Systems and methods for per-transaction financial card enabled personal financial management

• US 8,265,998 B2
• Filed: 07/07/2009
• Issued: 09/11/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 07/07/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Richard H. Chenot
• Original Assignee: Richard H. Chenot
• Inventors: Chenot, Richard H.
• Primary Examiner(s): Frenel, Vanel
• Application Number:
  US12/498,941
• Publication Number:
  US 20110010253A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,162 Days
• Field of Search: 705/17, 705/21, 705/35, 705/64, 705/65, 705/67, 705/75, 235/493
• US Class Current: 705/17
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/10 specially adapted for electronic funds transfer [EFT] systems; specially adapted for home banking systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/204 comprising interface for record bearing medium or carrier for electronic funds transfer or payment credit
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/347 Passive cards
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3572 Multiple accounts on card
• 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 40/02 Banking, e.g. interest calculation or account maintenance credit or loans G06Q40/03
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 7/08 by coded identity card or credit card or other personal identification means without personal verification means G07F7/02
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 7/0806 Details of the card record carriers per se G06K

Abstract

Systems and methods for personal financial management using a financial card having a primary account with a plurality of subaccounts within the primary account, the systems and methods includes the financial management, transaction processing systems such as point of sales system, financial account management system and support systems are configured for processing transactions from user selected subaccounts within the primary account in real time at the time of processing each payment transaction and including processing each transaction from user selected subaccounts by indicating at the time of each transaction a particular transaction identifier indicating the particular subaccount within the primary account.

Claims

1. A personal financial account management system for payment of a point of sales payment transaction related to a purchase by a user comprising:

a point of sale financial transaction account management system having a processor, a memory, a network interface and computer executed instructions configuring the system for management and administration of a primary account for use with a financial point of sale transaction card having a magnetic strip readable by a magnetic reader at one or a plurality of transaction process systems and for reviewing and authorizing in at least near real time the payment transactions received from a point of sale transaction processing system'"'"'s reading of the magnetic strip on the financial point of sale transaction car, the primary account having a plurality of subaccounts, the financial transaction account management system including a prefunded amount for each of the subaccounts within the primary account; and

the point of sale transaction processing system having a processor, a memory, a data communication interface and computer executed instructions configuring the point of sale transaction processing system for payment of a sales transaction having a point of sale transaction amount and for receiving input including a primary account number PAN from a magnetic financial card reader and for receiving a user selected subaccount indicator from among the plurality of subaccounts to be used for payment of the transaction amount, the point of sale transaction processing system transmitting the transaction amount, the received primary account number and the received subaccount indicator as a point of sale payment transaction request via the data communication interface that is communicatively coupled to the network interface of the financial transaction account management system,

wherein the financial transaction account management system includes computer executable instructions for receiving from the point of sale transaction processing system the point of sale payment transaction request including the primary account, the subaccount indicator and the transaction amount, comparing the received point of sale transaction amount with the prefunded amount of the subaccount associated with the received subaccount indicator, determining an availability of the prefunded amount within the subaccount of the subaccount indicator and transmitting over the network interface a verification of available prefunded amount to the data communication interface of the point of sale transaction processing system responsive to a successful determination of availability of prefunded amount and transmitting over the network interface a lack of funds indication to the data communication interface of the point of sale transaction processing system responsive to an unsuccessful determination of availability of prefunded amounts, at least one of which is provided in at least near real time with the receipt of the payment transaction, and wherein the point of sale transaction processing system is configured to accept verification from the financial transaction account management system and provide an authorization indication of the verified point of sale payment transaction for the point of sale payment amount from the user selected subaccount.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising a transaction payment device configured for initiating the payment of the transaction amount at the point of sale and providing the primary account number to the point of sale transaction processing system.

3. The system of claim 2 wherein the point of sale transaction payment device is a debit card configured for receiving an input identifying the selected subaccount to be used for the payment of the transaction amount and wherein the point of sale transaction processing system is configured to receive the primary account number and the subaccount indicator in the at least near real time of use of the debit card.

4. The system of claim 3 wherein the point of sale transaction processing system includes a user interface configured to receive an input for identifying the subaccount indicator associated with one of the subaccounts to be used for the payment of the transaction amount.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein the transaction payment device is selected from the group consisting of a debit card, a credit card, a prepaid card, and a smart card.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein the point of sale transaction processing system is a point of sale terminal having a transaction interface for receiving point of sale transaction information including the point of sale transaction amount, a card reader configured to read the transaction payment device including the primary account number and to receive a subaccount indicator.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein the point of sale transaction processing system includes a user interface configured to receive an input from the user for identifying one or more personal identification numbers associated with the primary account and for transmitting the received personal identification number to the financial transaction account management system, and wherein the personal identification number includes the subaccount identifier, wherein the financial transaction account management system is configured to receive the personal identification number with the subaccount identifier from the point of sale transaction processing system to verify the payment of the point of sale transaction amount from received user input subaccount responsive to the received personal identification number.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein the subaccount indicator is a single digit between 0 and 9.

