Patent Application
20090281937
A credit card cardholder may wish to authorize other users to purchase items using the credit card account number associated with the cardholders To allow these users to purchase items, the cardholder must give a credit card associated with the credit card account number to the users. Alternately, the cardholder must give the credit card account number to the users. A disadvantage of this approach, however, is that each user will have access to the full credit amount associated with the credit card account number. In addition, the cardholder has little control of the type of items that can be purchased by each user. For example, a cardholder who is a parent may wish to give a credit card associated with a credit card account number to a child to allow the child to make purchases. However, the parent may wish to prevent the child from spending too much money or from buying items in unapproved categories. For example, the parent may wish to only allow the child to purchase items related to educational expenses while preventing the purchase of items from restaurants, convenience stores, or gas stations.
A method for processing a purchase transaction according to one embodiments includes receiving a purchase request associated with an item of purchase. The purchase request includes sub-account information associated with a sub-account of a credit account. The method further includes associating at least one approved purchase category with the sub-account information, and determining a purchase category of the item. If the purchase category of the item is not in an approved purchase category, the method further includes sending a notification message to an account holder associated with the credit account. Some embodiments further include denying purchase of the item if the purchase category is not in an approved purchase category, and authorizing purchase of the item if the purchase category is in an approved purchase category.
An apparatus for processing a purchase transaction according to one embodiments include a processor(s) configured to receive a purchase request associated with an item of purchase The purchase request includes sub-account information associated with a sub-account of a credit account. The processor(s) is further configured to associate at least one approved purchase category with the sub-account information, and determine a purchase category of the item. If the purchase category is not in an approved purchase category, the processor(s) is configured to send a notification message to an account holder associated with the credit account. In some embodiments, the processor(s) is configured to deny purchase of the item if the purchase category is not in an approved purchase category, and authorize purchase of the item if the purchase category is in an approved purchase category.
Illustrative embodiments of the present invention are described in detail below with reference to the attached drawing figures, which are incorporated by reference herein and wherein:
The credit issuing financial institution 120 is in further communication with an sub-account server 125. The sub-account server 125 stores sub-account information related to one or more sub-accounts associated with a particular credit card account in a sub-account database 127. In accordance with various embodiments, a credit account number is associated with a particular account holder 20a. One or more individual sub-account codes are associated with the credit card account number and stored by the sub-account server 125. The account holder 20a may then assign each of the sub-account codes a portion or partition of the total credit allowed by the credit account. Accordingly, each sub-account code has a credit limit less than the credit limit associated with the credit account, and the sum of the credit limit associated with the sub-account codes is less than or equal to the credit limit associated with the credit card account. The sub-account server 125 further stores a personal identification number (PIN) associated with each sub-account code. The account holder 20a may then provide one or more of a credit account number, a sub-account code, and an associated PIN to one or more sub-account users 30a-30n. For example, the account holder 20a may be a parent and each sub-account user 30-30n that is provided with a sub-account code may be children of the parent. In another example, the account holder 20a may be a business and individual employees are provided with sub-account codes for approved purchase of approved items.
In some embodiments, the sub-account server 125 may further store sub-account information that includes a list of approved categories of items available for purchase using the sub-account code. For example, the account holder 20a may wish to allow a particular sub-account user 30a to buy only food or books while prohibiting all other purchases. In still other embodiments, the sub-account server 125 may further store a list of items prohibited for purchase for each sub-account code. For example, the account holder 20a may wish to prevent a particular sub-account user 30b from buying alcohol with the sub-account code. In still other embodiments, the sub-account server 125 may provide a list of approved businesses or website from which items may be purchased. In at least one embodiment, the sub-account server 125 is associated with a service provider.
In various embodiments, the sub-account server 125 stores credit account for a plurality of account holders 20a-20n. The sub-account server 125 further stores a sub-account information for a plurality of sub-accounts associated with each credit account. The sub-account information associated with each sub-account may include, for example, a sub-account code, a sub-account credit limit, a sub-account credit balance, and a sub-account approved purchase category list.
An example of a credit card account that has been partitioned into a plurality of sub-account codes is illustrated in TABLE 1.
Returning now to
The system 100 further includes a communication device 135 in communication with the sub-account server 125 via a network 130. In at least one embodiment, the network 130 is the Internet. In at least one embodiment, the communication device 135 is a personal computer. In still other embodiments, the communication device 135 is a mobile device. The communication device 135 is configured to allow access to the sub-account server 125 by the account holder 20a. Using the communication device 135, the account holder 20a is able to configure and modify the sub-account code associated with the credit account. Examples of modifications that may be made to the sub-account code include changing the sub-account code, changing the PIN, setting purchase amount limits, adding credits to a particular sub-account code, setting categories of allowed purchases, setting categories of prohibited purchases, and disabling one or more accounts. In at least one embodiment, the communication device 135 is further configured to allow the account holder 20a to access the sub-account server 125 to provide a listing and/or a receipt of purchases associated with each sub-account code so that the account holder 20a can view the items purchased using each sub-account code. In at last one embodiment, the sub-account server 125 obtains the listing or receipt from the credit issuing financial institution 120.
