Patent ID: 7753265
Filing Date: 2010-07-13
Classification: G06Q

Abstract:
1. A computer system for approving a commercial transaction between a user with account information and a merchant, said computer system comprising: a processing unit for processing data and code; memory for storing said data and said code; a merchant interface operative to receive one or more transaction approval requests from one or more merchants; an account-holder interface operative to establish a connection with an account-holder associated with a credit account, to authenticate said account-holder, to receive a series of activation and deactivation instructions from said account-holder, to store said instructions received from said account-holder, and to store a date and time said instructions were received from said account-holder, whereby said account-holder can repeatedly activate and deactivate said credit account; and an authorization module operative to deny ones of said transaction approval requests initiated during periods of deactivation; and wherein said activation data further defines at least one automatic activation or deactivation criteria determined by said account holder; said authorization module is operative to automatically change the activation status of said account based on said automatic activation or deactivation criteria; said deactivation criteria causes deactivation of said account if a predetermined number of transaction approval requests are received within a given time period, said predetermined number of transaction approval requests determined by said account-holder; and said authorization module is operative to deactivate said account by recording a date and time in said activation data corresponding to the date and time at which said predetermined number of transaction approval requests is reached.