Lost credit card notification system and method

• US 8,180,704 B2
• Filed: 05/17/2002
• Issued: 05/15/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 05/17/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: At&T Delaware Intellectual Property, Inc. (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: McQuaide, Arnold Chester Jr., Roberts, Linda A., Koch, Robert A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Kazimi, Hani M
• Application Number:
  US10/150,807
• Publication Number:
  US 20030217001A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,651 Days
• Field of Search: 705 39- 42
• US Class Current: 705/39
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time 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 20/105 involving programming of a portable memory device, e.g. IC cards, "electronic purses"

Abstract

A system and method for notifying one or more credit card companies of lost or stolen credit cards relatively automatically upon noticing that the one or more credit cards are missing. A user profile is created and stored on a server computer system, wherein the user profile has user verification information, credit card account information and credit card company contact information, typically for each credit card owned by a particular user. Using the user profile, the server computer system receives a request to cancel one or more of the owner'"'"'s credit cards. The server computer system then communicates with each individual credit card company, relatively automatically, to notify of the loss. The communication may involve the request to cancel the credit card(s), as well as a request for a replacement credit card. Additionally, the owner may be notified by the server computer system that the request(s) have been made and/or by the credit card companies of the received request(s) and respective account status.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

storing a profile on a computer system, the profile comprising account information for a credit card;

communicating with a credit card company to receive an alias instead of an account number, the alias comprising a code recognizable by the credit card company as related to the account number for the credit card;

storing the alias in the profile and associating the alias to the credit card;

receiving a request for cancellation sent from a client system associated with an authorization code;

retrieving from the profile a listing of credit cards associated with the authorization code;

sending the listing of credit cards to the client system;

displaying the listing of credit cards in a user interface at the client system;

receiving in the user interface a selection of credit cards to cancel;

sending the selection of credit cards to cancel to the computer system;

querying the profile for each credit card in the selection of credit cards to cancel;

retrieving from the profile the alias and a uniform resource locator associated with each credit card in the selection of credit cards to cancel; and

automatically sending the alias to the uniform resource locator of the credit card company to cancel the account number for the credit card.

2. The method as defined in claim 1 further comprising canceling the credit card.

3. The method as defined in claim 2, further comprising notifying a credit card owner of cancellation of the credit card.

4. The method as defined in claim 3, wherein the credit card owner is notified by email.

5. The method as defined in claim 3, wherein the credit card owner is notified by phone.

6. The method as defined in claim 3, wherein the credit card owner is notified by mail.

7. The method as defined in claim 1, further comprising freezing use of the credit card.

8. The method as defined in claim 1, wherein the authorization code comprises a user name.

9. The method as defined in claim 1, wherein the authorization code comprises a password.

10. The method as defined in claim 9, wherein the profile further comprises contact information for the credit card company.

11. The method as defined in claim 1, further comprising:

receiving the identification value from a credit card owner;

creating the profile and sending the profile to the computing system.

12. The method as defined in claim 1, further comprising processing new account information to create a new account for the credit card owner.

13. A computer readable medium storing computer-executable instructions for performing a method, the method comprising:

storing a profile in memory for a credit card;

communicating with a credit card company to receive an alias instead of an account number for the credit card, the alias comprising a code recognizable by the credit card company as related to the account number for the credit card;

storing the alias in the profile and associating the alias to the credit card;

receiving a request for cancellation sent from a client system associated with an authorization code;

retrieving from the profile a listing of credit cards associated with the authorization code;

sending the listing of credit cards to the client system;

displaying the listing of credit cards in a user interface at the client system;

receiving in the user interface a selection of credit cards to cancel;

sending the selection of credit cards to cancel to the computer system;

querying the profile for each credit card in the selection of credit cards to cancel;

retrieving from the profile the alias and a uniform resource locator associated with each credit card in the selection of credit cards to cancel; and

automatically sending the alias to the uniform resource locator of the credit card company to cancel the account number for the credit card.

14. A system, comprising:

a processor;

memory; and

code stored in the memory that causes the processor to perform a method, the method comprising;

storing a profile comprising account information for a credit card;

communicating with a credit card company to receive an alias instead of an account number, the alias comprising a code recognizable by the credit card company as related to the account number for the credit card;

storing the alias in the profile and associating the alias to the credit card;

receiving a request for cancellation sent from a client system associated with an authorization code;

retrieving from the profile a listing of credit cards associated with the authorization code;

sending the listing of credit cards to the client system;

displaying the listing of credit cards in a user interface at the client system;

receiving in the user interface a selection of credit cards to cancel;

sending the selection of credit cards to cancel to the computer system;

querying the profile for each credit card in the selection of credit cards to cancel;

retrieving from the profile the alias and a uniform resource locator associated with each credit card in the selection of credit cards to cancel; and

automatically sending the alias to the uniform resource locator of the credit card company to cancel the account number for the credit card.

15. The system according to claim 14, wherein the code further causes the processor to receive confirmation of cancellation.