Dual-activation financial products

1. A system, operating in conjunction with a financial account of an issuing institution having at least one card associated therewith for accessing funds in the financial account, the system requiring joint activation of usage of the at least one card by at least two cardholders associated therewith, the system comprising:

a computational processing unit for data processing and execution of stored instructions; and

associated with the processing unit, memory for storing computer-readable instructions executable by the processing-unit, the instructions, when executed by the processing unit, implementing

(i) an event-detection module for detecting a first activation event, related to the at least one card, received from one of a plurality of cardholders associated with the financial account;

(ii) a messaging module for transmitting, based on and in response to the detection of the first activation event, a request-for-activation message to the other cardholders associated with the financial account; and

(iii) the event-detection module subsequently detecting, from each of the other cardholders associated with the financial account, a subsequent activation event;

wherein the at least one card cannot be used by any of the cardholders until all of the cardholders have activated the at least one card in accordance with step (iii), and wherein the at least one card is authorized to be used by each cardholder once all of the cardholders have activated the at least one card.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the messaging module transmits the requests for activation asynchronously according to a specified order.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the messaging module transmits the requests for activation at substantially the same time.

4. The system of claim 1 further comprising a data storage component for storing activation and usage rules associated with the card.

5. The system of claim 4 wherein the usage rules limit use of the card to purchases of items within specified categories.

6. The system of claim 4 wherein the usage rules limit use of the card to purchases of specified items.

7. The system of claim 4 wherein the usage rules limit use of the card to purchases from specific retail establishments.

8. The system of claim 6 wherein the specified items comprise replacement items for items claimed on an insurance claim.

9. The system of claim 1 wherein the messages are transmitted using telephone communication or Internet communication.

10. A computer-implemented method for activating one or more charge cards associated with a single financial account of an issuing institution, the one or more charge cards requiring joint activation of usage by at least two cardholders associated therewith and facilitating access to funds within the financial account upon activation, the method comprising:

executing, by a computational processing unit, computer-readable instructions, stored in a memory associated with the computational processing unit, for

detecting a first activation event, related to the one or more cards, received from a first cardholder associated with the financial account;

based on and in response to the first detected activation event, electronically and automatically transmitting a request to the other cardholders associated with the financial account to activate the card;

subsequently to the detection of the first detection event, detecting activation events from each of the other cardholders associated with the financial account; and

preventing use of the one or more charge cards until all of the cardholders associated with the financial account have activated the one or more charge cards and authorizing the one or more charge cards for use once all cardholders associated with the financial account have activated the one or more charge cards.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 10 further comprising using the processing unit to execute instructions for limiting use of the card to purchases of pre-specified merchandise.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 11 wherein the pre-specified merchandise corresponds to items claimed as lost in an insurance claim filed by the cardholders.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 11 further comprising using the processing unit to execute instructions for limiting use of the card to purchases at pre-specified retail establishments.

14. The system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one card comprises at least two cards.

15. The method of claim 10 , wherein the one or more charge cards comprise at least two charge cards.