Systems and methods of on-line credit information monitoring and control

• US 8,195,549 B2
• Filed: 06/24/2011
• Issued: 06/05/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 09/21/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Consumerinfo.com Incorporated (Experian plc)
• Original Assignee: Consumerinfo.com Incorporated (Experian plc)
• Inventors: Kasower, Sheldon
• Primary Examiner(s): Colbert, Ella
• Assistant Examiner(s): Shaikh, Mohammad Z
• Application Number:
  US13/168,736
• Publication Number:
  US 20110270727A1
• Time in Patent Office: 347 Days
• Field of Search: 705 35- 45
• US Class Current: 705/35
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9558 Details of hyperlinks; Management of linked annotations
• 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

Systems and methods of on-line credit information monitoring and control. In one embodiment, a server computer accesses and retrieves credit information relating to a consumer. The server computer may also provide a user interface with active links associated with credit items. The links may allow the consumer to communicate directly with a credit service. The server computer may offer additional credit-related services such as credit report retrieval, credit monitoring, notifications, identity theft management, interest rate calculations, historical archives, and account management.

Claims

1. A computing system for on-line monitoring and on-line interaction and control of credit information from a credit report of a consumer of credit, the system comprising:

one or more hardware processors configured to execute instructions in order to cause the computing system to;

access credit information relating to a consumer, the credit information comprising a plurality of credit items, each credit item being associated with a specific credit service;

provide a user interface comprising a plurality of active links, each one of said active links being associated with a respective one of the plurality of credit items, wherein each of said active links is configured to enable the consumer to communicate directly with one of the credit services regarding one of the credit items associated with the active link; and

transmit the user interface to a computer of the consumer.

2. The computing system of claim 1, further configured to compute a credit score of the consumer based upon the credit information.

3. The computing system of claim 2, further configured to transmit the credit information and the credit score to the consumer.

4. The computing system of claim 2, further configured to store the credit information and the credit score in a computer-readable storage medium.

5. The computing system of claim 1, further configured to access updated credit information on a periodic basis, and further configured to determine changes in the updated credit information.

6. The computing system of claim 5, further configured to archive the updated credit information.

7. The computing system of claim 5, further configured to create an alert in response to a determination of changes in the updated credit information.

8. The computing system of claim 7, further configured to transmit the alert to the consumer.

9. The computing system of claim 1, further configured to:

transmit, to the consumer, user interface data enabling the consumer to report an identity theft;

transmit, to the consumer, forms enabling the consumer to report the identity theft to selected organizations; and

receive completed forms from the consumer and provide the completed forms to the selected organizations.

10. The computing system of claim 1, further configured to compute expected interest rates based on the credit information relating to the consumer, and further configured to transmit the expected interest rates to the consumer.

11. The computing system of claim 1, further configured to archive the credit information relating to the consumer.

12. The computing system of claim 11, further configured to access the archived credit information.

13. The computing system of claim 1, further configured to provide a login interface enabling the consumer to log onto the system by a computer.

14. The computing system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of active links is a plurality of links to report inaccuracies of the credit items.

15. The computing system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of credit items is associated with the same credit service or with different credit services.

16. The computing system of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of active links is associated with one credit item, and the server computer is further configured to generate a form for directly contacting at least one of the credit services via mail.

17. The computing system of claim 1, wherein the credit services are credit grantors.

18. The computing system of claim 1, wherein the credit services are credit bureaus.

19. The computing system of claim 1, wherein the user interface comprises one or more web pages and/or electronic communications.

20. A method of providing credit information to a user computer, the method comprising:

receiving, at a computing system, a request from a user computer, the request comprising identifying information relating to an individual;

gathering credit-related data associated with the individual based on receiving the identifying information relating to the individual, the credit-related data comprising one or more credit items associated with credit services;

constructing user interface data based on the gathered credit-related data, the user interface data configured to cause the display of a user interface comprising a plurality of links associated with a plurality of credit items, each of the plurality of links being configured to initiate a communication between the user computer and a credit service associated with a respective credit item associated with the link; and

transmitting the user interface data to the user computer.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein gathering the credit-related data associated with the individual comprises transmitting a request to a credit bureau via an electronic communications link, the request identifying the individual, and receiving credit report data from the credit bureau via the electronic communications link.

22. The method of claim 20, wherein the user interface data comprises web page data.

23. The method of claim 20, further comprising offering two or more of the following services by the server system:

obtaining and tracking credit reports and/or scores, monitoring credit, reporting lost credit cards, identity theft reporting, calculating hypothetical interest rates that the consumer should pay for specific types of loans based on credit information of the consumer, and accessing credit information archived by the system.

24. The method of claim 20, wherein the plurality of links are configured to initiate requests for changes to the individual'"'"'s credit information.

25. The method of claim 20, wherein the user interface comprises one or more web pages and/or electronic communications.

26. A method of automatically monitoring an individual'"'"'s credit information, the method comprising:

receiving, at a computing system, a request to monitor credit information associated with an individual, the request comprising identifying information relating to the individual;

initiating a monitoring service in response to the received request, wherein initiating a monitoring service comprises periodically gathering, from a credit data repository, credit information associated with the individual based at least in part on the identifying information relating to the individual, the credit information comprising one or more credit items associated with credit issuers;

identifying a change in the credit information received from the credit data repository;

and providing an online alert message to the individual, the online alert message comprising data associated with the identified change in the credit information, the online alert message comprising a plurality of links associated with the credit items, each of the plurality of links being configured initiate a communication between the individual and a credit issuer associated with a respective credit item, the online alert message further configured to provide the user with information usable to communicate with the credit data repository.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein the credit data repository comprises a credit bureau.

28. The method of claim 26, wherein the credit issuers include a credit grantor.

29. The method of claim 26, wherein the credit issuers include a credit bureau.

30. The method of claim 26, wherein the credit issuers include the credit data repository.

31. The method of claim 26, wherein the online alert message comprises one or more web pages and/or electronic communications.