Conditional balance management for non-issuer debit instruments
OwnerGary Stephen Shusterinventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A computer receives information about a debit account controlled by a third-party issuer, a user owing the account and instructions for managing the account after a specified trigger date. Operating according the instructions, an unknown remaining balance in the account may be exhausted after the trigger date has passed, using a sequence of charges responsive to the initial balance, to the last charge amount completed or attempted, and to whether or not the last charge amount is accepted. In the alternative, or in addition, the account may be managed to convert the remaining balance to a non-monetary coupon (e.g., “virtual currency”) for use in an online computer game or the like, after the trigger date.
Claims19
A method for conditionally exhausting a debit balance in an account, comprising:
- registering an identifier for a debit account controlled by a third-party issuer and having an authorized user, and an associated future date in a database, using at least one computer;
- automatically monitoring a current date, using at least one computer, to determine when the current date is not earlier than the future date;
- in response to determining that the current date is not earlier than the future date, automatically charging the account using at least one charge transaction in a series of charges calculated to substantially exhaust an unknown remaining balance amount of the debit account, using at least one computer;
- and
- initiating a payment transaction for an amount computed using a cumulative sum of successfully completed charges performed as part of the automatically charging the account, according to payment instructions received from the authorized user.
A computer-readable medium encoded with instructions configured so that execution of the instructions by a processor will cause a computer to perform the operations of:
- registering an identifier for a debit account controlled by a third-party issuer and having an authorized user, and an associated future date in a database;
- automatically monitoring a current date to determine when the current date is not earlier than the future date;
- in response to determining that the current date is not earlier than the future date, automatically charging the account using at least one charge transaction in a series of charges calculated to substantially exhaust an unknown remaining balance amount of the debit account;
- and
- initiating a payment transaction for an amount computed using a cumulative sum of successfully completed charges performed as part of the automatically charging the account, according to payment instructions received from the authorized user.
A method for managing a debit balance in a payment account, comprising:
- creating an account record in a computer memory device on a first date, using at least one computer, wherein the account record defines a debit balance expressed in a monetary currency unit;
- maintaining a record of a defined exchange rate between the monetary currency unit and a corresponding non-monetary coupon unit in a computer memory device, using at least one computer;
- using at least one computer responsive to current value of the defined exchange rate to maintain a debit balance in the account record responsive to monetary currency transactions and to non-monetary coupon transactions, until a predetermined second date falling after the first date;
- and
- beginning on the second date, using at least one computer to maintain a debit balance in the account record responsive only to non-monetary coupon transactions and not to monetary currency transactions.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.