In step 230, the account holder 20a adds security information to each of the sub-account codes. In at least one embodiment, adding security information to each sub-account code includes associating a PIN with each sub-account code. In still other embodiments, adding security information to each sub-account code includes adding fingerprint identification information of a sub-account user 30a. In step 235, an account holder control setup procedure is initiated. In at least one embodiment, the account holder control setup procedure is performed using the communication device 135. In at least one embodiment, the parental control procedure includes indicating one or more preferred methods of notification of account activity, such as via telephone, text message, or email. In step 240, the account holder 20a adds credit from the credit account to each of the sub-account codes. The credit includes a predetermined credit limit that may be used to purchase items using the sub-account code. In some embodiments, the predetermined credit limit is equal to an allowed monthly spending limit. In still other embodiment, the credit limit does not replenish until the account holder 20a adds more credits to the sub-account code. In step 245, the account holder 20a adds approved purchase categories to each of the sub-account codes to associate the approved purchase categories with the sub-account code. For example, the account holder 20a may be a parent who wishes to grant a sub-account user 30a access to purchase items for educational use only, such as books or tuition.
In step 250, the account holder 20a provides the one or more sub-account codes to one or more sub-account users 30a-30n. In at least one embodiment, the account holder 20a is a parent and the sub-account users 30a-30n to which sub-account codes are provided are the parent's children. In such an embodiment, the parent is able to set customized purchase limits and purchase categories for each child. In step 255 procedure 200 ends.
In step 320, the point of sale terminal 105 sends a purchase request including the sub-account information to the acquiring financial institution 110. In step 325, the acquiring financial institution 110 forwards the purchase request to the credit issuing financial institution 120. In step 330, the credit issuing financial institution 120 sends a sub-account access request including the sub-account information to the sub-account server 125. In step 340, the sub-account server 125 determines the validity of the sub-account code and PIN. In step 345, if the sub-account code and pin is determined to be invalid, the process continues to step 350. In step 350, a purchase rejection message is sent to the POS terminal 105 indicating that the sub-account code and PIN is invalid. In step 355, the purchase is denied and in step 410 the procedure 300 ends.
If in step 345, it is determined that the sub-account code and PIN is valid, the procedure 300 continues to step 360. At step 360, a purchase category of the purchase item is checked and/or determined. In step 365, if it is determined that the item to be purchased is not in an approved purchase category, the procedure 300 continues to step 370. In step 370, a notification message is sent to the account holder 20a indicating that there is an attempt to purchase an item that is not in an approved purchase category. The notification message may further include an identification, and purchase category, and/or purchase price of the item that is attempted to be purchased. In step 375, a purchase rejection message is sent to the point of sale terminal 105. In step 380, the purchase is denied and the procedure 300 ends at step 410. In an alternate embodiment, the notification message can include a purchase approval request to prompt the account holder 20a to authorize the purchase despite the fact that it is in an approved purchase category. If the account holder 20a approves the purchase in response to the prompting, the procedure 300 continues to step 385.
Returning now to
If it is determined in step 390 that the purchase amount is not greater than the purchase limit, the purchase is authorized in step 405. Step 405 includes sending a purchase authorization from the sub-account server 125 to the credit issuing financial institution 120, the credit issuing financial institution 120 forwarding the purchase authorization to the acquiring financial institution 110, and the acquiring financial institution 110 sending a confirmation that the item has been authorized for purchase to the POS terminal 105. In an optional step 407, a purchase notification message is sent to the account holder 20a indicating that the item has been purchased. The purchase notification message may include a receipt and/or further purchase details such as cost and an identification of the item purchase. In step 410, the procedure 300 ends.
The illustrative embodiments can take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment or an embodiment containing both hardware and software elements. Furthermore, the illustrative embodiments can take the form of a computer program product accessible from a computer-usable or computer-readable medium providing program code for use by or in connection with a computer or any instruction execution system. For the purposes of this description, a computer-usable or computer-readable medium can be any tangible apparatus that can contain, store, communicate, propagate, or transport the program for use by or in connection with the instruction execution system, apparatus, or device. In various embodiments, the sub-account server 125 includes one or more processors operable to execute computer executable instructions from a computer-usable or computer-readable medium to perform the various capabilities of the sub-account server 125 described herein.
The computer-usable or computer-readable medium can be an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system (or apparatus or device) or a propagation medium. Examples of a computer-readable medium include a semiconductor or solid state memory, magnetic tape, a removable computer diskette, a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), a rigid magnetic disk and an optical disk. Current examples of optical disks include compact disk-read only memory (CD-ROM), compact disk-read/write (CD-R/W) and DVD.
Further, a computer storage medium may contain or store a computer-readable program code such that when the computer-readable program code is executed on a computer, the execution of this computer-readable program code causes the computer to transmit another computer-readable program code over a communication link. This communication link may use a medium that is, for example without limitation, physical or wireless.
The previous detailed description is of a small number of embodiments for implementing the invention and is not intended to be limiting in scope. One of skill in this art will immediately envisage the methods and variations used to implement this invention in other areas than those described in detail. The following claims set forth a number of the embodiments of the invention disclosed with greater particularity.