9. The system of claim 1 wherein the point of sale transaction processing system is configured to receive the subaccount indicator, an associated end sentinel character, and an associated longitude redundancy check character.

10. The system of claim 1 wherein the financial transaction account management system is configured for receiving the primary account for specifying a subaccount label for each of the subaccounts within the primary account and for establishing the prefunded amounts for each of the subaccounts within the primary account.

11. The system of claim 1 wherein the financial transaction account management system is configured for receiving instructions from the point of sale transaction processing system over the data communication interface to transfer a prefunded amount from a first subaccount to a second subaccount within the same primary account.

12. The system of claim 11 wherein the financial transaction account management system is configured to transmit an instruction to the point of sale transaction processing system to prompt the user to input instructions to the point of sale transaction processing system to transmit instructions to the financial transaction management system to transfer funds from the first subaccount to the second subaccount responsive to a determination that the selected subaccount has insufficient funds for payment of the transaction amount.

13. The system of claim 1 wherein the financial transaction account management system is configured to receive an alternative subaccount indicator from the point of sale transaction processing system and is configured to utilize the alternative subaccount of the alternative subaccount indicator for processing of the point of sale transaction payment.

14. The system of claim 1 wherein the financial transaction account management system is configured for receiving a discretionary amount of user funding in a discretionary subaccount and allocating the discretionary amount from the discretionary subaccount to one or more of the other subaccounts for payment of a transaction payment upon receipt of a user instruction to allocate funds from the discretionary subaccount.

15. The system of claim 1 wherein the financial transaction account management system is configured for receiving a discretionary amount of user funding in a discretionary subaccount and for receiving a user instruction and to utilize the discretionary subaccount for payment of the transaction payment.

16. The system of claim 1 wherein the point of sale transaction processing system is configured to deny the payment of the point of sale transaction amount responsive to receiving an insufficient funds determination from the financial transaction account management system for the selected subaccount.

17. A financial system for processing point of sale transaction payments with user oriented personal financial management support comprising:

a network interface configured for interfacing with a remote point of sale transaction processing system over a communication network for receiving a primary account number, a point of sale transaction amount, and a subaccount indicator;

a database including a plurality of primary accounts each having a plurality of subaccounts each associated with a subaccount indicator and each having a prefunded amount;

a financial transaction account management system configured for management and administration of the primary accounts and the subaccounts within each primary account and point of sale transaction amounts in at least near real time, the financial transaction account management system including prefunded amounts for each of the subaccounts within each primary account and processing of transactions for payment of point of sale transaction amounts from each subaccount responsive to receiving the primary account number and the subaccount indicator.

18. A method of providing personal financial management to a user using a debit card comprising:

in a financial management system having a processor, a network interface, a memory and computer executable instructions including a database and for performing the processes of

establishing in the database a primary account for the user having a primary account number for point of sale transactions;

establishing in the database a plurality of subaccounts each with a subaccount indicator within the primary account and having a subaccount prefunded amount for point of sale transactions;

receiving funding from the user for each of the subaccounts and indicating in the database the receipt of such funding in each of the subaccounts of the primary account for point of sale transactions;

receiving over the network interface a point of sale transactions payment request from a point of sale transaction processing system located at a point of sale for payment authorization of a point of sale transaction payment associated with an activity of the user associated with the point of sale transaction processing system, the point of sale transactions payment request including a point of sale transaction amount, the primary account number, and a user selected subaccount indicator, wherein the received user selected subaccount indicator in the received payment request is one of the plurality of subaccount indicators associated with one of the plurality of subaccounts within the primary account associated with the received primary account number;

verifying the availability of funds in the subaccount associated with the received user selected subaccount indicator within the received point of sale payment request in at least near real time; and

transmitting over the network interface a point of sale transaction authorization to the point of sale transaction processing system in response in at least near real time to a positive verification of available funds within the subaccount associated with the received subaccount indicator.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

transmitting over the network interface a lack of funds indicator to the point of sale transaction processing system in response to a negative verification of available funds within the subaccount associated with the received subaccount indicator; and

transmitting over the network interface to the point of sale transaction processing system a request for an alternative subaccount to be selected by the user for processing of the payment of the transaction amount.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising receiving over the network interface at the financial management system an allocation instruction from the user;

and reallocating funding for point of sale transaction processing from the first subaccount to the second subaccount responsive to the received allocation instruction.

21. The method of claim 18, further comprising receiving over the network interface at the financial management system a discretionary amount of user funding;

and allocating the discretionary amount to one or more of the subaccounts.

22. The method of claim 21, further comprising receiving over the network interface at the financial management system a user allocation instruction, wherein the allocating is responsive to the instruction.