Patent ID: 8086529

Claim:
A method comprising: automatically accessing, by a computer system comprising computer hardware, at least a portion of first financial terms that a customer has for a first vehicle and first vehicle information; automatically accessing, by the computer system, at least a portion of second vehicle information for a second vehicle and second financial terms available to the customer for the second vehicle; in response to a request, automatically accessing in real-time, by the computer system, information that has changed since past changed information that comprises at least one of changed accessed information associated with the first financial terms that the customer has for the first vehicle, the first vehicle information, the second vehicle information, or the second financial terms available to the customer for the second vehicle; determining, by the computer system, whether the changed information may affect whether it is favorable for the customer to replace a first vehicle and first financial terms with a second vehicle and second financial terms by at least: automatically identifying one or more comparison criteria based on an estimated equity value for the first vehicle derived from the first financial terms, and derived from the second financial terms; and automatically determining if the one or more comparison criteria satisfy at least a condition based at least in part on the first financial terms and the second financial terms, wherein the determination comprises calculating a difference between the one or more comparison criteria and an existing comparison criterion for the first vehicle, and determining whether the difference is less than or equal to a preset acceptable threshold value; automatically generating a message if it is determined that the changed information may affect whether it is favorable for the customer to replace a first vehicle and first financial terms with a second vehicle and second financial terms, and not generating the message if it is determined that the changed information may not affect whether it is favorable for the customer to replace the first vehicle and first financial terms with the second vehicle and second financial terms; and automatically transmitting the message to a user.