Patent Issued for Location-based purchase verification for fund transfers (USPTO 11436588): United Services Automobile Association

2022 SEP 23 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- United Services Automobile Association (San Antonio, Texas, United States) has been issued patent number 11436588, according to news reporting originating out of Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx editors.

The patent’s inventors are Baker, Kelly Q. (San Antonio, TX, US), Guerra, Oscar (San Antonio, TX, US), Hartshorn, Joel S. (Liberty Lake, WA, US), Jonak, Sumita T. (San Antonio, TX, US), Kamal, Pragya (Phoenix, AZ, US), Maney, Jr., Will Kerns (San Antonio, TX, US), Philbrick, Ashley Raine (San Antonio, TX, US), Roth, Valerie Ann (San Antonio, TX, US), Russell, Ryan Thomas (San Antonio, TX, US), Whitaker, Charise Renee (San Antonio, TX, US), Whittington, Paula Ann (Helotes, TX, US).

This patent was filed on December 27, 2019 and was published online on September 6, 2022.

From the background information supplied by the inventors, news correspondents obtained the following quote: “Financial account management tools have become an increasingly important resource for the average consumer. Financial services, particularly those now available for use via computing devices, can provide consumers the versatility and freedom to control their assets and credit. However, consumers with many different financial accounts, such as credit card accounts, utility accounts, mortgage accounts, etc., may have trouble keeping current with account balances, payments and other transactions. The consequences of mis-management may result in penalties being assessed against the consumer by the providing the accounts. For example, penalties may be associated with late payments or balance thresholds that are exceeded by a consumer. This type of issue is exacerbated when the account is co-held (e.g., a joint banking account) and one account holder incurs expenses that the other account holder is unaware of, at least until some time has passed following the transaction. For example, couples or parent-child account members may use a joint bank account and have joint credit or debit card accounts, whereby each person in the group individually draws on the same account and independently charges purchases to the joint account. If prompt communication regarding each purchase is not provided to the other members of the group, the charges may reach the credit card limit and/or the account may become overdrawn.

“Thus, the costs associated with failures to communicate these payments to all account holders can be significant. Furthermore, in cases of a joint account in which one person is a guardian or the “primary owner” (such as a parent) and the other is a dependent or a “secondary owner” (such as a child), the primary owner can have a strong interest in reviewing some or all financial transactions related to the joint financial transactions in order to monitor expenditures and ensure that money is spent according to a proposed budget or other their personal expectations. Conventional methods of managing financial activities of other account holders (e.g., a joint bank account) do not provide a fine level of control or granularity for the primary owner to customize and personalize their expectations and limits of account-related financial activities. Furthermore, it is imperative that such controls occur in a secure environment, to deter fraudulent attempts at obtaining the funds.

“There is a need in the art for a system and method that addresses the shortcomings discussed above.”

Supplementing the background information on this patent, NewsRx reporters also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “In one aspect, a method of increasing security of requests for access to funds held in a bank account is disclosed. The method includes receiving at a first time, from a first user of a first device, a first request for use of a first amount of the funds by the first user during a first transaction, and also receiving from the first device, around the first time, a first set of geodata representing a first location of the first device. The method also includes transmitting at least the first request and first set of geodata to a second user at a second device, and receiving a first approval of the first request from the second device. Furthermore, the method includes automatically authorizing a release of the first amount of the funds for use by the second user in response to receiving the first approval.

“In another aspect, a system for increasing security of requests for access to funds held in a bank account includes a processor and machine-readable media. The machine-readable media include instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to receive at a first time, from a first user of a first device, a first request for use of a first amount of the funds by the first user during a first transaction, and also to receive from the first device, around the first time, a first set of geodata representing a first location of the first device. In addition, the instructions cause the processor to transmit at least the first request and first set of geodata to a second user at a second device, and receive a first approval of the first request from the second device. Furthermore, the instructions cause the processor to automatically authorize a release of the first amount of the funds for use by the second user in response to receiving the first approval.

“In another aspect, a system of increasing security of requests for access to funds held in a bank account includes means for receiving at a first time, from a first user of a first device, a first request for use of a first amount of the funds by the first user during a first transaction, and means for receiving from the first device, around the first time, a first set of geodata representing a first location of the first device. In addition, the system includes means for transmitting at least the first request and first set of geodata to a second user at a second device, and means for receiving a first approval of the first request from the second device. Furthermore, the system includes means for automatically authorizing a release of the first amount of the funds for use by the second user in response to receiving the first approval.

“Other systems, methods, features, and advantages of the disclosure will be, or will become, apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art upon examination of the following figures and detailed description. It is intended that all such additional systems, methods, features, and advantages be included within this description and this summary, be within the scope of the disclosure, and be protected by the following claims.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A computer-implemented method of authorizing a transaction using funds held in a bank account, the method comprising: receiving, from a first computing device by a cloud-based account management system, a first request of a first user for a first amount of funds during a first transaction at a first time, wherein the cloud-based account management system includes a processing unit, wherein the cloud-based account management system is connected to the bank account, wherein the first computing device includes a camera, and wherein the camera includes a built-in global positioning system (GPS); determining, by the cloud-based account management system, that the first amount of funds corresponds to a first security level, wherein authorization at the first security level requires matching a location of the first user of the first computing device with a location of a merchant; receiving, from the first computing device by the cloud-based account management system, an image captured by the camera of the first computing device, wherein GPS location data corresponding to a location of the camera of the first computing device is embedded in the captured image around the first time, and wherein the GPS location data corresponding to the location of the camera corresponds to the location of the first user of the first computing device; receiving, from the first computing device by the cloud-based account management system, a geotagged record captured in real-time by the camera of the first computing device, wherein the captured geotagged record corresponds to the location of the merchant; determining, by the cloud-based account management system, that the location of the first user based on the GPS location data embedded in the captured image matches with the location of the merchant based on the captured geotagged record; transmitting, to a second user of a second computing device by the cloud-based account management system, the first request for the first amount of funds with a notification indicating that the first request was sent from the location of the merchant; receiving, from the second user of the second computing device by the cloud-based account management system, a first approval of the first request for the first amount of funds based on the notification; authorizing, by the cloud-based account management system, in response to the first approval by the second user of the second computing device, use of the funds up to the first amount when the first user of the first computing device requests an access to the funds via a merchant payment device at the location of the merchant; and completing, by the cloud-based account management system via the merchant payment device, the transaction at the location of the merchant by moving a permitted amount of funds up to the first amount from the bank account to the merchant.

