ANONYMOUS TRANSACTION SYSTEM

• US 20080033869A1
• Filed: 10/08/2007
• Published: 02/07/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 11/27/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nextworth Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Nextworth Incorporated
• Inventors: Silva, Kenneth, Steele, Dale
• Granted Patent: US 10,740,837 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/38
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/10 specially adapted for electronic funds transfer [EFT] systems; specially adapted for home banking systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0207 Discounts or incentives, e.g. coupons or rebates
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0267 Wireless devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0269 based on user profile or attribute
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0273 Determination of fees for advertising
• 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

An Anonymous Transaction Service (ATS) solves or alleviates the problems outlined above. The ATS provides anonymous, automated, risk-based differential pricing that allows consumers to receive offers from multiple suppliers with only a single credit report. The ATS facilitates any offer between a supplier and consumer that first requires an evaluation of the risk associated with making the offer. The ATS can be used for any product or service, such as credit cards, home mortgages, automobile loans, appliance loans, debt consolidation loans, insurance products, advertising and dating services, to name only a few.

Claims

1. A method for supplying offers for risk-based financial products, comprising:

using a supplier computing system to electronically send supplier criteria for receiving consumer requests for risk-based financial services to an distributor computing system over a computer network, the supplier computing system operating independently and remotely from the distributor computing system;

using the supplier computing system to electronically receive a plurality of anonymous transaction profiles that satisfy the supplier criteria from the distributor computing system for consumers requesting offers for the risk-based financial services, each of the anonymous transaction profiles including anonymous consumer or business loan application information generated by the consumer that is merged with anonymous third party consumer credit information generated from a third party credit reporting agency independently from the consumer or business loan application information generated by the consumer wherein all personal information necessary for personally or individually identifying the consumer has been removed from both the consumer or business loan application information and from the third party consumer credit information prior to the anonymous transaction profiles being received by the supplier computing system;

using the supplier computing system to electronically select consumers for issuing pre-approved loan offers based entirely from the anonymous transaction profiles received from the distributor computing system without ever knowing the particular identity of the customers; and

using the supplier computing system to electronically send the pre-approved loan offers to a subset of the consumers over the computer network.

2. The method according to claim 1 wherein one of the supplier criteria sent from the supplier computing system to the distributor computing system specifies only receiving requests for risk-based financial services from consumers having previous financial service relationships with a supplier, the distributor computing system then sending only anonymous transaction profiles back to the supplier computing system matching the previous financial service relationship supplier criteria.

3. The method according to claim 1 where the supplier criteria includes offer fees paid by a supplier to provide pre-approved offers to the subset of consumers.

4. The method according to claim 3 where the offer fees correspond with a competitive ranking of the pre-approved offer when provided to the consumers.

5. The method according to claim 1 where the supplier criteria includes acceptance fees to be paid by a supplier upon acceptance of the pre-approved offers by the consumers.

6. The method according to claim 1 including electronically providing one or more criteria selection categories at the supplier computing system, a supplier sorting the anonymous transaction profiles according to at least one of the criteria selection categories.

7. The method according to claim 1 including one or more consumers accepting the pre-approved offers and the distributor computing system then electronically and automatically providing information that uniquely identifies those consumers to the supplier computing system.

8. The method according to claim 1 including:

electronically identifying a plurality of distributors corresponding to one or more sets of the anonymous transaction profiles, one or more of the distributors specifying distributor criteria that includes distributor conditions for a supplier to provide pre-approved offers to the consumers corresponding to that distributor;

electronically comparing the distributor criteria with the supplier criteria from the supplier computing system; and

electronically identifying a subset of the distributors responsive to the comparing of the distributor criteria and supplier offer criteria.

9. The method according to claim 8 including:

electronically selecting a subset of anonymous transaction profiles associated with a subset of distributors;

electronically providing the pre-approved offers to the consumers corresponding to the selected subset of anonymous transaction profiles.

10. The method according to claim 9 where the distributor criteria includes distributor charges paid by the supplier when pre-approved offers are provided to corresponding consumers or accepted by corresponding consumers.

11. The method according to claim 8 where the comparing excludes consumers associated with one or more of the distributors from receiving pre-approved offers from a supplier.

12. The method according to claim 8 where the distributor criteria restricts the type of pre-approved offers or the content in the pre-approved offers from a supplier.

13. A method of electronically providing anonymous transaction service, comprising:

electronically submitting consumer applications to an intermediary, wherein each application contains only demographic and employment information specifically required to qualify for a product and personal information necessary to obtain a consumer credit report;

electronically obtaining the consumer credit reports and merging credit and payment information from said credit report with the consumer'"'"'s demographic and employment information;

electronically comparing the merged demographic, employment, credit, and payment information, not including personal identifiers, with the minimum criteria necessary for said product;

electronically evaluating the merged demographic, employment, credit, and payment information, not including personal identifiers, to determine the risk associated with extending credit to the consumer and to determine a product price; and

electronically providing to qualified consumers possessing the desired demographic, employment, credit, and payment characteristics pre-approved offers from suppliers willing to provide the requested product.

