Claims
- 1. A method, comprising:
receiving from an educational institution an indication of a refund amount associated with a student of the educational institution student; determining a method of refund delivery associated with the student; and automatically arranging for the refund amount to be provided to the student in accordance with the determined method of delivery.
- 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the method of delivery comprises one of: (i) an electronic transfer of the refund amount to a bank account associated with the student, (ii) a paper check mailed to an address associated with the student, and (iii) a transfer of the refund amount to a credit account associated with the student.
- 3. The method of claim 1, wherein a total refund amount is transferred from an account associated with the educational institution to a group holding account at a facilitating bank, the total refund amount representing refunds for a plurality of students, and further comprising:
providing information to the bank indicating a set of students along with a portion of the total refund amount associated with each student.
- 4. The method of claim 1, wherein a total refund amount is transferred from an account associated with the educational institution to an escrow account, the total refund amount representing refunds for a plurality of students, and further comprising:
arranging for the total refund amount to be transferred from the escrow account to a group holding account; and providing information to the bank indicating a set of students along with a portion of the total refund amount associated with each student.
- 5. The method of claim 1, wherein a plurality of refund amounts are transferred from an account associated with the educational institution to a plurality of temporary holding accounts associated with a plurality of students.
- 6. The method of claim 1, wherein a total refund amount is transferred from an account associated with the educational institution to an escrow account at a bank, the total refund amount representing refunds for a plurality of students, the method further comprising:
instructing the bank to transfer from the escrow account a first refund amount associated with a first student.
- 7. The method of claim 6, wherein the bank is to transfer the first refund amount from the escrow account to one of: (i) a temporary holding account, (ii) a bank account associated with the first student at another bank via an electronic funds transfer, (iii) the student via a paper check sent via postal mail, and (iv) a non-temporary account associated with the first student at the bank.
- 8. The method of claim 1, wherein the received indication includes at least one of: (i) an educational institution identifier, (ii) a student identifier, and (iii) an indication of the refund amount.
- 9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:
verifying the received indication.
- 10. The method of claim 9, wherein said verifying includes at least one of: (i) comparing refund amounts associated with a plurality of students to an amount currently available in an escrow account, (ii) comparing the refund amount to a pre-determined threshold limit, (iii) comparing a student identifier with a list of existing student identifiers; (iv) calculating a hash value associated with the received indication, and (v) calculating a checksum associated with the received indication.
- 11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:
generating a refund information report.
- 12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:
performing a refund information search.
- 13. The method of claim 1, wherein the educational institution is associated with at least one of: (i) a university, (ii) a college, (iii) a technical school, (iv) a professional education program, (v) a government training program, and (vi) an on-line educational program.
- 14. The method of claim 1, further comprising:
receiving from the student an indication of a preferred method of delivery.
- 15. The method of claim 14, wherein the indication is received from the student via a communication network.
- 16. The method of claim 14, wherein the preferred method of delivery comprises deposit to a bank account previously distributed to the student via the educational institution.
- 17. The method of claim 16, wherein the bank account is associated with a student identification card.
- 18. The method of claim 16, further comprising:
receiving, via the educational institution, information associated with the student; and arranging for the bank account to be created for the student based on the received information.
- 19. The method of claim 18, wherein the bank account comprises at least one of: (i) a demand deposit account, (ii) a negotiable order of withdrawal account, (iii) a money market account, (iv) a savings account, (v) an asset management account, and (vi) a brokerage account.
- 20. The method of claim 18, wherein said arranging comprises:
establishing a soft bank account based on the received information; receiving an indication of acceptance associated with the member; and activating the soft bank account in response to the received indication.
- 21. The method of claim 20, wherein the indication of acceptance includes security information.
- 22. The method of claim 20, wherein the indication of acceptance is received via at least one of: (i) the member, (ii) the educational institution, (iii) a merchant, (iv) a public network, (v) a private network, (vi) a telephone call, (vii) the Internet, and (viii) a representative.
