System and method for matching loan consumers and lenders

• US 7,647,274 B2
• Filed: 12/29/2006
• Issued: 01/12/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 02/20/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Horizon Digital Finance LLC
• Original Assignee: Horizon Digital Finance LLC
• Inventors: Peterson, Dale Lowell, South, John, Thibodeau, Gregory Todd
• Primary Examiner(s): MEINECKE DIAZ, SUSANNA M
• Application Number:
  US11/648,514
• Publication Number:
  US 20070168278A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,110 Days
• Field of Search: 705/38
• US Class Current: 705/38
• 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 system and method for matching a loan consumer with lenders via the Internet includes receiving loan consumer application information. The application information is stored in a database. An internally specified filter is applied to the information to determine if the loan consumer meets a set of loan criteria. A subset of the information is submitted to a credit bureau. A credit report is generated based on the subset of information. A lender database is searched to match the customer information and credit report to ranked lenders. A query is transmitted to one of the lenders. A response is generated and received based on the query. Subsequent query and response steps are repeated only after receipt of the previous response, until all lenders have been queried. Only lenders who responded with an approval are presented for review by the customer.

Claims

1. A method of matching a loan consumer with Lenders via the Internet comprising:

a) providing a computer system, wherein the system comprises a web server, a logic-engine, an internally specified filter, and a database;

b) receiving application information inputted to the computer system by the loan consumer;

c) storing the application information in the database;

d) applying the internally specified filter to the application information stored in the database to determine if the loan consumer meets a set of internally specified loan criteria, wherein the internally specified loan criteria includes one or more of publicly available information, historical lender loan decisions, and market experience;

e) submitting a subset of the application information to a credit bureau;

f) receiving a credit report based on said submitting of the subset step;

g) searching a Lender database after said applying the filter step to match the loan consumer application information and credit report to Lenders in the database;

h) matching, by said computer system, the loan consumer application information to two or more of the Lenders in the database based on said searching step, wherein said matching determines a rank order of the two or more Lenders based on a consumer satisfaction index score;

i) transmitting a query to a Lender of the two or more Lenders matched from said matching step;

j) receiving a response from the Lender based on the query;

k) repeating steps i and j, after said receiving of the response, so as to query any remaining Lenders matched from said matching step;

l) presenting to the loan consumer only Lenders who responded with an approval from said receiving a response step; and

m) storing a loan consumer decision based on said presenting step.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein step (b) further comprises:

validating the application information.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein step (b) further comprises:

detecting an error; and

transmitting an error message to the loan consumer.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein step (c) further comprises:

determining that the application information has been previously received less than a predetermined number of days prior; and

informing the loan consumer to delay a new submission of application information until after the predetermined number of days is expired.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein step (c) further comprises:

determining that the application information has not been previously stored; and

generating a loan consumer profile based on the application information.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein step (c) further comprises:

determining that the application information has been previously stored more than a predetermined number of days prior; and

updating a corresponding previously generated loan consumer profile.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein step (l) includes sending only a predetermined number of Lender responses.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the predetermined number of Lender responses is four or less than four responses.