System and method for processing closed loop cards and codes

• US 8,152,061 B2
• Filed: 02/09/2010
• Issued: 04/10/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 02/09/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: GiftCodes.com, LLC
• Original Assignee: GiftCards.com
• Inventors: Wolfe, Jason, Romanelli, Mark, Akut, Sanjay, Kelly, Mike, Kelly, Mary Jane
• Primary Examiner(s): Haupt, Kristy A
• Application Number:
  US12/702,600
• Publication Number:
  US 20100200654A1
• Time in Patent Office: 791 Days
• Field of Search: 235/380, 235/381, 235/382.5, 705/35, 705/39, 705/44, 705/14.26, 705/1.1, 705/16, 705/14.34, 705/14.15
• US Class Current: 235/382.5
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/06 Private payment circuits, e.g. involving electronic currency used among participants of a common payment scheme
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/0655 e-cash managed centrally
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/10 specially adapted for electronic funds transfer [EFT] systems; specially adapted for home banking systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/20 Point-of-sale [POS] network systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/28 Pre-payment schemes, e.g. "pay before"
• 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 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0213 Consumer transaction fees
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0225 Avoiding frauds
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0234 Rebates after completed purchase
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes

Abstract

Disclosed herein are systems, methods, and computer-readable storage media for processing closed loop cards/codes. The method includes identifying a closed loop card/code having associated money in an account, receiving a confirmation of an amount of money in the closed loop card/code account, presenting an owner of the closed loop card/code with the amount of money in the closed loop card/code account and an offer to pay an offer amount for the closed loop card/code, receiving an indication that the owner accepts the offer, receiving the amount of money from the closed loop card/code account, and paying the owner the offer amount. Payment can be on an open loop card/code, cash, automated clearing house (ACH) to bank, check, merchant credit, or bill pay. The method can include generating a new closed loop card/code associated with the amount of money. The new closed loop card/code can be sold to another user.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

identifying a closed loop card associated with an amount of money in a closed loop card account;

presenting an owner of the closed loop card with an offer to purchase the closed loop card for an offer amount;

receiving from the owner an acceptance of the offer; and

based on the acceptance;

providing payment to the owner for the closed loop card;

generating a new account;

transferring funds from the closed loop card account to the new account;

deactivating the closed loop card account; and

offering the new account for resale as a gift code to a person other than the owner.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the gift code can be used to pay a bill or debt, be converted to cash, be deposited via direct deposit into a bank account, and be used as merchant credit.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a set of smaller values totaling a sum equal to or lesser than the amount of money in the closed loop card account;

dividing the amount of money in the closed loop account into denominations of the set of smaller values as a first gift code and a second gift code; and

providing the first gift code and the second gift code to the owner as payment.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein information identifying the closed loop card is read from a physical closed loop card, the method further comprising receiving the physical closed loop card.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving a confirmation of the amount of money in the closed loop card account via a multi-process secure gateway which communicates with one or more closed loop card processors.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the offer is time-limited and conditional upon a resale of the closed loop card, the method further comprising payment to the owner of the offer amount upon the resale.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

deactivating the closed loop card after the owner accepts the offer; and

reactivating the closed loop card after a time-limit expires without resale.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the offer amount is based on a resale velocity of cards of a similar type as the closed loop card.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising restricting the amount of money the owner of the closed loop card can redeem over a period of time.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving an additional amount of money from the owner; and

wherein providing payment to the owner comprises providing the first gift code and the second gift code to the owner of the offer amount plus the additional amount of money.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the first gift code and the second gift code is one of an open loop gift code and a closed loop gift code.

12. A system comprising:

a processor; and

a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions which, when executed by the processor, control a processor to perform steps comprising;

identifying a closed loop card associated with an amount of money in a closed loop card account;

presenting an owner of the closed loop card with an offer to purchase the closed loop card for an offer amount;

receiving from the owner an acceptance of the offer; and

based on the acceptance;

providing payment to the owner for the closed loop card;

generating a new account;

transferring funds from the closed loop card account to the new account;

deactivating the closed loop card account; and

offering the new account for resale as a gift code to a person other than the owner.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein at least one of the first gift code and the second gift code is one of an open loop gift code and a closed loop gift code.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

receiving a set of smaller values totaling a sum equal to or lesser than the amount of money in the account;

dividing the amount of money in the account into the first gift code and the second gift code in denominations of the set of smaller values; and

providing the first gift code and the second gift code to the owner as payment.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein each of the first gift code and the second gift code are one of an open loop gift code and a closed loop gift code.

16. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions which, when executed by a computing device, cause the computing device to perform steps comprising:

identifying a closed loop card associated with an amount of money in a closed loop card account;

presenting an owner of the closed loop card with an offer to purchase the closed loop card for an offer amount;

receiving from the owner an acceptance of the offer; and

based on the acceptance;

providing payment to the owner for the closed loop card;

generating a new account;

transferring funds from the closed loop card account to the new account;

deactivating the closed loop card account; and

offering the new account for resale as a gift code to a person other than the owner.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein the offer is time-limited and conditional upon a resale of the closed loop card, the instructions further comprising providing payment to the owner of the offer amount upon the resale.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 17, the instructions, when executed by the computing device, further cause the computing device to perform steps comprising:

deactivating the closed loop card after the owner accepts the offer; and

reactivating the closed loop card after a time-limit expires without resale.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein the offer amount is based on a resale velocity of cards of a same type as the closed loop card.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein at least one of the first gift code and the second gift code is one of an open loop gift code and a closed loop gift code.

21. A method comprising:

identifying a first code associated with an amount of money in an account, wherein the first code is electronic and independent of a physical gift instrument;

presenting an owner of the first code with an offer to purchase the first code for an offer amount;

receiving from the owner an acceptance of the offer; and

based on the acceptance;

providing payment to the owner for the first code;

generating a new account;

transferring funds from the account to the new account;

deactivating the account; and

offering the new account for resale as a gift code to a person other than the owner.

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the first gift code and the second gift code can be used to:

pay a bill or debt, be converted to cash, be deposited via direct deposit into a bank account, and be used as merchant credit.