Classifications

• • G—PHYSICS
  • G06—COMPUTING OR CALCULATING; COUNTING
  • G06Q—INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
  • G06Q20/00—Payment architectures, schemes or protocols
  • G06Q20/04—Payment circuits
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G06—COMPUTING OR CALCULATING; COUNTING
  • G06Q—INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
  • G06Q40/00—Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes
  • G06Q40/02—Banking, e.g. interest calculation or account maintenance

Definitions

• the present invention relates to a data processing system
• the account number typically has a 16 digit card number embossed on the card.
• the 16 digit number consists of an initial 6 digit Bank Identification Number (BIN), followed by a 10 digit number.
• BIN Bank Identification Number
• the BIN identifies the issuer bank such as Bank of America ® and Chase ® that issued the card.
• the remaining 10 digit number identifies a particular card issued by the issuer. Accordingly, the 16 digit number on the credit card uniquely identifies a card and therefore the cardholder.
• Enhancement features are services or goods that a card issuer provides in addition to processing purchase transactions of the cardholders. Examples of enhancement features include zero liability from loss of card, auto rental collision damage waiver, emergency cash disbursement and card replacement, lost/stolen card reporting, extra warranty period for products, travel accident insurance, lost luggage reimbursement, roadside dispatch, cash back and frequent flyer mileage.
• the Visa Traditional card is targeted to customers that are new to credit and sub-prime customers.
• the low end card may have a very limited set of basic or core enhancement features such as zero liability from loss of card.
• Visa Signature Preferred card is offered to high net worth individuals with a high card usage.
• the high end card may have an additional set of optional enhancement features such as airport lounge access, extras warranty period and companion airline ticket. [007] Conventionally, these card types have been managed by either the
• a system for managing enhancement features on an individual financial presentation device basis includes an accounts database and a feature management module that runs in a computer.
• the accounts database stores account holder data containing assigned enhancement features for associated financial presentation devices.
• the feature management module is capable of updating and managing the assigned features of an individual financial presentation device independently of other financial presentation devices so as to provide enhancement features that can be customized for each individual presentation device holder.
• Each financial presentation device is presentable to providers of goods or services and is associated with a respective one of individual financial accounts.
• the accounts database stores account holder data for the financial accounts with each account holder data containing assigned enhancement features for an associated financial presentation device.
• the method involves receiving an account identifier that uniquely identifies an individual financial presentation device along with a selection of enhancement features to be assigned to the identified financial presentation device.
• the assigned enhancement features for the identified financial presentation device are updated independently of other financial presentation devices.
• FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an exemplary enhancement features management system.
• FIG. 2 illustrates a block diagram of a server computer that stores
• FIG. 3 illustrates the data structure of an enhancement features database.
• FIG. 4 illustrates the data structure of an accounts database.
• FIG. 5 illustrates a method of querying the accounts database to determine what enhancement features are assigned to a particular credit card.
• FIG. 6 illustrates a method of updating the enhancement features assigned to a particular credit card.
• FIG. 7 illustrates a method by a cardholder to customize a credit card.
• the present invention in essence, does away with such defined product types. This is done by a system that manages enhancement features on an individual card basis without any rigid product type definitions. As such, the enhancement features for each card are custom tailored so that the card can be its own product type.
• the present system of managing enhancement features at the account number level provides substantial benefits for all entities involved.
• the card issuers benefit because they can develop customized or specialized card products to meet defined customer segments (e.g., Hispanic, youth, affluent, travelers, shoppers, etc.), which can be as small as one cardholder.
• customer segments e.g., Hispanic, youth, affluent, travelers, shoppers, etc.
• the issuer can control the enhancement features of individual cardholders, it can target a specific customer segment, add a particular enhancement feature and analyze the spending pattern of the targeted segment afterwards to see the effect of the added enhancement feature.
• the issuer can target a segment of cardholders that charges an average of at least $5000 per year in a travel related category, offer an airport lounge access feature to the targeted segment, and analyze in the future the changes in spending pattern of the target segment to see how effective the airport lounge access feature was to the targeted segment.
• controlling the enhancement features on an individual card level basis allows the issuer to better correlate the customer spending pattern to particular enhancement features to find out which features may be useful to which cardholders. With this information, the issuer can more precisely target specific customer segments with those enhancement features that are likely to be useful, which will lead to increased card usage.
• Cardholders also receive many benefits. With the present invention, the issuers are more likely to offer those enhancement features that are more useful to the individual cardholders. The present invention also allows each cardholder to personalize the card by selecting his own card enhancements based on his own needs and interests. Moreover, because individual enhancement features can be assigned to each card independent of other cards, the card can be switched to a different product type without changing the card number.
