Patents Assigned to AMERICAN EXPRESS TRAVEL RELATED
-
Publication number: 20070198405Abstract: The present invention provides a system and method for facilitating commercial transactions involving the exchange of monetary value for goods, services, or other value between remote individuals, as in the case of transactions between users of a distributed computer network such as the Internet. Remote individuals are provided with a convenient, cost-efficient, and secure means for engaging in commercial transactions with one another. The invention provides remote sellers with an irrevocable means of receiving funds from a remote purchaser; means for improving purchaser willingness to transact with an unknown party; transaction tracking; and rapid funds availability.Type: ApplicationFiled: April 2, 2007Publication date: August 23, 2007Applicant: AMERICAN EXPRESS TRAVEL RELATED SERVICES COMPANY, INC.Inventors: Fred Bishop, Michael Barrett, David Armes, Lee Wojciechowski, Madhukar Madhineni, Vilayanur Krishnan, Joshua McKay, Lucas Gebb
-
Publication number: 20070194104Abstract: The balance of funds remaining for a stored-value card (“SVC”) may easily be determined without going through an actual purchase transaction with the SVC. The balance is obtained wirelessly from a server storing information pertaining to SVCs, and may be provided in a discreet manner. A card reader adds a card security code to a card number read from the SVC, and encrypts the card number and the CSC. The encrypted information is wirelessly sent to a cellular telephone. The cellular telephone decrypts the encrypted information and wirelessly transmits a balance-information request, which includes the card number and the CSC, to the server. The server receives the request and wirelessly sends the requested balance information to the cellular telephone and, in turn, the cellular telephone wirelessly sends the requested balance information to the card reader, which provides the information to the requester.Type: ApplicationFiled: September 19, 2006Publication date: August 23, 2007Applicant: American Express Travel Related Services Co., Inc.Inventors: Kazuyuki Fukuda, Deanna E. Barber, Karen L. Larsen
-
Publication number: 20070198354Abstract: A filtering module to process purchase transaction data received from a retailer POS is disclosed. Merchant information is used to filter purchase transactions by determining whether the purchase transaction qualifies an initiating purchaser for a reward. The retailer POS transmits purchase data from a merchant to a host, wherein the purchase data includes retailer data, transaction data and a retailer item identifier, and wherein the retailer item identifier enables the host to determine a manufacturer item identifier. The retailer POS then receives a determination that the merchant is a qualifying merchant when the purchase data corresponds to the loyalty program data and causes the host to issue loyalty awards based on the manufacturer item identifier and the loyalty program data.Type: ApplicationFiled: May 1, 2007Publication date: August 23, 2007Applicant: American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc.Inventors: Medina Senghore, Tracey Thomas, Fauziah Ariff
-
Publication number: 20070198403Abstract: A system, method, and computer program product are used to make recurring loan payments (e.g., mortgage payments) through a transaction card account. Information is received at a transaction account system from a loan company system corresponding to an application received at the loan company system from a requester for a loan involving automatic debits to a transaction card account. A determination is made as to whether the requestor is eligible for the loan to be associated with a transaction card account. If not, the customer receives a communication of rejection. If eligible, a determination is made whether the transaction account system has stored therein a transaction card account of the requestor. If no, a transaction card account is opened for the requester and associated with the loan. If yes, the loan payment is associated with the transaction card account bill. Periodic debits to the transaction card account are automatically made that correspond to a recurring loan payment amount for the loan.Type: ApplicationFiled: December 21, 2006Publication date: August 23, 2007Applicant: American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc.Inventors: Ruth Aloni, Rebecca Deen, Richard Exelbert, Elizabeth Langwith, Tamara Odinec, Joanne Pate, Sheraz Shere, Natalie Sunderland, Ian Woolley
-
Publication number: 20070198402Abstract: Migration of a first type of financial transaction instrument to a second type of financial transaction instrument is beneficial when the first instrument no longer is suitable for an account holder due to a change in the account holder's situation. A list of consumers for which an event has occurred during a pre-defined time period is compared with a list of account holders of the first instrument to determine an account holder for which the event has occurred during the pre-defined time period. If it is determined that the account holder has provided prior instructions authorizing automatic migration, then the first instrument is migrated to the second instrument by issuing the second instrument, notifying the account holder that migration has taken place or will take place, and updating account information to indicate migration to the second instrument.Type: ApplicationFiled: December 5, 2005Publication date: August 23, 2007Applicant: American Express Travel Related Services Co., Inc.Inventors: Noga Ruttenberg, Jennifer Bernstein, Carl Horton, Scott Brooks
