Online credit card prescreen systems and methods

• US 8,027,888 B2
• Filed: 09/29/2006
• Issued: 09/27/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 08/31/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: CPL Assets LLC
• Original Assignee: Experian Interactive Innovation Center, LLC (Experian plc)
• Inventors: Chandran, Rohan K. K., Mendelovich, Shawn, Rodenbusch, Richard
• Primary Examiner(s): SHEIKH, ASFAND M
• Application Number:
  US11/537,330
• Publication Number:
  US 20080059317A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,824 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 705/30
• CPC Class Codes: A61P 37/00 Drugs for immunological or allergic disorders
• CPC Class Codes: A61P 37/06 Immunosuppressants, e.g. drugs for graft rejection
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/20 Point-of-sale [POS] network systems
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/12 Accounting

Abstract

In one embodiment, prescreened credit card offers, which are associated with credit cards that a particular borrower would be accepted upon application with the respective issuer, are provided to a borrower via a prescreen provider website and/or a referrer website. In one embodiment, a referrer provides borrower information to a prescreen provider. The prescreen provider initiates and/or performs a prescreening process, which includes accessing credit related information regarding the borrower. The prescreen provider matches the borrower with one or more credit cards that the borrower would like be accepted for, and provides a prescreened offer document to the referrer, or an Internet address of the prescreened offer document. The referrer may then provide the borrower with the prescreened credit card offers by presenting the prescreened offer document to the borrower. The prescreened credit card offers may additionally be filtered according to issuer criteria, referrer criteria, and/or borrower preferences.

Claims

1. A method of prescreening a potential borrower for each of a plurality of credit card offers, the plurality of credit card offers comprising at least a first credit card offer associated with a first lender and a second credit card offer associated with a second lender, the method comprising:

receiving at a first computing system comprising one or more computing devices borrower information associated with a borrower, wherein the borrower information is not sufficient to complete an application for a credit card and comprises a first name, a last name, and one or more of;

a street address, a city, a state, and a zip code, wherein the borrower information is received via one or more networks from a third-party referrer computing system that receives the borrower information from a borrower computing system operated by the borrower;

transmitting the borrower information from the first computing system to a prescreened offer source computing system configured to access credit data related to the borrower and determine zero or more prescreened credit card offers indicating credit cards that the borrower would likely be accepted for by the respective issuer;

receiving from the prescreened offer source computing system information regarding the zero or more prescreened credit card offers;

in response to receiving one or more prescreened credit card offers,

generating at the first computing system a browser-viewable prescreened offer document comprising information regarding at least one of the prescreened credit card offers, the prescreened offer document comprising a link associated with each prescreened offer, wherein the links are associated with browser-viewable documents that allow the borrower to apply for respective prescreened offers,

storing the prescreened offer document at a network location accessible to the third-party referrer computing system, wherein a filename of the stored prescreened offer document is determined based on a predefined format so that the third-party referrer computing system can access the prescreened offer document without receiving the filename from the first computing system, and

transmitting the prescreened offer document, a link to the prescreened offer document, or an indication that the prescreened offer document has been stored at the network location to the third-party referrer computing system for access by the borrower computing system; and

in response to receiving zero prescreened credit card offers,

generating at the first computing system a browser-viewable invitation to apply document comprising information regarding one or more invitations to apply for one or more respective credit cards,

storing the invitation to apply document at a network location accessible to the third-party referrer computing system, wherein a filename of the invitation to apply document is determined based on a predefined format so that the third-party referrer can access the invitation to apply document without receiving the filename from the first computing system, and

transmitting the invitation to apply document, a link to the invitation to apply document, or an indication that the prescreened offer document has been stored at the network location to the third-party referrer computing system for access by the borrower computing system.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the prescreened offer document comprises multiple pages that are separately viewable in a browser.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the prescreened offer source computing system is configured to:

access data associated with the borrower;

access acceptance criteria for each of a plurality of available credit cards offered by at least two different credit card issuers; and

compare the data to the acceptance criteria for each of the plurality of available credit cards in order to determine zero or more credit cards that would likely be issued to the borrower.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the prescreened credit card offers comprise firm offers of credit.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the borrower does not provide authorization to transmit the borrower information to the first computing system.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the borrower is not aware that the prescreening method is being performed until the browser-viewable prescreened offer document is presented to the borrower by the borrower computing system.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein an entity associated with the third-party referrer computing system receives a monetary payment in response to the borrower'"'"'s establishment of a credit card account for one of the prescreened credit card offers as a result of the borrower accepting an offer via the prescreened offer document.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the third-party referrer computing system receives the borrower information from the borrower via one or more browser-viewable documents comprising information entry fields for entry of borrower information by a borrower computing system under direction of the borrower.

