Firm offers of credit system

• US 8,868,457 B2
• Filed: 01/15/2009
• Issued: 10/21/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 01/16/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Directmailers, Richard F. Irwin, Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Richard F. Irwin, Ltd.
• Inventors: Irwin, Richard F.
• Primary Examiner(s): Liu, Marissa
• Application Number:
  US12/354,535
• Publication Number:
  US 20090182661A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,105 Days
• Field of Search: 705 1- 50, 62 6-505
• US Class Current: 705/35
• 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

A computer-implemented method for providing firm offers of credit to a consumer includes receiving consumer information from a consumer via a network, receiving a selection via the network from the consumer to permit at least one soft credit inquiry of the consumer'"'"'s credit record, submitting a soft credit inquiry to a credit reporting agency, the soft credit inquiry based on the consumer information, receiving at least one firm offer of credit from the credit reporting agency, the firm offer of credit resulting from the credit reporting agency performing the soft credit inquiry on the consumer'"'"'s credit record, each firm offer of credit provided by a credit issuer; and providing the at least one firm offer of credit to the consumer via the network.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for providing firm offers of credit to a consumer comprising:

receiving, by one or more processors, consumer information from a consumer via a network;

receiving, by the one or more processors, via the network from the consumer, a selection to opt in to a credit prescreen or a selection to opt in to a service including the credit prescreen;

submitting, by the one or more processors, to a credit reporting agency via the network, at least a portion of the consumer information;

receiving, by the one or more processors, from the credit reporting agency via the network, a list including at least one firm offer of credit provided by at least one credit issuer and resulting from the credit reporting agency performing the credit prescreen, the credit prescreen including;

obtaining, by the one or more processors, a credit history of the consumer;

comparing, by the one or more processors, the credit history of the consumer to at least one credit prescreen model to determine if the credit history of the consumer qualifies the consumer to receive a firm offer of credit corresponding to a particular credit prescreen model; and

if the consumer qualifies to receive the firm offer of credit corresponding to the credit prescreen model;

adding, to the list, the firm offer of credit corresponding to the credit prescreen model; and

posting, to a credit record of the consumer, a soft credit inquiry related to the added firm offer of credit; and

providing, by the one or more processors, to the consumer via the network, the list including the at least one firm offer of credit.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, from the consumer via the network, a selection of one of the at least one firm offer of credit for which the consumer is preapproved; and

transmitting, to the consumer via the network, terms of the selected firm offer of credit.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a selection from the consumer via the network to accept one of the at least one firm offer of credit to obtain an accepted firm offer of credit.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 3, further comprising:

transmitting, to the credit issuer providing the accepted firm offer of credit via the network, the consumer information and the accepted firm offer of credit.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 4, wherein the credit issuer providing the accepted firm offer of credit performs a hard credit inquiry on the consumer'"'"'s credit record.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein receiving consumer information from the consumer comprises:

providing the consumer with a network address and an identifying character string;

providing to the consumer, via the network, the consumer information based on the network address and identifying character string; and

receiving updated consumer information from the consumer via the network.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein the consumer is provided with the network address and the identifying character string by a mail piece.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein if the consumer does not qualify to receive the firm offer of credit corresponding to the credit prescreen model:

the firm offer of credit corresponding to the credit prescreen model is not added to the list; and

a soft credit inquiry related to the firm offer of credit corresponding to the credit prescreen model is not posted to a credit record of the consumer.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, via the network from the consumer, a selection of at least one firm offer of credit to receive additional information; and

providing, to the consumer via the network, the additional information regarding the selected at least one firm offer of credit.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 9, wherein the additional information regarding the selected at least one firm offer of credit includes at least one of:

a name of a credit issuer of the selected firm offer of credit;

an interest rate of the selected firm offer of credit;

or

a repayment period of the selected firm offer of credit.