Using two dimensional barcodes with general purpose reloadable cards to faciliate access to a contact center
View Patent ↗In various embodiments, two-dimensional (“2D”) barcodes are used in conjunction with a general purpose reloadable debit card (“GPR card”) to facilitate various user administration and management actions. The 2D barcode allows a user to easily perform various actions without having to enter account information. The actions may be initiated upon reading the 2D barcode, and may include accessing a web site, initiating a voice call, sending a text message, or sending an email message. The communications may include indication of the account number, so that a contact center, upon receiving the communication, can quickly ascertain the purchase transaction history. In addition, a destination address encoded in the 2D barcode may be used to uniquely identify the brand of GPR card and/or type of card within a brand. An originating address associated with the communication may be verified against address information associated with the account number.
1. A method for integrating use of a two-dimensional barcode (“2D barcode”) on a general purpose reloadable (“GPR”) card comprising:
providing a user with the GPR card, the GPR card comprising indicia indicating an GPR card account and a 2D barcode, the 2D barcode indicating an account number associated with both the user and the GPR card account, the 2D barcode further indicating a destination address, the destination address configured to receive requests for particular account information for the GPR card account, wherein the 2D barcode encodes an action to initiate a communication comprising a SMS text message by a mobile device to the destination address after the user scans the 2D barcode using the mobile device;
receiving the communication comprising the SMS text message from the mobile device at a computer, wherein the communication comprises a request for one or more purchase transaction amounts using the GPR card and an account balance associated with the GPR card account, wherein the communication includes the account number and the communication is associated with an originating address comprising a telephone number of the mobile device;
retrieving, by the computer, the one or more purchase transaction amounts of the GPR card and the account balance associated with the GPR card account; and
providing, by the computer, a response communication directed to the originating address, the response communication conveying the one or more purchase transaction amounts and the account balance of the GPR card account to the mobile device.
2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
retrieving GPR card account information associated with the GPR card account;
ascertaining a communication address stored in the GPR card account information, wherein the communication address is associated with the user of the GPR card; and
verifying that the communication address associated with the user corresponds to the originating address in the communication received from the mobile device.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the 2D barcode is a quick response (“QR”) code.
4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the computer is configured to receive multiple communications each associated with one of a plurality of GPR card brands, and wherein further the destination address is one of a plurality of destinations used in part by the computer to identify the one of the plurality of GPR card brands.
5. The method of claim 3 , whereupon reading the QR code, the user is prompted by a mobile application on a mobile phone for an input, and upon processing the input, the mobile application initiates the communication comprising the SMS text message.
6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the GPR card account is associated with a GPR card brand and further comprising:
transmitting a schedule of fees associated with the GPR card brand to the mobile device.
7. The method of claim 3 , wherein the response communication further comprises a GPR card account balance.