System for promoting account activity

[54] SYSTEM FOR PROMOTING ACCOUNT ACTIVITY

[76] Inventor: Frank Hoffman, 1760 Willow Rd., Hillsborough, Calif. 94010

[21] Appl. No.: 816,675

[22] Filed: Jan. 3,1992

[51] Int. CI.' G06F 15/20

[52] U.S.C1 364/408; 364/401

[58] Field of Search 364/401, 405, 408

[56] References Cited

U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS

4,346,442 8/1982 Musmanno 364/408

4,742,457 5/1988 Leon 364/408

4,751,640 6/1988 Lucas 364/408

Primary Examiner—Roy N. Envall, Jr.

Assistant Examiner—Khai Tran

Attorney, Agent, or Firm—Thomas M. Freiburger

[57] ABSTRACT

A system and data processing arrangement for promoting purchases and account activity in a credit card account or other consumer transaction involving sales of

goods or services rewards a customer for purchases by providing a high rate of return for funds invested by the customer. A financial institution, general purpose credit card agency, department store, automobile manufacturer, or various other marketers of goods or services agrees to grant the customer a high rate of interest on funds invested with the firm by the customer, provided the customer makes purchases. For purchases made by the customer in a given period (such as one month or six months), the firm gives the customer the right to invest a certain percentage (such as 10%) of the amount of purchases made by the customer in that period. Using automated data processing, the firm calculates the sum of the total purchases made by the customer during the preselected period. Then, funds are accepted from the customer up to the pre-agreed percentage of purchases, and provides a deposit account for the customer, crediting the investment funds in the deposit account. The firm may limit the term during which interest is paid on accepted funds invested for a particular such period, such as a term of six months or one year, or it may simply lower the interest rate at the end of that term.

10 Claims, 5 Drawing Sheets