9. A computing system comprising:

a processor;

a computer readable medium storing machine-executable instructions including one or more modules configured for execution by the processor in order to cause the computing system to;

receive borrower information associated with a borrower, wherein the borrower information comprises a first name, a last name, and one or more of;

a street address, a city, a state, and a zip code, wherein the borrower information is received via one or more networks from a third-party referrer computing system that receives the borrower information from a borrower computing system;

transmit the borrower information from the computing system to a prescreened offer source computing system configured to access credit data related to the borrower and determine zero or more prescreened credit card offers indicating credit cards that the borrower would likely be accepted for by the respective issuer;

receive from the prescreened offer source computing system information regarding the zero or more prescreened credit card offers;

respond to receiving one or more prescreened credit card offers by;

generating a browser-viewable prescreened offer document comprising information regarding at least one of the prescreened credit card offers;

storing the prescreened offer document at a network location accessible to the third-party referrer computing system, wherein a filename of the stored prescreened offer document is determined based on a predefined format so that the third-party referrer computing system can access the prescreened offer document without receiving the filename from the computing system, and

transmitting the prescreened offer document, a link to the prescreened offer document, or an indication that the prescreened offer document has been stored at the network location to the third-party referrer computing system for access by the borrower computing system; and

respond to receiving zero prescreened credit card offers by;

generating a browser-viewable invitation to apply document comprising information regarding one or more invitations to apply for one or more respective credit cards,

storing the invitation to apply document at a network location accessible to the third-party referrer computing system, wherein a filename of the invitation to apply document is determined based on a predefined format so that the third-party referrer can access the invitation to apply document without receiving the filename from the computing system, and

transmitting the invitation to apply document, a link to the invitation to apply document, or an indication that the prescreened offer document has been stored at the network location to the third-party referrer computing system for access by the borrower computing system.

10. The computing system of claim 9, wherein the prescreened offer document comprises multiple pages that are separately viewable in a browser.

11. The computing system of claim 9, wherein the prescreened credit card offers comprise firm offers of credit.

12. The computing system of claim 9, wherein the borrower does not provide authorization to transmit the borrower information to the computing system.

13. The computing system of claim 9, wherein the borrower is not aware that the prescreening method is being performed until the browser-viewable prescreened offer document is presented to the borrower.

14. The computing system of claim 9, wherein an entity associated with the third-party referrer computing system receives a monetary payment in response to the borrower'"'"'s establishment of a credit card account for one of the prescreened credit card offers as a result of the borrower accepting an offer via the prescreened offer document.

15. A non-transitory tangible computer readable medium having instructions stored thereon, the instructions configured for reading by a first computing system in order to cause the first computing system to perform operations comprising:

receiving at a first computing system comprising one or more computing devices borrower information associated with a borrower, wherein the borrower information comprises a first name, a last name, and one or more of;

a street address, a city, a state, and a zip code, wherein the borrower information is received via one or more networks from a third-party referrer computing system that receives the borrower information from a borrower computing system operated by the borrower;

transmitting the borrower information from the first computing system to a prescreened offer source computing system configured to access credit data related to the borrower and determine zero or more prescreened credit card offers indicating credit cards that the borrower would likely be accepted for by the respective issuer;

receiving from the prescreened offer source computing system information regarding the zero or more prescreened credit card offers;

in response to receiving information indicating one or more prescreened credit card offers for the borrower,

generating at the first computing system a browser-viewable prescreened offer document comprising information regarding at least one of the prescreened credit card offers,

storing the prescreened offer document at a network location accessible to the third-party referrer computing system; and

transmitting an indication that the prescreened offer document has been stored at the network location to the third-party referrer computing system for access by the borrower computing system; and

in response to receiving zero prescreened credit card offers,

generating at the first computing system a browser-viewable invitation to apply document comprising information regarding one or more invitations to apply for one or more respective credit cards,

storing the invitation to apply document at a network location accessible to the third-party referrer computing system; and

transmitting an indication that the prescreened offer document has been stored at the network location to the third-party referrer computing system for access by the borrower computing system.

16. The non-transitory tangible computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein the prescreened offer document comprises multiple pages that are separately viewable in a browser.

17. The non-transitory tangible computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein the prescreened credit card offers comprise firm offers of credit.

18. The non-transitory tangible computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein the borrower does not provide authorization to transmit the borrower information to the first computing system.

19. The non-transitory tangible computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein the borrower is not aware that the prescreening method is being performed until the browser-viewable prescreened offer document is presented to the borrower.

20. The non-transitory tangible computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein an entity associated with the third-party referrer computing system receives a monetary payment in response to the borrower'"'"'s establishment of a credit card account for one of the prescreened credit card offers as a result of the borrower accepting an offer via the prescreened offer document.