-
Publication number: 20070198406Abstract: The present invention provides a system and method for facilitating commercial transactions involving the exchange of monetary value for goods, services, or other value between remote individuals, as in the case of transactions between users of a distributed computer network such as the Internet. Remote individuals are provided with a convenient, cost-efficient, and secure means for engaging in commercial transactions with one another. The invention provides remote sellers with an irrevocable means of receiving funds from a remote purchaser; means for improving purchaser willingness to transact with an unknown party; transaction tracking; and rapid funds availability.Type: ApplicationFiled: April 2, 2007Publication date: August 23, 2007Applicant: AMERICAN EXPRESS TRAVEL RELATED SERVICES COMPANY, INC.Inventors: Fred Bishop, Michael Barrett, David Armes, Lee Wojciechowski, Madhukar Madhineni, Vilayanur Krishnan, Joshua McKay, Lucas Gebb
-
Publication number: 20070198438Abstract: A system, method and computer program product for interfacing disparate partner systems to a transaction account issuer system is disclosed. A Web server receives a request from a disparate partner system, such as a Web service, a portal and/or a partner microsite and an application server extracts a partner identifier from the request. In turn, a delegate engine delegates actions corresponding to the request to one or more handlers using predetermined rules associated with the partner identifier. A worker manager manages worker code blocks which perform the actions based on a subset of the predetermined rules associated with the partner identifier. The Web server then communicates an outcome to the partner system based on the actions performed by the worker code blocks.Type: ApplicationFiled: December 7, 2005Publication date: August 23, 2007Applicant: American Express Travel Related Services Co. Inc.Inventors: Simon Bentley, Deborah Craft, Melanie Dunn, Adeyemi Kayode, Chintan Mehta, Denis Perracchio, Sejal Vora
-
Publication number: 20070192218Abstract: A system, method and computer program product for approval and allocation of costs in electronic procurement is described, wherein approval and allocation of costs are made in response to an electronic invoice, which includes information used to allocate procurement costs to one or more cost centers.Type: ApplicationFiled: June 28, 2005Publication date: August 16, 2007Applicant: American Express Travel Related Services Co., Inc.Inventors: Courtney Licardi, Sarah Harvey, Eric Saur, Pamela Urbank, Michael Vo
-
Publication number: 20070192199Abstract: A system, method, and computer program product for managing meetings and allocating and reconciling expenditures. Scheduling information for a plurality of meetings is stored in a database. A plurality of budgets is stored in the database, each of the budgets being associated with and defining budget items for one of the plurality of meetings. Transaction data are received describing a plurality of expenditures made using at least one transaction account, wherein the transaction data comprise an amount expended for each of the plurality of expenditures. A selection of an expenditure, from the plurality of expenditures, and a selection of a meeting related to the selected expenditure from the plurality of meetings are accepted from a user. An allocation of at least a portion of the amount of the selected expenditure to a budget item for the selected meeting is accepted.Type: ApplicationFiled: November 28, 2005Publication date: August 16, 2007Applicant: AMERICAN EXPRESS TRAVEL RELATED SERVICES CO, INC.Inventors: Clarke Simpson, Olivier Sauser
-
Publication number: 20070192187Abstract: An airline may offer two procedures for redeeming frequent flier miles for tickets on a specified flight of that airline, with one procedure available to frequent flier program members that do not have transactional cards associated with the frequent flier program, and another redemption procedure available to frequent flier program members that have a transactional card associated with the frequent flier program. Cardmembers have improved award seat availability for frequent flier mile redemption, regardless of their status in the frequent flier program. Cardmembers are provided with last seat availability at a base redemption rate. Thus, cardmembers are not subject to limited award seat capacity controls and restrictions that airline frequent flier programs have in place, and cardmembers do not have to use higher redemption rates for last seat availability.Type: ApplicationFiled: April 27, 2006Publication date: August 16, 2007Applicant: American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc.Inventors: Mark Becker, Alissa Butterfass, Eva Reda
