignee: Wells Fargo Bank NA (Wells Fargo & Company)
• Inventors: Epstein, Adam, Oakes, Doreen, Magruder, Brian
• Primary Examiner(s): Kramer; James
• Assistant Examiner(s): Maguire; Lindsay M.
• Application Number:
  US12/020,502
• Time in Patent Office: 1,068 Days
• Field of Search: 705/35, 705/36, 705/38, 705/41
• US Class Current: 705/41
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/105 involving programming of a portable memory device, e.g. IC cards, "electronic purses"
• 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 home asset management account system is provided that includes a first mortgage account and an equity line of credit (LOC), a periodic sweep feature between the first mortgage and equity LOC, a periodic property value review feature of the first mortgage, and a statement feature that provides a customer valuable information on the subject property estimated value and the relationship between the first mortgage and the equity LOC. The first mortgage and equity LOC, results from a proprietary automated decisioning/pricing system, the periodic sweep feature, the periodic property value review feature, and a unique statement feature are bundled into a financial package available for customers.

Claims

1. A process for managing home assets, the process comprising:

receiving, at a computer, a payment to a principal of a mortgage account of a customer; and

automatically performing, by the computer, a review process on an equity line of credit account of the customer, the review process determining whether the customer is eligible for an increase to a credit limit of the equity line of credit account, the review process identifying a current value of an asset that is mortgaged in the mortgage account and that acts as collateral for the equity line of credit account;

when a determination is made that the customer is eligible for the increase to the credit limit of the equity line of credit account, automatically increasing, by the computer, the credit limit of the equity line of credit account by an amount that the payment decreased the principal of the mortgage account, thereby making the amount that the payment decreased the principal of the mortgage account available for use by the customer through the equity line of credit account; and

automatically adjusting, by the computer, the credit limit of the equity line of credit account to reflect a difference between the current value of the asset and a value of the asset when the review process was previously performed on the equity line of credit account.

2. The process of claim 1, wherein performing the review process further comprises:

automatically determining, by the computer, whether the mortgage account is in a bankruptcy state;

automatically determining, by the computer, whether the mortgage account is in a foreclosure state; and

determining, by the computer, that the customer is eligible for the increase when a determination is made that the mortgage account is not in the bankruptcy state and is not in the foreclosure state.

3. The process of claim 1,

wherein the process further comprises, prior to automatically performing the review process, automatically determining, by the computer, whether a sufficient amount of time has passed after the payment was made to ensure that the payment will not be rejected for lack of sufficient funds;

and

wherein automatically performing the review process further comprises automatically performing, by the computer, the review process when a determination is made that the payment will not be rejected for lack of sufficient funds.

4. The process of claim 1,

wherein the process further comprises automatically determining, by the computer, whether the mortgage account has a non-zero balance;

and

wherein automatically performing the review process further comprises automatically, by the computer, performing the review process when a determination is made that the mortgage account has a non-zero balance.

5. The process of claim 1, wherein automatically performing the review process further comprises:

determining, by the computer, whether the equity line of credit account is current; and

determining, by the computer, that the customer is eligible for the increase to the credit limit of the equity line of credit account when the equity line of credit account is current.

6. The process of claim 5, wherein determining whether the equity line of credit account is current further comprises:

determining, by the computer, whether the payment was received prior to an expiration date of a grace period following a due date for the payment;

determining, by the computer, that the equity line of credit account is current when the payment was received prior to the expiration date of the grace period; and

determining, by the computer, that the equity line of credit account is not current when the payment was not received prior to the expiration date of the grace period.

7. The process of claim 1,

wherein automatically performing the review process further comprises automatically performing, by the computer, the review process whenever a predetermined amount of time has passed following a time when the review process was previously performed on the equity line of credit account;

and

wherein automatically increasing the credit limit of the equity line of credit account comprises each time the review process determines that the customer is eligible for an increase to the credit limit of the equity line of credit account, automatically increasing the credit limit by an amount that payments received during the predetermined amount of time have decreased the principal of the mortgage account, the payments being to the principal of the mortgage account.

8. The process of claim 7, wherein the predetermined amount of time is selected from a group of time periods that consists of:

one month, one quarter, and one year.

9. The process of claim 1, further comprising:

generating, by the computer, a record that indicates that the credit limit of the equity line of credit account was increased; and

enabling, by the computer, the customer to access the record.

10. The process of claim 1,

wherein the process further comprises receiving, by the computer, input from the customer, the input indicating whether the customer wants the credit limit of the equity line of credit account to be automatically increased;

and

wherein automatically performing the review process comprises automatically performing, by the computer, the review process when the input indicates that the customer wants credit limit of the equity line of credit account to be automatically increased.

11. The process of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, by the computer, input that requests a forced performance of the review process on the equity line of credit account; and

in response to the input, performing, by the computer, the review process on the equity line of credit account.

12. The process of claim 1, wherein automatically performing the review process comprises:

identifying, by the computer, a credit score of the customer; and

determining, by the computer, that the customer is eligible for the increase to the credit limit of the equity line of credit account when the credit score of the customer is above a predetermined threshold value.

13. The process of claim 1, wherein automatically performing the review process further comprises:

determining, by the computer, whether increasing the credit limit of the equity line of credit account by an amount that the payment decreased the principal of the mortgage account would cause a Combined Loan to Total Value (CLTV) level of the customer to exceed a predetermined threshold;

determining, by the computer, that the customer is eligible for the increase to the credit limit of the equity line of credit account by the amount that the payment decreased the principal of the mortgage account when a determination is made that increasing the credit limit of the equity line of credit account by the amount that the payment decreased the principal of the mortgage account would not cause the CLTV of the customer to exceed the predetermined threshold; and

determining, by the computer, that the customer is not eligible for the increase to the credit limit of the equity line of credit account by the amount that the payment decreased the principal of the mortgage account when a determination is made that increasing the credit limit of the equity line of credit account by the amount that the payment decreased the principal of the mortgage account would cause the CLTV of the customer to exceed the predetermined threshold.

14. The process of claim 13, wherein the process further comprises, in response to the determination that the customer is not eligible for the increase, increasing, by the computer, the credit limit of the equity line of credit account when the customer accepts a lien against an asset that serves as collateral for the equity line of credit account.

15. The process of claim 13, wherein the process further comprises, in response to the determination that the customer is not eligible for the increase, increasing, by the computer, the credit limit of the equity line of credit account when the customer acquires title insurance on an asset that serves as collateral for the equity line of credit account.

16. The process of claim 1, wherein the equity line of credit account is a renewable home equity line of credit account with convertibility features.