US 8,341,076 B1Granted

Automatic overdraft attached to prepaid debit card accounts

AssigneeGalileo Processing, Inc.

InventorT. Clay Wilkes

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Abstract

A system for managing financial accounts includes one or more account holders. An account holder data structure is associated with one or more financial accounts. The financial accounts are defined to flexibly respond to the needs of the account holders. A balance is also associated with each of the one or more financial accounts, and an overdraft balance is associated with at least one of the one or more financial accounts. The balances, including the overdraft balance, are accessed through the accounts by one or more access methods, such as prepaid debit card or stored value financial cards. When a transaction initiated with an access method attempts to access an amount in a balance which exceeds the available amount of the balance, the access method accesses an amount in the overdraft balance through the overdraft account to complete the transaction.

Claims20

Dependent claims

In an electronic financial system including a computing device including a processor and a memory, a method for providing overdraft protection for a prepaid financial account, the method comprising:

maintaining an electronic record of available funds in the memory, wherein the available funds are accessed by a user via a prepaid financial card;
receiving a request from a merchant to perform a financial transaction associated with the prepaid financial card by which funds in a transaction amount associated with a completed transaction with the user are to be transferred to the merchant using the computing device, wherein the transaction amount was below a predetermined amount so that the merchant did not require verification of funds prior to completing the transaction with the user and wherein the transaction amount causes the available funds to fall below a threshold amount;
in response to the request to perform the financial transaction, the processor authorizing said funds to be transferred to the merchant, such that the prepaid financial card has been overdrawn by an overdraft amount that is the difference between the transaction amount and the threshold amount;
and
using an overdraft account associated with the user and the electronic record of available funds in the memory to cover at least the overdraft amount, wherein a line of credit of the overdraft account is at least as great as the predetermined amount that allows the merchant to complete the transaction with the user without verifying the availability of funds in the electronic record so that sufficient funds are available in the overdraft account to cover the overdraft amount.

2 more elements

A method for providing overdraft protection for a prepaid financial account in an electronic financial system including a computing device including a memory and a processor, the method comprising:

establishing an account holder data structure in the memory, the account holder data structure being associated with a user who can access an account of the financial system via an access method;
establishing an account control in the memory, wherein the account control:
is associated with the account holder data structure and has an account definition that defines capabilities and functionality of an associated account that can be accessed by a user;
and
is accessed by a prepaid financial card via the access method;
storing a balance that is associated with the account control in the memory;
and
establishing an overdraft account control that is associated with the account control and with an overdraft balance, wherein an amount of the overdraft balance can be accessed when a transaction is completed between the merchant and user without the merchant verifying the availability of funds in the balance associated with the account control and wherein the computing device transferring the transaction amount to the merchant and causes the balance associated with the account control to fall below a threshold amount;
wherein the overdraft balance is at least as great as a predetermined amount that allows the merchant to complete the transaction with the user without verifying the availability of funds in the balance associated with the account control so that sufficient funds are available in the overdraft account to cover the overdraft amount.

6 more elements

A financial system for providing overdraft protection for a prepaid financial account using a computing device including a processor and a memory, the system comprising:

an account holder stored in the memory being associated with a user who can access an account of the financial system by communicating with the processor connected to the memory;
an account control stored in the memory, wherein the account control:
is associated with the account holder and has an account definition that defines capabilities and functionality of an associated account that can be accessed by a user;
and
is accessed by a prepaid financial card that the user gives to a merchant in order to initiate a transaction in a transaction amount;
a balance that is associated with the account control in the memory;
and
an overdraft account control that is associated with the account control and with an overdraft account balance in the memory, wherein an amount of the overdraft balance can be accessed when the transaction is completed between the merchant and the user without the merchant verifying the availability of funds in the balance associated with the account control and wherein the computing device transferring the transaction amount to the merchant causes a balance associated with the account control to fall below a threshold amount;
wherein the amount of the overdraft balance is at least as great as a predetermined amount that allows the merchant to complete the transaction with the user without verifying the availability of funds in the balance associated with the account control so that sufficient funds are available in the overdraft account to cover the overdraft amount.

6 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.