Systems and methods for facilitating budgeting transactions

• US 7,904,385 B2
• Filed: 09/30/2008
• Issued: 03/08/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 11/05/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Liberty Peak Ventures, LLC (Dominion Harbor Enterprises, LLC)
• Original Assignee: American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc. (American Express Company)
• Inventors: Thomas, Tracey R., Sharma, Bansi L., Bishop, Fred
• Primary Examiner(s): PATEL, JAGDISH
• Application Number:
  US12/242,812
• Publication Number:
  US 20090048951A1
• Time in Patent Office: 889 Days
• Field of Search: 705/38, 705/39
• US Class Current: 705/39
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/10 specially adapted for electronic funds transfer [EFT] systems; specially adapted for home banking systems
• 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 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/03 Credit; Loans; Processing thereof
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/12 Accounting

Abstract

A financial account issuer facilitating transactions between accounts is disclosed. The invention provides sellers with an irrevocable method of receiving funds from a purchaser and for improving purchaser willingness to transact with an unknown party. The invention also includes the options of interest payments, the use of different account issuers, different financial accounts, budget transfers, spend compartmentalization, cost-splitting, adjusting credit limits, loans, gifting, intermediary facilitating the transaction, transaction tracking, rapid funds availability, confidential transfer of funds, immediate initiation of shipment by a seller, releasing funds to a seller only after approval of the goods, services, or other value, demonstrating proof of payment, and recourse against a remote seller.

Claims

1. A method for a financial account issuer server to facilitate a transaction for at least one of budgeting or spend compartmentalization, the method comprising:

receiving, by the financial account issuer server, a request to debit a first amount from a first financial category sub-account associated with a first financial account having a first identifier, wherein the financial account issuer server issued the first financial account, and wherein the request to debit relates to the at least one of budgeting or spend compartmentalization;

verifying, by the financial account issuer server, availability of the first amount in the first financial category sub-account for completing the transaction;

receiving, by the financial account issuer server, a request to credit at least a portion of the first amount to a second financial category sub-account associated with a second financial account having a second identifier, wherein the first financial account and second financial account are owned by the same customer, and wherein the request to credit relates to the at least one of budgeting or spend compartmentalization;

determining, by the financial account issuer server, if the request to debit the first financial account and the request to credit the second financial account are fraudulent based upon a fraud analysis routine, wherein the fraud analysis routine analyzes predetermined criteria associated with the request to debit, the request to credit, the first financial account and the second financial account;

debiting, by the financial account issuer server, the first amount from the first financial category sub-account associated with the first financial account, if the request to debit the first financial account is not fraudulent; and

crediting, by the financial account issuer server, at least the portion of the first amount to the second financial category sub-account associated with the second financial account, if the request to credit the second financial account is not fraudulent.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the financial account issuer server issues at least one of the first financial account or the second financial account in response to at least one of the request to debit or the request to credit.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the financial account issuer server issues the first financial account by:

receiving, by the financial account issuer server, a first application for the first financial account from a first party, wherein the first application comprises fields which include first financial account information relating to the first financial account and transaction management information relating to facilitating the transaction;

analyzing, by the financial account issuer server, the first financial account information to determine that the first party is eligible for the first financial account;

determining, by the financial account issuer server, that the first party is eligible for the first financial account based on credit information relating to the first party;

facilitating, by the financial account issuer server, creation of the first financial account for the first party, wherein the first party is eligible for the first financial account and, wherein the first financial account includes a first financial account identifier for identifying the first financial account associated with the first party;

analyzing, by the financial account issuer server, the transaction management information to determine that the first party is eligible to participate in the transaction;

determining, by the financial account issuer server, that the first party is eligible to participate in the transaction based on a fraud risk analysis of the first party; and

