System and method for managing account addresses

#The present invention relates to managing accounts at banks, retail establishments and other commercial and non-commercial institutions, and more particularly to a system and method for managing customer addresses in connection with such accounts.

#Systems for managing credit card and other financial accounts are in widespread use. These systems have become sophisticated and complex, particularly as consumers become more comfortable with on-line transactions and increase their use of credit cards. Customers now use credit cards, debit cards and similar devices to make purchases, obtain cash advances, check account balances and move cash between accounts. Transactions are conducted at point-of-sale terminals in retail stores, at automated teller machines, and over the Internet using personal computers. Many consumers have established multiple accounts, and in some cases family members each have credit cards and together may be using one or more of those accounts.

#One complexity that has arisen in managing accounts (such as those for credit cards) is maintaining the appropriate addresses to which various communications to the account holder are sent. Financial institutions, for example, communicate with account holders for a number of reasons, such as sending monthly statements, mailing new account cards (when existing cards have expired), providing notice of changed conditions of use (as may be required for legal or regulatory purposes), and sending promotional literature (advertising for other products and services offered by the financial institution). If there are multiple cardholders, there may be multiple addresses to which various forms of communications are to be sent. In some cases, a customer may have one address during much of the year, and a different address during a part of the year, for example during winter months (sometimes referred to as a “snowbird” address). While existing account management systems have provided alternate addresses (for example a primary address and a different secondary address, or a correspondence address and a different billing address), such existing systems have not adequately managed the increasing frequency of multiple and changing addresses that are often associated with a single account.

#In the Figures, similar components and/or features may have the same reference label. Further, various components of the same type may be distinguished by following the reference label with a second label that distinguishes among the similar components. If only the first reference label is used in the specification, the description is applicable to any one of the similar components having the same first reference label irrespective of the second reference label.

#FIG. 1 is a general block diagram showing a network for managing accounts in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention.

#FIG. 2 illustrates a table within the database of FIG. 1.

#Referring now to FIG. 1, an account management network 100 in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention is illustrated. The network 100 manages credit card accounts and has a plurality of terminals 110 (110a through 100n), a central database management system (DBMS) 120 and a database 130. The terminals 110 are used to access data in the database 130 via the DBMS 120. The terminals 110 maybe point-of-sale terminals at remote retail establishments, where credit card information is read or entered, along with retail transaction data (e.g., the amount of a purchase, as well as the name of the retail establishment, date, product and other useful information). Such data can be conventionally collected, either by electronically reading data from magnetic strips on credit cards and from product UPC (uniform product code) labels, or by being manually entered by a clerk at a terminal keyboard.

#The terminals 110 may also include internal workstations at a bank or other central location where the credit card accounts are managed. Those workstations would be used by employees to enter, collect, retrieve or display data in connection with setting up credit card accounts, answering customer telephone inquiries, and performing other normal financial or business functions required for operating the credit card management network 100. One of the terminals 110 could also be used to query the database for addresses to be supplied to a printer (not shown) that may, for example, print address labels on envelopes for mailing communications to card holders. As should be apparent, the kinds of communications to the cardholders will vary and may include, for example, monthly statements or bills, new cards when previous cards have expired, and various letters and notices (marketing correspondence from the card issuer, legal notices, etc.).

#The DBMS 120 can be a relational database management system that permits data in the database 130 to be created, maintained, manipulated and retrieved. The database 130 is likewise relational and, as conventional, stores data in tables, with the DBMS 120 using, for example, a structured query language (SQL) in order to maintain and operate the database. While the DBMS 120 and database 130 are relational in the described embodiment, those skilled in the art will appreciate that there are many types of databases (e.g., sequential flat files, hierarchical, object oriented, etc.) that can be used within the scope of the present invention.