Transfer account systems, computer program products, and associated computer-implemented methods

• US 9,251,511 B2
• Filed: 10/08/2013
• Issued: 02/02/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 12/21/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Pathward National Association
• Original Assignee: MetaBank (Meta Financial Group Incorporated)
• Inventors: Sorbe, Trent, Larson, Troy
• Primary Examiner(s): Danneman, Paul
• Application Number:
  US14/048,874
• Publication Number:
  US 20140052625A1
• Time in Patent Office: 847 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/023 the neutral party being a clearing house
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/10 specially adapted for electronic funds transfer [EFT] systems; specially adapted for home banking systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/102 Bill distribution or payments
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/108 Remote banking, e.g. home banking
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/28 Pre-payment schemes, e.g. "pay before"
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/40 Authorisation, e.g. identification of payer or payee, verification of customer or shop credentials; Review and approval of payers, e.g. check credit lines or negative lists
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• 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 40/12 Accounting
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 99/00 Subject matter not provided for in other groups of this subclass

Abstract

Embodiments of the present invention include transfer account systems, computer program products, and associated computer-implemented methods of providing prioritized payments from the proceeds of automatic or direct deposits. Embodiments of the present invention include routing automatic deposit information to a financial institution computer managing a prioritized payment program and formulating an outgoing ACH file with both an entry for an automatic deposit destined for a customer account and an entry for a pre-authorized prioritized payment to a select creditor, so that the automatic deposit is credited to the customer account and relatively instantaneously any prioritized payment is debited from the customer account. According to embodiments of the present invention, the customer account can be a checking, deposit, savings, money market, or other account as understood by those skilled in the art, so that a customer has effective access through the customer account only to a net value of funds.

Claims

1. A system to provide a plurality of prioritized payments directly from each of a plurality of automatic deposits prior to being made available to one or more destined recipients of each of the plurality of automatic deposits, the system comprising:

one or more computers being associated with a first financial institution and an electronic communications network defining one or more first financial institution computers, the one or more first financial institution computers further being adapted to communicate with one or more second computers associated with one or more second financial institutions defining one or more second financial institution computers and adapted to receive a plurality of automated clearing house (ACH) files from one or more third computers associated with a plurality of depository institutions defining one or more depository institution computers; and

non-transitory computer memory encoded with computer program operable on the one or more first financial institution computers to perform one or more processes of associating one or more customer user accounts at the one or more second financial institutions with the plurality of ACH files and one or more processes of providing a plurality of prioritized payments from the plurality of automatic deposits associated with the plurality of ACH files, computer program comprising a set of instructions that when executed by the one or more first financial institution computers cause the one or more first financial computers to perform the operations of;

maintaining one or more lists of customer user account identifiers for a plurality of enrollees enrolled in a prioritized payment program associated with the one or more first financial institutions, each of the plurality of enrollees having at least one of a plurality of customer user accounts associated with the one or more second financial institutions, the prioritized payment program allowing the plurality of enrollees to pre-authorize payment requests by one or more select creditors,

identifying receipt by the one or more first financial institution computers of at least one of the plurality of incoming ACH files containing one or more account identifier on the one or more lists, each of the plurality of incoming ACH files being associated with an automatic deposit of one of a plurality of destined recipients each also being one of the plurality of enrollees, the one or more of the incoming ACH files being associated with one or more pre-authorized payment requests by one or more select creditors to thereby define one or more prioritized payments, and

electronically appending to the at least one of the plurality of incoming ACH files the one or more prioritized payments to the one or more select creditors to thereby create an outgoing ACH file so that the one or more prioritized payments is adapted to be directly deducted from the automatic deposit associated with the at least one of the plurality of incoming ACH files prior to being made available to one or more of the plurality of enrollees and credited to the one or more select creditors and so that a balance of the automatic deposit after the direct deduction is adapted to be credited to one or more of the plurality of customer user accounts at one of the one or more second financial institutions determined to be associated with the at least one of the plurality of incoming ACH files.

2. A system as defined in claim 1, wherein the pre-authorized payment request by the one or more select creditors is initiated in response to a query from the one or more first financial institution computers responsive to identifying the one or more of the plurality of incoming ACH files;

and computer program further comprising a set of instructions that, when executed by the one or more first financial institution computers, cause the one or more first financial institution computers to perform the operations of;

transmitting the outgoing ACH file to the electronic communications network so that the one or more prioritized payments to the selected creditors is directly deducted from the automatic deposit associated with the one or more of the plurality of incoming ACH files and the balance of the automatic deposit after the direct deduction is credited to the one or more of the plurality of customer user accounts at one of the plurality of second financial institutions, the balance being defined as a value of the automatic deposit less a value of the one or more prioritized payments.