“2. The method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving, from the second user of the second computing device by the cloud-based account management system, a registration linking the bank account to the cloud-based account management system, wherein the registration indicates a maximum amount of funds that may be used without first obtaining approval, and wherein the first amount is greater than the maximum amount.

“3. The method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving, from the second user of the second computing device by the cloud-based account management system, a registration linking the bank account to the cloud-based account management system, wherein the registration indicates a first range of funds that may be approved only upon a receipt of the GPS location data of the first user of the first computing device, and wherein the first amount is within the first range.

“4. The method of claim 1, further comprising: presenting, to the second user of the second computing device by the cloud-based account management system, a message including the first request and the GPS location data of the first user of the first computing device based on the GPS location data of the camera.

“5. The method of claim 1, further comprising: automatically presenting, to the second user of the second computing device by the cloud-based account management system, a map that represents the location of the first user of the first computing device based on the GPS location data of the camera.

“6. The method of claim 1, further comprising: automatically presenting, to the second user of the second computing device by the cloud-based account management system, an address that corresponds to the location of the first user of the first computing device based on the GPS location data of the camera.

“7. The method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving, from the second user of the second computing device by the cloud-based account management system, a registration linking the bank account to the cloud-based account management system, wherein the registration includes a directory of stores, and wherein a request to purchase an item from a store listed in the directory can occur without approval of the second user of the second computing device.

“8. The method of claim 7, further comprising: receiving, from a third user of a third computing device by the cloud-based account management system, a second request for a second amount of funds for use during a second transaction; receiving, from the third user of the third computing device by the cloud-based account management system, geodata representing a location of the third computing device; automatically determining, by the cloud-based account management system, that the location of the third computing device corresponds to an address of a store included in the directory; and automatically releasing, by the cloud-based account management system, the second amount of funds without requiring an approval of the second transaction by the second user of the second computing device.

“9. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving, from the second user of the second computing device by the cloud-based account management system, a registration linking the bank account to the cloud-based account management system, wherein the registration indicates a directory of stores, and wherein a request to purchase an item from a store listed in the directory will be automatically blocked.

“10. The method of claim 1, further comprising: detecting, by the cloud-based account management system, an attempt to access the first amount of funds by the second user of the second computing device at a second time subsequent to the first time; automatically obtaining, from the first computing device by the cloud-based account management system, geodata at or around the second time; and releasing, by the cloud-based account management system, the first amount of funds only if the geodata represents the location of the merchant.

“11. A system for authorizing a transaction using funds held in a bank account, the system comprising: a cloud-based account management system connected to a bank account comprising a processor and a non-transitory machine-readable media storing instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to: receive, from a first computing device, a first request of a first user for a first amount of funds during a first transaction at a first time, wherein the first computing device includes a camera, and wherein the camera includes a built-in global positioning system (GPS); determine that the first amount of funds corresponds to a first security level, wherein authorization at the first security level requires matching a location of the first user of the first computing device with a location of a merchant; receive, from the first computing device, an image captured by the camera of the first computing device, wherein GPS location data corresponding to a location of the camera of the first computing device is embedded in the captured image around the first time, and wherein the GPS location data corresponding to the location of the camera corresponds to the location of the first user of the first computing device; receive, from the first computing device, a geotagged record captured in real-time by the camera of the first computing device, wherein the captured geotagged record corresponds to the location of the merchant; determine that the location of the first user based on the GPS location data embedded in the captured image matches with the location of the merchant based on the captured geotagged record; transmit, to a second user of a second computing device, the first request for the first amount of funds with a notification indicating that the first request was sent from the location of the merchant; receiving, from the second user of the second computing device, a first approval of the first request for the first amount of funds based on the notification; authorizing, in response to the first approval by the second user of the second computing device, use of the funds up to the first amount when the first user of the first computing device requests an access to the funds via a merchant payment device at the location of the merchant; and completing, via the merchant payment device, the transaction at the location of the merchant by moving a permitted amount of funds up to the first amount from the bank account to the merchant.

“12. The system of claim 11, wherein the instructions further cause the processor to: receive, from the second user of the second computing device, a registration linking the bank account to the cloud-based account management system, wherein the registration indicates a maximum amount of funds that may be used without first obtaining approval, and wherein the first amount is greater than the maximum amount.”

There are additional claims. Please visit full patent to read further.

For the URL and additional information on this patent, see: Baker, Kelly Q. Location-based purchase verification for fund transfers. U.S. Patent Number 11436588, filed December 27, 2019, and published online on September 6, 2022. Patent URL: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=11436588.PN.&OS=PN/11436588RS=PN/11436588

(Our reports deliver fact-based news of research and discoveries from around the world.)