-
Publication number: 20070187490Abstract: The present invention generally relates to a system and method for distributing a transaction instrument. The system includes the steps of: offering for sale, in a retail environment, the transaction instrument; selling a selected transaction instrument; communicating with the issuer of the transaction instrument via an internet accessible web site, and enabling the use of the transaction instrument. The transaction instrument may be, for example, an open pre-paid card. The distribution of the transaction instrument may also include the step of sending a message, through the web site, in substantially real time, causing the pre-paid transaction instrument to be funded but not activated until later through an interactive voice response system, for example. In another example, an associated transaction account may be funded and activated at the time of distribution. Furthermore, an issuer system may be suitably configured to leverage existing Travelers Cheque infrastructure for inventory and related processes.Type: ApplicationFiled: February 5, 2007Publication date: August 16, 2007Applicant: AMERICAN EXPRESS TRAVEL RELATED SERVICES COMPANY, INC.Inventors: Gennye Feldman, Elizabeth Holt, Marc Rubner, John Rose, Nicole Vollmer
-
Publication number: 20070192222Abstract: A system is disclosed for providing charge transaction detail comprising financial account spend transactions. Through a mapping of a merchant's item codes with an issuer's item codes, the system provides clients with a more descriptive report based on any one or more transaction instruments associated with the financial account. The charge transaction detail can include anything related to charge or credit card transactions including hotel reservation detail, corporate card detail and corporate purchasing card detail. The transaction detail can be captured from many sources and can include third party data. The clients can use a web application and web page to access the account data and create report views of the information. The system can also includes a create a report capability, which allows users to add filters and data elements to an existing report format and create a report specific to their needs and data.Type: ApplicationFiled: March 22, 2007Publication date: August 16, 2007Applicant: American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc.Inventors: Lawrence Mika, Malinda Pittson, Andy Nicholls
-
Publication number: 20070192198Abstract: A method, system and computer program product for communicating to a consumer one or more offers at a merchant communication device. Predefined offers are stored in a database. A portal selects one or more of the predefined offers, which are then communicated to the consumer through the merchant communication device. The consumer's response to the at least one offer is accepted and the transaction is completed accordingly.Type: ApplicationFiled: July 7, 2005Publication date: August 16, 2007Applicant: American Express Travel Related Services Co., Inc.Inventor: William Schwarz
-
Publication number: 20070192165Abstract: Commercial size of spending wallet (“CSoSW”) is the total business spend of a business including cash but excluding bartered items. Commercial share of wallet (“CSoW”) is the portion of the spending wallet that is captured by a particular financial company. A modeling approach utilizes various data sources to provide outputs that describe a company's spend capacity. Companies which provide databases of financial information about other companies can use scores provided by this CSoW/CSoSW modeling approach to give an indication of how much the company is likely to spend in the future.Type: ApplicationFiled: August 2, 2006Publication date: August 16, 2007Applicant: American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc.Inventors: Kathleen Haggerty, Charles Lyon, Benedict Okoh, Robert Phelan, Jon Ruterman, Geraldine Turner, Chao Yuan
-
Patent number: 7257225Abstract: The present invention provides systems and methods for facilitating encryption and decryption of data. In accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, an encryption key having a number of characters is located. A character in the encryption key is located to provide a located character in the encryption key. The number of characters in the data is determined. The position of the located character in the encryption key is shifted by a predetermined amount to determine a shifted position of the located character in the encryption key. Accordingly, the shifted position is located at a position in the encryption key that is the located character shifted by the predetermined amount. A first character in the data is translated with the character located at the shifted position to provide an encrypted character. The shifting and translating are repeated for any remaining characters in the data to provide encrypted data.Type: GrantFiled: December 29, 2003Date of Patent: August 14, 2007Assignee: American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc.Inventors: Srinivas V. Dasari, Kevin T. Harvey
-