• a card with a 1 % cash back enhancement feature can be switched to a card offering a 1.5% cash back enhancement feature without the card number change.
• a Visa Traditional card can be changed to a Visa Signature card type without the card number being changed.
• the present invention also benefits card transaction processing interchange entities such as Visa.
• the interchange entity can gain a comprehensive view of enhancement feature assignments and changes. Consequently, the interchange entity can provide broad insights into cardholder lifetime value by correlating cardholder spending with enhancement features, which allows issuers to optimize enhancement feature offerings that drive card usage.
• An exemplary block diagram of the above-described enhancement features management system 10 is shown in FIG. 1.
• the centralized enhancement features management system contains an Enhancement Management System (EMS) server 12 and a set 14 of databases that are in communication with the EMS server.
• the set 14 includes an accounts database 16, enhancement features database 18, issuers database 19 and feature providers database 20. These databases may be owned by an interchange or individual issuer banks.
• the system 10 can be accessed by any relevant user to identify and manage enhancement features assigned to the cards.
• the relevant users include cardholders, issuers of cards, interchange such as Visa®, Mastercard® and American Express® and enhancement feature providers.
• the system 10 is connected to a computer network 4 through a communication link 6.
• the network 4 includes a combination of private networks such as VisaNet® and public networks such as the Internet to provide many different ways for accessing the system.
• a transaction history database 8 storing the historical transaction history of cardholders may be connected to the enhancement features management system 10 through the network 4 for analyzing and reporting on the card usage as will be explained in detail later herein.
• the EMS server 12 of the present invention centrally manages enhancement features assigned to each individual credit card independent of other credit cards.
• the server 12 includes a multitasking, realtime software technology that can concurrently handle hundreds of thousands of queries and updates.
• the server 12 is connected to the communication link 6 through an
• the server 12 of FIG. 2 includes memory storage 24, processor (CPU) 26, program storage 28, and data storage 30, all commonly connected to each other through a bus 32.
• the program storage 28 stores, among others, a feature management program or module 34, an analysis module 36 and web interface module 35. Any of the software program modules in the program storage 28 and data from the data storage 30 are transferred to the memory 24 as needed and is executed by the CPU 26.
• the server 12 can be any computer such as a personal computer, minicomputer, workstation or mainframe, or a combination thereof. While the server 12 is shown, for illustration purposes, as a single computer unit, the system may comprise a group/farm of computers which can be scaled depending on the processing load and database size.
• the enhancement features can be identified in two ways. It can be identified by an individual enhancement feature number such as Eh1 for enhancement feature number 1. It can also be identified in a group of enhancement features. For example, Group one (Gp1 ) includes enhancement feature numbers 1 , 2, 3 and 4 while Group two (Gp2) includes enhancement feature numbers 1 , 2, 3 and 6.
• FIG. 4 The data structure of the accounts database 16 that contains the assigned enhancement features for individual cards is shown in FIG. 4.
• Each account holder's data in the database 16 is accessed by the EMS server 12 using a 16 digit credit card number associated with the account which is unique to that particular card.
• Each account contains a series of account holder data fields for storing the enhancement features assigned to the associated credit card. For example, enhancement feature numbers 1 , 3 and 4 are assigned to the holder of account one (acct 1 ) while feature numbers 2 and 5, and feature numbers 1 , 3 and 8 (members of Group three) are assigned to the holder of account two (acct 2).
• the accounts database 16 contains other data such as the card type, appearance and "Card
• a method of querying the accounts database 16 to find out what enhancement features are assigned to a particular credit card will now be described with reference to FIG. 5.
• the method is part of the feature management module 34 executed by the CPU 26 of the server 12.
• a user logs in to the server 12 by submitting a user identification and a password. If the user is accessing the server 12 through the Internet, the web interface module 35 works in conjunction with the feature management module 34 to generate web pages (e.g., HTML, XHTML and XML pages) that are appropriate for display in a web browser.
• web pages e.g., HTML, XHTML and XML pages
• the server 12 checks the login information against an appropriate database (accounts database 16, issuers database 19 or feature providers database 20 as the case may be) that stores such information. The server 12 determines whether the login information is valid. Once the login information has been validated by the server 12, the user submits and the server receives through the network 4 the full card number that uniquely identifies a particular card in step 42. In the embodiment shown, there are 16 digits in a credit card. Accordingly, the user submits the 16 digit credit card number as the account number. In step 44, the server 12 checks the access privilege of the user to make sure that the card number received is allowed to be queried. If, for example, the user is a card issuer and the credit card associated with the card number received was not issued by the issuer, then the server 12 denies access to any information related to such card number.
• an appropriate database as accounts database 16, issuers database 19 or feature providers database 20 as the case may be