14. The method of electronically providing anonymous transaction service of claim 13 where the third party information includes at least one of a driving record, a medical record, and a court record.

15. A method of electronically providing anonymous transaction services, comprising:

electronically communicating at an intermediary computing system over a computer network remotely with both clients, loan suppliers, and at least one third party credit bureau service;

using the intermediary computing system to electronically compile client loan application files provided by the clients over the computer network, the client loan application files including loan application data sets that contain personal client loan application information that uniquely identify the clients and is not required by the loan suppliers to make pending loan offers to the clients, the client loan application files also including loan application data sets that contain anonymous client loan information that does not uniquely identify the clients and that does provide loan information required by the loan suppliers to make pending risk-based loan offers to the clients;

using the intermediary computing system to electronically compile third party credit bureau report files from a third party credit bureau service that operates externally and independently from the intermediary computing system and externally and independently from the loan suppliers, the third party credit bureau report files including both personal client credit report information that uniquely identifies the clients but is not required by the loan suppliers to make the pending risk-based loan offers to the clients and anonymous client credit report information that does not personally identify the clients and includes at least a credit score that is required by the loan suppliers for determining whether or not to make the pending risk-based loan offers to the clients;

using the intermediary computing system to electronically separate the personal client loan application information from the anonymous client loan information in the client loan application files;

using the intermediary computing system to electronically and automatically purge the personal client credit report information from the third party credit bureau report files received from the third party credit bureau service;

using the intermediary computing system to electronically and automatically combine the separated anonymous client loan information with the anonymous client credit report information from the purged third party credit bureau report files to form anonymous loan transaction profiles;

using the intermediary computing system to electronically send the anonymous loan transaction profiles including the combined anonymous client loan information and anonymous client credit report information over the computer network to the loan suppliers without revealing the personal client loan application information and the personal client credit report information to the loan suppliers, enabling the loan suppliers to evaluate and selectively send pre-approved pending risk-based loan offers to at least one qualifying subset of the clients associated with anonymous client loan information and combined anonymous client credit report information qualifying for the pre-approved pending risk-based loan offers;

using the intermediary computing system to electronically receive the selected pre-approved pending risk-based loan offers from said loan suppliers and then forward the pre-approved pending risk-based loan offers to the clients; and

using the intermediary computing system to electronically and automatically send the personal client loan information and personal client credit report information to associated loan suppliers when for clients that accept the pre-approved pending risk-based loan offers from the associated loan suppliers.

16. The method of claim 15 including:

using a supplier computing system to electronically send supplier criteria for receiving the anonymous loan transaction profiles to the intermediary computing system over the computer network;

using the intermediate computing system to electronically compare the anonymous loan transaction profiles with the supplier criteria and send any the anonymous loan transaction profiles that satisfy the supplier criteria to the supplier computing system;

using the supplier computing system to electronically select clients for sending the pre-approved pending loan offers based only on the anonymous loan transaction profiles received from the intermediary computing network without ever knowing the personal identify of the selected clients and electronically sending the pre-approved pending loan offers to the selected clients over the computer network.

17. The method of claim 15 including:

using a computer system to;

compile the plurality of client loan application files,

send the anonymous client credit report information along with the anonymous client loan information to the loan suppliers in the anonymous loan transaction profiles to enable the loan suppliers to select subsets of clients based upon the anonymous client information and selectively provide different loan terms or loan products to the selected subsets of clients according to the anonymous client credit report information and the anonymous client loan information in the anonymous information profile,

receive pre-approved loan offers from said loan suppliers on behalf of the selected subsets of clients, and

provide client'"'"'s personal information to the supplier after the client accepts the supplier'"'"'s offer.

18. The method of claim 15 including using the intermediate computing system to electronically obtain the third party credit bureau report files from the third party credit bureau service using both the anonymous client loan information and the personal client loan application information and then filtering the personal client credit report information from the third party credit bureau report files and automatically attaching the filtered third party credit bureau report files to the anonymous client loan information to generate the anonymous loan transaction profiles that provide sufficient anonymous client financial information for the loan suppliers to independently make the pre-approved pending risk-based loan offers.

19. The method of claim 15 including using the intermediary computer system to electronically provide one or more of the loan suppliers with the terms of the pre-approved pending risk-based offers provided to the clients by other loan suppliers.

20. The method of claim 15 where the loan suppliers receive the personal client loan application information independently of the intermediary computer system and obtain one or more third party credit bureau report files for the clients accepting the pre-approved pending risk-based loan offers to verify the anonymous client loan information and anonymous client credit report information provided to the loan suppliers by the intermediary computer system.