3. A system as defined in claim 2, wherein the balance of the automatic deposit credited to the one or more of the plurality of customer user accounts is defined as a value of the automatic deposit less a total value of the one or more prioritized payments to the one or more select creditors and less a value of fees generated for the one or more first financial institutions, and wherein the at least one of the plurality of customer user accounts is configured so that the balance credited is posted to an associated customer user card so that a user of the customer user card only has access to the balance of the automatic deposit.

4. A system as defined in claim 1, wherein the pre-authorized payment request by the one or more select creditors is initiated in response to a query from the one or more of the first financial institution computers;

and wherein the balance of the automatic deposit to be credited to the one or more of the plurality of customer user accounts is defined as a value of the automatic deposit less a total value of the one or more prioritized payments to the one or more select creditors.

5. A system as defined in claim 1, wherein the one or more of the plurality of automatic deposits includes one or more of the following:

an employer-initiated direct deposit of payroll, a government-initiated electronic transfer of benefits payment, and a bank-initiated payment to a merchant for credit card sales.

6. Non-transitory computer memory encoded with computer program and operable on a first computer being associated with a first financial institution and an electronic communications network defining a first financial institution computer, computer program operable to perform one or more processes of providing a plurality of prioritized payments directly from each of a plurality of automatic deposits prior to being made available to one or more destined recipients of each of the plurality of automatic deposits, computer program comprising a set of instructions that when executed by the first financial institution computer cause the first financial computer to perform the operations of:

maintaining one or more lists of customer user account identifiers for a plurality of enrollees enrolled in a prioritized payment program at the first financial institution, each of the plurality of enrollees having at least one of a plurality of customer user accounts at a plurality of second financial institution computers associated with a plurality of second financial institutions, the prioritized payment program allowing the plurality of enrollees to pre-authorize payment requests by one or more select creditors;

identifying receipt by the first financial institution computer of at least one of the plurality of incoming ACH files containing at least one account identifier on the one or more lists, each of the plurality of incoming ACH files being associated with an automatic deposit of one of a plurality of destined recipients each also being one of the plurality of enrollees, the at least one of the plurality of incoming ACH files being associated with one or more pre-authorized payment requests by one or more select creditors to thereby define one or more prioritized payments; and

electronically appending to the at least one of the plurality of incoming ACH files the one or more prioritized payments to the one or more select creditors to thereby create an outgoing ACH file so that the one or more prioritized payments is adapted to be directly deducted from the automatic deposit associated with the at least one of the plurality of incoming ACH files prior to being made available to one or more of the plurality of enrollees and credited to the one or more select creditors and so that a balance of the automatic deposit after the direct deduction is adapted to be credited to at least one of the plurality of customer user accounts at one of the plurality of second financial institutions determined to be associated with the at least one of the plurality of incoming ACH files.

7. Non-transitory computer memory as defined in claim 6, wherein the set of instructions further includes transmitting the outgoing ACH file to the electronic communications network.

8. Non-transitory computer memory as defined in claim 7, wherein the transmitting occurs so that the one or more prioritized payments to the selected creditors is deducted from the automatic deposit associated with the at least one of the plurality of incoming ACH files and the balance of the automatic deposit after the direct deduction is credited to the at least one of the plurality of customer user accounts at one of the plurality of second financial institutions, the balance being defined as a value of the automatic deposit less a total value of the one or more prioritized payments wherein the pre-authorized payment request by the one or more select creditors is initiated in response to a query from the first financial institution computer, and wherein the balance of the automatic deposit to be credited to the at least one of the plurality of customer user accounts is defined as the value of the automatic deposit less the total value of the one or more prioritized payments to the one or more select creditors and less fees for providing prioritized payments.

9. Non-transitory computer memory as defined in claim 6, wherein the at least one of the plurality of automatic deposits includes one or more of the following:

an employer-initiated direct deposit of payroll, a government-initiated electronic transfer of benefits payment, and a bank-initiated payment to a merchant for credit card sales, wherein the balance of the automatic deposit credited to the at least one of the plurality of customer user accounts is defined as the value of the automatic deposit less the total value of the one or more prioritized payments to the one or more select creditors less fees generated for providing prioritized payments, and wherein the at least one customer user accounts is configured so that the balance credited is posted to an associated customer user card so that a user of the customer user card only has access to the balance of the automatic deposit.

10. Non-transitory computer memory as defined in claim 6, wherein the prioritized payment includes customer-initiated payments, including one or more of the following:

a gift card purchase, a remittance to family outside of a country where the first financial institution is located, and a bill payment to a third party.

