System, program product, and computer-implemented method for loading a loan on an existing pre-paid card

• US 8,538,879 B2
• Filed: 05/13/2009
• Issued: 09/17/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 05/14/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Pathward National Association
• Original Assignee: MetaBank (Meta Financial Group Incorporated)
• Inventors: Galit, Scott H., Sorbe, Trent
• Primary Examiner(s): Zeender, Ryan
• Assistant Examiner(s): CHEIN, ALLEN C
• Application Number:
  US12/465,306
• Publication Number:
  US 20090287577A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,588 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 705/41
• 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 20/105 involving programming of a portable memory device, e.g. IC cards, "electronic purses"
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/204 comprising interface for record bearing medium or carrier for electronic funds transfer or payment credit
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/28 Pre-payment schemes, e.g. "pay before"
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/342 Cards defining paid or billed services or quantities
• 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: G07F 7/025 by means, e.g. cards, providing billing information at the time of purchase, e.g. identification of seller or purchaser, quantity of goods delivered or to be delivered
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 7/086 by passive credit-cards adapted therefor, e.g. constructive particularities to avoid counterfeiting, e.g. by inclusion of a physical or chemical security-layer for security documents G07D7/00; for the reading of record-carriers in general G06K7/00; for the design of coded credit-cards G06K19/10

Abstract

Embodiments of the present invention provide systems, program products, and methods of loading a loan on a pre-paid card. A bank receives authorization from a lender to credit loan proceeds from the lender to an approved borrower on an existing pre-paid card associated with the pre-paid card processor. Next, the bank credits the loan proceeds to the pre-paid card processor for the existing pre-paid card so that the loan proceeds are released to the approved borrower and are immediately available.

Claims

1. A bank computer to facilitate the funding of a loan from a lender to an existing prepaid card account associated with one of a plurality of prepaid card processors and to cause one or more bank fees to be charged to the lender, the bank computer comprising:

one or more processors associated with a bank and in communication with one or more remote computers associated with the lender to define a lender computer and a plurality of remote computers associated with the plurality of prepaid card processors each configured to manage a plurality of prepaid card accounts to define a plurality of prepaid card processor computers, each of the plurality of prepaid card processor computers having a preselected communication protocol different from each other, and

non-transitory computer-readable storage medium in communication with the one or more processors associated with the bank with an executable program stored thereon, the executable program including;

a loan manager interface module to manage the creation and funding of a loan proceeds account and the generation and deduction of loan fees, the loan manager interface module comprising a set of instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perforin the operations of;

creating the loan proceeds account to receive loan proceeds from the lender computer responsive to receipt of loan authorization data from the lender computer, the loan authorization data including a lender authorized amount and a request to transfer the loan proceeds to an existing prepaid card account number associated with a borrower; and

crediting the lender authorized amount to the loan proceeds account,

a prepaid card interface module to communicate loan data to one of the plurality of prepaid card processor computers associated with the existing prepaid card account number using the preselected communication protocol of the one of the plurality of prepaid card processor computers, the prepaid card interface module comprising a set of instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the operations of;

generating a request to verify the existing prepaid card account number in the preselected communication protocol of the one of the plurality of prepaid card processor computers, thereby allowing the request to be processed by the one of the plurality of prepaid card processor computers;

sending the request to the one of the plurality of prepaid card processor computers to thereby communicate in the preselected communication protocol of the one of the plurality of prepaid card processor computers; and

sending verification of the existing prepaid card account numbers to the loan manager interface module responsive to receipt of verification data from the one of the plurality of prepaid card processor computers, and

the loan manager interface module further comprising a set of instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the operations of;

deducting one or more bank fees from the lender authorized amount responsive to receipt of verification of the existing prepaid card account number; and

communicating, responsive to the deducting step, loan funding data to the one of the plurality of prepaid card processors using the preselected communication protocol to thereby release the loan proceeds amount to the one of the plurality of prepaid card processor computers so that the loan proceeds amount becomes immediately available to the borrower to thereby facilitate the funding of the loan from the lender to the existing prepaid card account.

2. A bank computer as defined in claim 1, wherein the loan proceeds amount is available to the borrower through the existing prepaid card account after a delay of one-half of one second to one minute after the bank computer receives the loan authorization data from the lender computer.

3. A bank computer as defined in claim 1, wherein the prepaid card interface module further comprises a set of instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the operations of:

querying the plurality of prepaid card processor computers to determine which of the plurality of prepaid card processor computers maintains the existing prepaid card account.

4. A bank computer as defined in claim 1, wherein the loan authorization data includes prepaid card processor identification data that indicates which of the plurality of prepaid card processor computers maintains the existing prepaid card account.

5. A bank computer as defined in claim 4, wherein the prepaid card interface module further comprises a set of instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the operations of:

determining the preselected communication protocol of the one of the plurality of prepaid card processor computers using the prepaid card processor identification data in the loan authorization data.