Publication number: 20070185781Abstract: A method and system for facilitating the purchase of goods and services anonymously from an e-commerce website is provided. The method includes providing a plurality of transaction account numbers, each of which is associated with a monetary load value. The transaction account numbers are stored in a database having a plurality of records. Each of the records corresponds to one of the transaction account numbers. None of the records are configured to store identifying information of a purchaser of one of the transaction numbers. A request for an authorization of a purchase transaction having a purchase value is received from a remote computer terminal. The request is associated with a transaction account number. If the purchase value does not exceed the monetary value associated with the transaction account number, an authorization message is sent to the remote computer terminal granting the request.Type: ApplicationFiled: April 10, 2007Publication date: August 9, 2007Applicant: AMERICAN EXPRESS TRAVEL RELATED SERVICES COMPANY, INC.Inventors: Analydia Shooks, Kimberly Hibler
-
Publication number: 20070185856Abstract: A system, method and computer program product to manage attestations. The attestations may be required for documents that include, for example, balance sheet accounts including financial information related to one or more business units of an organization. The system includes a database and one or more user interfaces. The database includes information related to one or more documents. The user interfaces are connected to the database and enable the users to interact with the database. The users may provide a positive or negative attestation corresponding to each document. Further, the users may add comments related to, for example, the positive or negative attestation. The attestations made by the users may be recorded in the database for future reference.Type: ApplicationFiled: January 23, 2006Publication date: August 9, 2007Applicant: American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc.Inventors: Manish Mittal, Puspendra Jaitly, Ranbir Choudhary, Vinod Bahl
-
METHOD FOR ANONYMOUS PURCHASE OF GOODS BY NOT PROVIDING IDENTIFYING INFORMATION TO A NON-HOST ENTITY
Publication number: 20070185782Abstract: A method and system for facilitating the purchase of goods and services anonymously from an e-commerce website is provided. The method includes providing a plurality of transaction account numbers, each of which is associated with a monetary load value. The transaction account numbers are stored in a database having a plurality of records. Each of the records corresponds to one of the transaction account numbers. None of the records are configured to store identifying information of a purchaser of one of the transaction numbers. A request for an authorization of a purchase transaction having a purchase value is received from a remote computer terminal. The request is associated with a transaction account number. If the purchase value does not exceed the monetary value associated with the transaction account number, an authorization message is sent to the remote computer terminal granting the request.Type: ApplicationFiled: April 10, 2007Publication date: August 9, 2007Applicant: AMERICAN EXPRESS TRAVEL RELATED SERVICES COMPANY, INC.Inventors: Analydia Shooks, Kimberly Hibler -
Publication number: 20070185791Abstract: A system, method, and computer program product are used to automatically post substantially all transactions associated with a transaction account into a general ledger. Recent transaction data associated with the transaction account is received. The recent transaction data is compared (e.g., matched) to stored and categorized transaction data in the general ledger to determine a new transaction data portion of the recent transaction data. The new transaction data portion is categorized. The categorized new transaction data portion is stored in the general ledger.Type: ApplicationFiled: February 27, 2006Publication date: August 9, 2007Applicant: AMERICAN EXPRESS TRAVEL RELATED SERVICES COMPANY, INC.Inventors: Cheung Chan, Andrew Gorrin
-
Publication number: 20070181670Abstract: The present invention provides systems, methods and computer program products for point of sale (POS) based capture of reference magnetic signatures. In one embodiment, a magnetic signature included in a request to authorize a transaction associated with a magstripe card is retrieved from a database. If the transaction is determined to be non-fraudulent, the magnetic signature is used to provide a reference magnetic signature for the magstripe card. A transaction is determined to be non-fraudulent, for example, if the transaction is not reported as being fraudulent for a designated period of time such as for three to four months. In another example, a transaction is determined to be non-fraudulent if an indication or a confirmation is received from a card member of the magstripe card that the transaction was valid.Type: ApplicationFiled: February 8, 2006Publication date: August 9, 2007Applicant: American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc.Inventors: Michael Donovan, Michael Mulder, Douglas Myers, Ian Webb