Payment card referral program

• US 8,783,562 B2
• Filed: 01/10/2011
• Issued: 07/22/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 10/02/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Eufora LLC
• Original Assignee: Eufora LLC
• Inventors: Constantine, Tommy
• Primary Examiner(s): ST CYR, DANIEL
• Application Number:
  US12/987,895
• Publication Number:
  US 20110145136A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,289 Days
• Field of Search: 235/375, 235/379, 235/380, 705/13, 705/14, 705/15
• US Class Current: 235/380
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/04 Payment circuits
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/24 Credit schemes, i.e. "pay after"
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/342 Cards defining paid or billed services or quantities
• 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

A method for enhancing value of a credit card may include providing an authorized user of a credit card issued by a service provider. A set of applications may be received from a set of referrals of the authorized user for credit card services. The set of applications from the set of referrals may be processed. A credit card may be issued to each of the referrals that qualify for the credit card, where the referrals issued credit cards define a set of customers. Valuable consideration may be issued to the authorized user, where the valuable consideration may be based on the number of customers in the set of customers.

Claims

1. A method for enhancing value of a credit card, said method comprising:

providing an authorized user of a credit card issued by a service provider;

receiving a set of applications from a set of referrals of the authorized user for credit card services;

processing the set of applications from the set of referrals;

issuing a credit card to each of the referrals that qualify for the credit card, the referrals issued credit cards being a set of customers;

in response to determining that a referral is issued a credit card, incrementing a number of customers in the set of customers; and

in response to the number of customers in the set of customers being incremented, issuing valuable consideration to the authorized user based on the number of customers in the set of customers.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein issuing valuable consideration includes reducing an amount owed by the authorized user.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein reducing an amount owed by the authorized user includes reducing larger amounts owed by the authorized user with each customer of the set of customers.

4. The method according to claim 2, wherein reducing an amount owed by the authorized user includes reducing the amount owed by the authorized user each time a predetermined set of customers is reached.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein issuing valuable consideration includes issuing goods to the authorized user.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein issuing valuable consideration includes issuing services unrelated to banking services to the authorized user.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein processing includes:

if the referred applicant qualifies for the credit card, issuing the credit card and issuing the valuable consideration to the authorized user,

otherwise, if the referred applicant does not qualify for the credit card,

determining if a request is received from the referred customer for a prepaid card that is to be prepaid by the referred customer prior to using, issuing the valuable consideration to the authorized user,

otherwise, not issuing the valuable consideration for the referred applicant that does not qualify for the credit card and does not receive a request for a prepaid card.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein issuing valuable consideration is based on achieving a predetermined number of customers in the set of customers.

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein the valuable consideration is limited to being based on the incremented number of customers in the set of customers.