Patent ID: 7797231

Claim:
A method for making a loan offer to a user in response to a failed point-of-purchase transaction, the method comprising: (a) receiving at a merchant computer via an electronic communication medium a primary payment option as a request from a user to complete a point-of-purchase transaction; (b) forwarding from the merchant's computer to a payment processor the user's request to complete the point-of-purchase transaction; (c) evaluating the user's request at the payment processor to determine whether the user's request is accepted or declined; (d) determining by the payment processor that the user's request to complete the point-of-purchase transaction is declined; (e) receiving at the merchant's computer a decline notification from the payment processor indicating that the user's request to complete the point-of-purchase transaction has been declined; (f) the merchant informing the user that the point-of-purchase transaction has been declined; (g) the user abandoning the point-of-purchase transaction; (h) determining, by the merchant's computer, whether to consider the user for a one-time point-of-purchase loan; (i) forwarding available user information from the merchant's computer to a credit reporting agency to evaluate the user for the one-time point-of-purchase loan in the case where the user is considered for the one-time point-of-purchase loan; (j) performing a soft credit check of the available user information by a credit reporting agency processor, wherein the soft credit check comprises evaluating the available user information against at least one set of pre-screen criteria; (k) performing a further credit check of the available user information by the credit reporting agency processor using a pre-established marketing model based on non-consumer specific data; (l) determining, by the credit reporting agency processor, whether the user qualifies for the one-time point-of-purchase loan based on said soft credit check and said further credit check; wherein if it is determined that the user does qualify for the one-time point-of-purchase loan the method further comprises: (1) forwarding an indication from the credit reporting agency processor to the merchant's computer that the user qualifies for the one-time point-of-purchase loan; (2) the merchant computer selecting an appropriate one-time point-of-purchase loan from among a set of pre-established one-time point-of-purchase loans; (3) the merchant offering the user the selected appropriate one-time point-of-purchase loan via a different electronic communication medium; and (4) the user accepting the one-time point-of-purchase loan to complete the point-of-purchase transaction.