,

facilitating, by the financial account issuer server, a registration of the first party to participate in the transaction of the financial account issuer server, wherein the first party is eligible to participate in the transaction and, wherein the registration includes a first party identifier for identifying the first party for the transaction.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the facilitating debiting comprises accessing the first financial account using the first identifier, and wherein the crediting comprises accessing the second financial account using the second identifier, and wherein at least one of the first identifier or the second identifier is at least one of a proxy number, a limited-use number and a single use number.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the debiting comprises accessing the first financial account using the first identifier, and wherein the crediting comprises accessing the second financial account using the second identifier, and wherein at least one of the first identifier or the second identifier includes restrictions.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the debiting comprises accessing the first financial account using the first identifier, and wherein the crediting comprises accessing the second financial account using the second identifier, and wherein at least one of the first identifier or the second identifier is selected from a pool of limited use account identifiers.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the debiting comprises accessing the first financial account using the first identifier, and wherein the crediting comprises accessing the second financial account using the second identifier, and wherein at least one of the first identifier or the second identifier is selected from a pool of limited use account identifiers that correspond to a master account, prior to a purchase by the client.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the debiting comprises accessing the first financial account using the first identifier, and wherein the crediting comprises accessing the second financial account using the second identifier, and wherein at least one of the first identifier or the second identifier are associated with pre-authorization and conformance with account transaction limitations.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the debiting comprises accessing the first financial account using the first identifier, and wherein the crediting comprises accessing the second financial account using the second identifier, and wherein at least one of the first identifier or the second identifier is associated with a pre-authorization record.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the debiting comprises accessing the first financial account using the first identifier, and wherein the crediting comprises accessing the second financial account using the second identifier, and wherein at least one of the first identifier or the second identifier is selected from a pool of limited use account identifiers associated with a transaction facilitator associated with the transaction, wherein the transaction facilitator acts as an intermediary between a first party and a second party.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving an initial authorization request, the initial authorization request including information identifying the transaction including information identifying a second party, the first account identifier and the first amount;

identifying a pre-authorization record associated with the first account identifier and determining that the transaction amount complies with authorization criteria in the pre-authorization record; and

,

analyzing the transaction information to determine if the transaction involves a partial shipment.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying a first authorization request that involved the first account identifier, where the first authorization request was declined for a first transaction for failing to comply with at least one of an account-level and a corporate-level restriction on use associated with the first account identifier;

creating, in response to the declined first authorization request, a manual authorization record for the first account identifier and the first transaction based on information from the first authorization request, and

temporarily overriding the at least one of an account-level and a corporate-level restriction on use and allowing approval of a second authorization request involving the first account identifier and a second transaction that complies with terms of the manual authorization record, including matching information from the first authorization request.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising at least one of postal tracking and issuance of insurance associated with an item exchanged between a first party associated with the first financial account and a second party associated with the second financial account.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising at least one of the crediting or the debiting in response to tracking information from a shipping company.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising communicating with an automated clearinghouse (ACH) to facilitate at least one of the debiting or the crediting.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the debiting comprises accessing the first financial account using the first identifier, and wherein the crediting comprises accessing the second financial account using the second identifier, wherein at least one of the first identifier or the second identifier maintains at least a portion of the anonymity of the account.

17. The method of claim 1, further comprising analyzing, by the financial account issuer server, information associated with at least one of the first financial account and the second financial account, wherein the information comprises at least one of name, address, demographic information, social security number, telephone number, account number, account expiration date, personal identification number, date of birth, mother'"'"'s maiden name, spending habit information, billing history information, credit history information, purchaser identity information, or purchaser financial account identification information.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein a second financial account issuer issued the second financial account, wherein the second financial account issuer is different from a first financial account issuer associated with the first financial account issuer server.

19. An article of manufacture including a non-transitory, tangible computer-readable medium having stored thereon a plurality of instructions for a financial account issuer server to facilitate a transaction for at least one of budgeting or spend compartmentalization that, in response to execution by the financial account issuer server, cause the financial account issuer server to perform operations comprising:

receiving, by the financial account issuer server, a request to debit a first amount from a first financial category sub-account associated with a first financial account having a first identifier, wherein the financial account issuer server issued the first financial account, and wherein the request to debit relates to the at least one of budgeting or spend compartmentalization;

verifying, by the financial account issuer server, availability of the first amount in the first financial category sub-account for completing the transaction;

receiving, by the financial account issuer server, a request to credit at least a portion of the first amount to a second financial category sub-account associated with a second financial account having a second identifier, wherein the first financial account and second financial account are owned by the same customer, and wherein the request to credit relates to the at least one of budgeting or spend compartmentalization;

determining, by the financial account issuer server, if the request to debit the first financial account and the request to credit the second financial account are fraudulent based upon a fraud analysis routine, wherein the fraud analysis routine analyzes pre-determined criteria associated with the request to debit, the request to credit, the first financial account and the second financial account;

debiting, by the financial account issuer server, the first amount from the first financial category sub-account associated with the first financial account, if the request to debit the first financial account is not fraudulent; and

crediting, by the financial account issuer server, at least the portion of the first amount to the second financial category sub-account associated with the second financial account, if the request to credit the second financial account is not fraudulent.