| DISCOVER FINANCIAL SERVICES LLC Patent applications |
| Patent application number | Title | Published |
|---|
| 20100082418 | AWARD SYSTEM WITH INCREASED PAYOUT OPTIONS - A cash rebate award system with increased payout options is presented, wherein a consumer using a financial alternative to currency is rewarded based on the purchases made by the consumer within a given time frame, and is allowed to electronically transfer the award into any number of banking or investment accounts. A standard electronic currency transfer system, such as the ABA routing number system, or the ACH routing system, can be used so as not to limit the accounts into which the consumer can transfer their award. Consumers can also choose to transfer their award to multiple accounts, or accounts belonging to others, such as family or charities. Account information can also be saved for more efficient subsequent transfers, and automated transfers can also be set up by the consumer. | 04-01-2010 |
| 20090177488 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ADJUDICATION AND SETTLEMENT OF HEALTH CARE CLAIMS - Systems and methods are disclosed for settling health care claims as part of a claim adjudication process. A standard financial transaction network is used to settle the portion of the claim not covered by insurance. Eligibility checks are also disclosed that make use of the financial transaction network to determine whether a patient has sufficient funds in a financial account to cover his portion of health care related expenses. The eligibility checks can be combined with the settlement process. | 07-09-2009 |
| 20090119202 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ADMINISTERING MULTIPLE LINES OF CREDIT - Ways are provided to allow a credit card issuing financial institution and the card member to customize a credit card account by defining an unlimited number of special-purpose lines of credit, while maintaining the overall risk at or below the overall line of credit. The individual specialized lines of credit share the overall line of credit, where the total amount of credit actually extended to the card member based on one or more of the specialized lines of credit is limited by the overall line of credit. To provide flexibility in allocating credit toward a plurality of different expenses, the sum of all of the individual lines of credit is preferably greater than the overall line of credit. Therefore, numerous special-purpose lines of credit are created for promotional, budgetary, fraud prevention, or other purposes, without negatively affecting the consumer's credit profile and/or credit score. | 05-07-2009 |
| 20090083065 | Automatic Substantiation of Health-Related Purchases Using a HIPAA-Unregulated Network - Transaction network operators can facilitate transactions of healthcare related goods via customers' tax-advantaged accounts, but without subjecting themselves to privacy regulations. Authorization for healthcare related purchases, including both price information and product information, is passed over PBM networks or other networks that already are regulation-compliant, while other purchase requests pass over existing payment card transaction networks. The PBM network divorces product information from the payment information, confirms eligibility, and passes the payment information to the general transaction network operator, indicating those funds are to come from the customer's tax-advantaged account. The network operator marries the payment information from the PBM with the other transaction information from the payment card network, withdraws appropriate funds from the tax-advantaged account, and notifies the merchant the amount that has been withdrawn from the tax-advantaged account. More generally, the methods and systems herein described can be used generally to divorce product information from financial transactions. | 03-26-2009 |
| 20080255986 | Targeting an Individual Customer for a Credit Card Promotion at a Point of Sale - Techniques are described for targeting customers with offers for pre-approved credit. The techniques can be employed while the customer is engaged in a business transaction at a merchant's point-of-sale by pre-screening for creditworthiness using basic customer information known to the merchant. The pre-screening can be performed on behalf of a single lender or in a cascading fashion on behalf of multiple lenders should the customer fail initial pre-screens. Additionally, techniques are described for using a cascading approach on customer-initiated credit applications, such that an applicant declined credit from one lender is automatically considered for credit from another lender via an arrangement between the lenders. | 10-16-2008 |