• the sever 12 determines that the card number received is allowed to be queried, it transmits the received 16 digit card number to the accounts database 16 and retrieves the account data for the card including the assigned enhancement features (step 46). In step 48, the retrieved data is sent to the user through the network 4 for display at a user's computer.
• the EMS server 12 allows updates to the assigned enhancement features as well as queries.
• FIG. 6 illustrates a method of updating the enhancement features assigned to a particular credit card. The method is part of the feature management module 34 executed by the CPU 26 of the server 12. Steps 50 through 58 are similar to respective steps 40-48 of FIG. 5, except that in step 54, additional privilege checking is performed by the feature management module 34.
• the feature management module 34 checks to see whether the user is allowed to update the enhancement features assigned to the received card number. For example, if a card issuer (e.g., issuer bank) logs in, the server 12 allows the issuer to not only read, but to update the assigned enhancement features for cards that are issued by the issuer. On the other hand, if an enhancement feature provider for only a frequent flyer mileage feature logs in, the provider is allowed to only query whether the card number submitted in step 52 has the frequent flyer mileage feature.
• a card issuer e.g., issuer bank
• the server 12 prepares and sends selection options for the user.
• the selection options may include a list of selectable individual enhancement features, groups of enhancement features and options to delete the enhancement features that are already assigned.
• the option of selecting enhancement features based on a group number may be especially appealing to issuers that are initially transitioning cardholders with existing card types to the new system 10. For example, to transition a cardholder having the Visa Traditional card type, the issuer may do so simply by selecting Group 1 option which includes all of the enhancement features assigned to the Visa Traditional card type.
• step 62 the server 12 receives the user's update instructions through the network 4.
• step 64 the feature management module 34 updates the account record associated with the credit card number by instructing the accounts database 16 to store the updated account record.
• the ability to centrally manage enhancement features at the individual account number level is a powerful tool that allows a card issuer to develop a customized set of enhancement features for a customer segment which can be as small as one customer.
• the system 10 also allows a customer or cardholder to customize the enhancement features and even the physical appearance of the card as shown in FIG. 7.
• the method is again a part of the feature management module 34 executed by the CPU 26 of the server 12.
• the cardholder logs in to the server 12 by submitting through the network 4 the full 16 digit card number that uniquely identifies the holder's card along with a password or a PIN assigned by the issuer of the card.
• step 72 determines whether a credit card has already been issued to the cardholder by checking the "Card Issued" field of the accounts database 16. If the card has already been issued, control of the feature management module 34 passes to step 74 in which the server 12 accesses the accounts database 16 and retrieves the account data for the card including the assigned enhancement features. In step 76, the retrieved data is sent to the cardholder through the network 4 for display at the cardholder's computer.
• the server 12 prepares and sends selection options for the cardholder (step 78).
• the selection options may include a list of selectable individual enhancement features, groups of enhancement features and options to delete the enhancement features that are already assigned.
• the server in step 80 prepares and sends selection options for the cardholder.
• the enhancement options in step 80 may further include various customizable features of the credit card such as appearance (e.g., background image, color) and type of card (e.g., Traditional, Signature).
• step 72 the server 12 executes step
• the feature management module 34 updates the account record associated with the credit card number and instructs the accounts database 16 to store the updated account record.
• the system 10 may be connected to the transaction history database 8 which stores the card transaction usage history of the cardholders.
• the analysis module 36 works in conjunction with the feature management module 34 and the transaction history database 8 to generate target customer segments, update enhancement features and generate reports. [0047]
• the analysis module 36 is used by issuers and interchange entities to query the accounts database 16 and the transaction history database 8 to target a selected set of accounts having particular criteria specified by the user.
• the criteria may be, for example, any account that charges an average of $10,000 per year in a transportation category.
• the feature management module 34 then updates the accounts database 16 by adding a selected enhancement feature (e.g., travel & emergency assistance services feature) and notifies the targeted cardholders of the update.
• a selected enhancement feature e.g., travel & emergency assistance services feature
• the issuer can use the analysis module

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Publications (2)

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• 2008
  • 2008-02-04 US US12/025,267 patent/US8313021B2/en active Active
  • 2008-05-01 WO PCT/US2008/062166 patent/WO2008150606A2/en not_active Ceased
  • 2008-05-01 CA CA2688379A patent/CA2688379A1/en not_active Abandoned
  • 2008-05-01 JP JP2010510396A patent/JP2010529535A/ja active Pending
  • 2008-05-01 AU AU2008260429A patent/AU2008260429B2/en active Active
  • 2008-05-01 BR BRPI0810955-9A patent/BRPI0810955A2/pt not_active IP Right Cessation
  • 2008-05-01 KR KR1020097027276A patent/KR101351202B1/ko active Active
  • 2008-05-08 TW TW097117020A patent/TW200901071A/zh unknown
• 2012
  • 2012-10-18 US US13/654,957 patent/US8727211B2/en active Active

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