System for automatically transferring account information, such as information regarding a financial services account

• US 8,055,564 B2
• Filed: 11/29/2010
• Issued: 11/08/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 06/18/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: JP Morgan Chase Bank, N.A. (JP Morgan Chase & Co)
• Original Assignee: WMI Holdings Corporation
• Inventors: Cunningham, Gregory L., Lux, Scott A., Boyles, Helen P., Blair, Jeanne, Jacobson, Tara L., Gradwohl, Jeffrey J., Dickinson, Steven J., Stoll, Audra K., Houssiere, Christian, Wehunt, Nathan P.
• Primary Examiner(s): Oyebisi; Ojo O
• Application Number:
  US12/955,134
• Publication Number:
  US 20110071942A1
• Time in Patent Office: 344 Days
• Field of Search: 705/35, 705/36, 705/39
• US Class Current: 705/35
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/10 specially adapted for electronic funds transfer [EFT] systems; specially adapted for home banking systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/102 Bill distribution or payments
• 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

Abstract

A system for transferring a customer'"'"'s account information from one account to a new account is described. The system utilizes a switch kit application and associated system that can determine services at the old account and facilitate the transfer of these services to the new account.

Claims

1. A system for facilitating automatic transfers of user account information from an old account to a new account, the system comprising:

a first subsystem configured to access, over at least one network, an old electronic account of a user via a server associated with a first financial institution;

a second subsystem configured to gather, from the old electronic account at the first financial institution, information related to vendor transactions associated with the old electronic account; and

a third subsystem coupled among the first subsystem and the second subsystem, wherein the third subsystem is configured to access the server associated with the first financial institution and automatically transfer at least some of the gathered information related to vendor transactions to a new electronic account established for a user at a second financial institution different from and independent of the first financial institution.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the second subsystem is further configured to receive instructions from a third party vendor or merchant identifying a selected transactional service of the user to be switched from the old electronic account to the new electronic account.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the information comprises transaction services performed by the old electronic account of the user, including at least one of automatic bill payments, scheduled monetary transfers, or electronic bill data.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the information comprises transaction services performed via the old electronic account of the user, and wherein the services performed include payments for vendor transactions made by a credit card or a debit card associated with the old electronic account of the user.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein the information comprises vendor account set-up information, account preference information, and/or alert information.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein:

the information related to vendor transactions comprises automatic electronic transaction services associated with the vendor; and

the third subsystem, after automatically transferring at least some of the gathered information related to vendor transactions to the new electronic account of the user, is further configured to automatically cancel the transferred automatic electronic transaction services with respect to the old electronic account.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein the second subsystem comprises at least one facility for screen scraping, speech recognition, or optical character recognition to gather the information.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein the first subsystem further comprises an interactive voice response facility configured to interact automatically with an interactive voice response system of the first financial institution.

9. The system of claim 1 wherein the first subsystem is configured to employ user-provided credentials or ancillary credential information to connect to the old electronic account at the first financial institution.

10. The system of claim 1, further comprising a fourth subcomponent configured to create at least one electronic message related to electronic payments, electronic monetary transfers, or system alerts associated with the new electronic account, and wherein the fourth subcomponent is further configured to electronically notify the user of at least one of a status of the old electronic account, a need for credentials information, a status of at least one electronic transfer, a status of at least one electronic bill pay, or a status of the new electronic account.

11. The system of claim 1 wherein the old electronic account at the first financial institution comprises at least one of a bank account, an online payment service account, a credit card account, or a brokerage account.

12. A method in a computing system for facilitating the automatic transfer of information to a user account, the method comprising:

automatically accessing data associated with at least one previous electronic account held by a user with a first financial institution;

automatically gathering at least some information related to the user from the previous electronic account, wherein the gathered information includes information regarding one or more products and services of the first financial institution employed by the user;

automatically forwarding the gathered information for insertion into appropriate data fields of a new electronic account for the user with a second financial institution unrelated to the first financial institution; and

automatically providing the user with information regarding one or more products and services of the second financial institution that are competitive alternatives to the one or more products and services of the first financial institution employed by the user.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein:

automatically gathering at least some information related to the user'"'"'s account from the previous electronic account comprises automatically gathering ancillary information including savings account interest rate, certificate of deposit maturity date, or loan rate associated with the user and the first financial institution; and

automatically providing the user with information regarding one or more products and services of the second financial institution comprises providing the user with competitive alternatives of the second financial institution in relation to the savings account interest rate, the certificate of deposit maturity date, or the loan rate.

14. The method of claim 12, further comprising automatically analyzing at least a portion of a transaction history associated with the user'"'"'s electronic account at the first financial institution, and providing the user with information regarding one or more products and services of the second financial institution based, at least in part, on the transaction history.

15. The method of claim 12, further comprising automatically receiving data regarding the user from other data sources external to the first and second financial institutions, wherein the other data sources comprise personal financial management data, credit report information, or publicly available information.

16. The method of claim 12, further comprising automatically identifying incomplete or masked information from the previous electronic account with the first financial institution and automatically prompting the user to provide additional information in response thereto.

17. The method of claim 12, further comprising automatically generating an electronic message for transmission to the user associated with the new electronic account of the user at the second financial institution, wherein the electronic message comprises at least one of a status of the previous electronic account at the first financial institution, a need for user-provided credential information, a status of at least one electronic transfer, a status of at least one electronic bill pay, or a status of the new electronic account at the second financial institution.

18. A computing system, comprising:

a component configured to automatically access a first account of a user at a first entity and gather information from the first account; and

an automated switch kit configured to automatically migrate at least some electronic transaction information from the first account of the user at the first entity to a second account of the user at a second entity independent of and unaffiliated with the first entity.

19. The computing system of claim 18 wherein:

the component is further configured to automatically gather data associated with (a) an account held by the user with a third party merchant independent of the first and second entities, and (b) transactions between the first account of the user at the first entity and the user'"'"'s account with the third party merchant; and

the automated switch kit is further configured to automatically identify the transactions between the first account of the user and the third party merchant and migrate the associated transactions and the user'"'"'s account information with the third party merchant to the second account of the user at the second entity.

20. The computing system of claim 18 wherein the component is a first component, and wherein the system further comprises a second component configured to generate a report comprising (a) information about the automatic migration of electronic transaction information from the first account to the second account, and (b) exception information for electronic transactions that do not meet predefined criteria.