- 23. The method of claim 18, wherein the received information comprises at least one of: (i) a Social Security number, (ii) a member identification number, (iii) a name, (iv) a date of birth, (v) an address, (vi) a telephone number, (vii) a student/local address, (viii) a student/local telephone number, (ix) a graduation date, (x) a status, (xi) a major, (xii) an electronic mail address, (xiii) a drivers license number, (xiv) a passport number, (xv) citizenship information, (xvi) barcode information, (xvii) a parent name, (xviii) a parent address, (xix) image information, and (xx) an educational institution identifier.
- 24. An apparatus, comprising:
a processor; and a storage device in communication with said processor and storing instructions adapted to be executed by said processor to:
receive from an educational institution an indication of a refund amount associated with a student of the educational institution; determining a method of refund delivery associated with the student; and automatically arranging for the refund amount to be provided to the student in accordance with the determined method of delivery.
- 25. The apparatus of claim 24, wherein said storage device further stores at least one of: (i) a student database, and (ii) a refund database.
- 26. The apparatus of claim 24, further comprising:
a communication device coupled to said processor and adapted to communicate with at least one of: (i) a refund controller, (ii) an educational institution device, (iii) a member device, and (iv) a bank device.
- 27. A medium storing instructions adapted to be executed by a processor to perform a method, said method comprising:
receiving from an educational institution an indication of a refund amount associated with a student of the educational institution; determining a method of refund delivery associated with the student; and automatically arranging for the refund amount to be provided to the student in accordance with the determined method of delivery.
- 28. A method, comprising:
receiving, from an educational institution, information associated with a refund to be provided to a student of the educational institution; and arranging for a transfer of payment with the educational institution in exchange for at least one of: (i) facilitating the transfer of the refund amount to the student, and (ii) facilitating the transfer of refund amounts to a plurality of students.
- 29. A method, comprising:
receiving an indication of a payment amount associated with an educational institution member; arranging for the payment amount to be transferred from an escrow account that is associated with a plurality of members to a holding account that is associated with the member who will receive the payment amount; and arranging for the payment amount to be transferred from the holding account to an account associated with the member.
- 30. The method of claim 29, wherein the member comprises at least one of: (i) a student, (ii) an educational institution employee, and (iii) an alum.
- 31. The method of claim 29, wherein the payment amount is transferred from the holding account in accordance with a method of delivery that is preferred by the member.
- 32. A method, comprising:
receiving at a bank a total payment amount associated with a plurality of parties, wherein the payment amount is stored in an escrow account; receiving at the bank an indication of a payment amount associated with a party; transferring the payment amount from the escrow account to a holding account; and transferring the payment amount from the holding account to another account associated with the party.
- 33. The method of claim 32, wherein the payment amount is transferred from the holding account in accordance with a method of delivery that is preferred by the party.
- 34. The method of claim 32, wherein payment amount represents money to be transferred from an institution to the party.
- 35. The method of claim 34, wherein the institution comprises at least one of: (i) a corporation, (ii) a government entity, and (iii) a charitable organization.
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] The present application: (i) claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/458,671 entitled “Systems and Methods for Facilitating a Student Refund” and filed on Mar. 28, 2003; and (ii) is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/345,605 entitled “Systems and Methods for Facilitating a Distribution of Bank Accounts via an Educational Institution” and filed on Jan. 16, 2003, which claimed the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/350,255 entitled “Systems and Methods for Facilitating a Distribution of Bank Accounts via an Educational Institution” and filed on Jan. 17, 2002. The entire contents of these applications are incorporated herein by reference.
Provisional Applications (2)
|
Number |
Date |
Country |
|
60458671 |
Mar 2003 |
US |
|
60350255 |
Jan 2002 |
US |
Continuations (1)
|
Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
10345605 |
Jan 2003 |
US |
Child |
10799387 |
Mar 2004 |
US |