11. Non-transitory computer memory as defined in claim 6, wherein the computer program causes the first financial institution computer to perform the operation of:

deducting a fee from either the one or more prioritized payments or the balance of the automatic deposits.

12. Non-transitory computer memory as defined in claim 6, wherein enrollment in the prioritized payment is required as a condition of a transaction with the one or more select creditors.

13. Non-transitory computer memory as defined in claim 12, wherein the transaction includes a loan;

and wherein accounts for the one or more select credits are remote from the first financial institution computer and the plurality of the second financial instructions.

14. A computer-implemented method to perform a plurality of prioritized payments directly from each of a plurality of automatic deposits prior to being made available to one or more destined recipients of each of the plurality of automatic deposits, the method comprising:

maintaining, by a first computer being associated with a first financial institution and an electronic communications network defining a first financial institution computer, one or more lists of customer user account identifiers for a plurality of enrollees enrolled in a prioritized payment program at the first financial institution, each of the plurality of enrollees having at least one of a plurality of customer user accounts at a plurality of second financial institution computers associated with a plurality of second financial institutions, the prioritized payment program allowing the plurality of enrollees to pre-authorize payment requests by one or more select creditors,

identifying receipt by the first financial institution computer of at least one of a plurality of incoming automatic clearing house (ACH) files containing at least one account identifier on the one or more lists responsive to receiving the plurality of incoming ACH files from a plurality of depository institution computers association with a plurality of depository institutions through the electronic communications network, each of the plurality of incoming ACH files being associated with an automatic deposit of one of a plurality of destined recipients each also being one of the plurality of enrollees, the at least one of the plurality of incoming ACH files being associated with one or more pre-authorized payment requests by one or more select creditors to thereby define one or more prioritized payments, and

electronically appending to the at least one of the plurality of incoming ACH files the one or more prioritized payments to the one or more select creditors to thereby create an outgoing ACH file so that the one or more prioritized payments is adapted to be directly deducted from the automatic deposit associated with the at least one of the plurality of incoming ACH files prior to being made available to one or more of the plurality of enrollees and credited to the one or more select creditors and so that a balance of the automatic deposit after the direct deduction is adapted to be credited to at least one of the plurality of customer user accounts at one of the plurality of second financial institutions determined to be associated with the at least one of the plurality of incoming ACH files.

15. A computer-implemented method as defined in claim 14, the method comprising:

transmitting the outgoing ACH file to the electronic communications network so that the one or more prioritized payments to the selected creditors is directly deducted from the automatic deposit associated with the at least one of the plurality of incoming ACH files and the balance of the automatic deposit after the direct deduction is credited to the at least one of the plurality of customer user accounts at one of the plurality of second financial institutions, the balance being defined as a value of the automatic deposit less a total value of the one or more prioritized payments.

16. A computer-implemented method as defined in claim 15, wherein the balance of the automatic deposit credited to the at least one of the plurality of customer user accounts is defined as the value of the automatic deposit less the total value of the one or more prioritized payments to the one or more select creditors less fees generated for providing the prioritized payments, and wherein the at least one of the plurality of customer user accounts is configured so that the balance credited is posted to an associated customer user card so that a user of the customer user card only has access to the balance of the automatic deposit.

17. A computer-implemented method as defined in claim 14, wherein the pre-authorized payment request by the one or more select creditors is initiated in response to a query from the first financial institution computer;

and wherein the balance of the automatic deposit to be credited to the at least one of the plurality of customer user accounts is defined as the value of the automatic deposit less the total value of the one or more prioritized payments to the one or more select creditors and less fees generated for providing the prioritized payments.

18. A computer-implemented method as defined in claim 14, wherein the at least one of the plurality of automatic deposits includes one or more of the following:

an employer-initiated direct deposit of payroll, a government-initiated electronic transfer of benefits payment, and a bank-initiated payment to a merchant for credit card sales.

19. A computer-implemented method as defined in claim 14, wherein the prioritized payment includes customer-initiated payments, including one or more of the following:

a gift card purchase, a remittance to family outside of a country where the first financial institution is located, and a bill payment to a third party.

20. A computer-implemented method as defined in claim 14, wherein the computer program causes the first financial institution computer to perform the operation of:

deducting a fee from either the one or more prioritized payments or the balance of the automatic deposit;

wherein enrollment in the prioritized payment is required as a condition of a loan with the one or more select creditors; and

wherein accounts for the one or more select credits are remote from the first financial institution computer and the plurality of the second financial instructions.