System and method for establishing or modifying an account with user selectable terms
The present invention relates to methods for allowing an account holder to easily customize the terms of an account such as a loan account, an asset account, a mortgage account, an insurance account, or a brokerage account. Exemplary embodiments of the invention allow the user to specify various preferred terms such as cost (e.g., APR and annual fee), rewards programs, card design, affiliates, credit line, and payment due date, among others. The financial service provider issuing the account, e.g., the issuing bank, may make the various available terms for the account easily accessible to the user, for example through an internet website or an automated phone system, enabling the user to easily specify his or her preferences. The customization methods may be applied to the process of opening a new account or customizing an existing account. The customization methods may dynamically update the available terms as the user begins to select his or her desired terms.
1. A method of providing a financial account to a user comprising:
receiving, by a computer processor over a computer network, a selection from a user requesting a recommendation for a financial account;
determining, by a computer processor, based on the selection, a list of most popular financial account terms associated with a service provider comprising a plurality of available financial account terms that are categorized into a plurality of categories;
sending, by the computer processor, to the user, the list;
receiving, by the computer processor over the computer network, from the user, a selection of one or more of the available financial account terms from the list; and
creating, by the computer processor, the financial account based on the user's selection from the list.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of categories includes a first category comprising interest rate and a second category comprising credit limit.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein one of the plurality of categories comprises account cost.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein one of the plurality of categories comprises account servicing terms including payment due date.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein one of the plurality of categories comprises account services.
6. The method of claim 1 , wherein one of the plurality of categories comprises card design.
7. The method of claim 1 , wherein one of the plurality of categories comprises rewards program.
8. The method of claim 1 , wherein one of the plurality of categories comprises affiliates.
9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of available account terms are presented to the user as a menu of categories of account terms.
10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising: determining the list based at least in part on information about the user.
11. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the categories includes a plurality of subcategories of account terms.
12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of available account terms includes at least two terms specifying different methods of payment.
13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of available account terms includes at least two terms specifying formats of an account statement.
14. The method of claim 1 , wherein the computer network is the Internet.
15. The method of claim 1 , further comprising: saving the user's selection in a database before the user has finished making selections.
16. The method of claim 15 , further comprising: receiving from the user an alphanumeric identifier for labeling the user's selection to enable the user to retrieve the user's selection at a later time.
17. The method of claim 1 , further comprising: receiving from the user a request to provide more detailed information on one of the plurality of available account terms.
18. The method of claim 1 , further comprising: receiving from the user a request to provide more detailed information on at least one of the plurality of available account terms.