Linking Unlinked Payment Devices via Group Identifier
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing payment devices held by individuals within the same group, such as families or businesses, are often unlinked, making it difficult to monitor transaction patterns and generate composite reports that reflect group activity, as current systems lack the ability to integrate separate devices with latent relationships.
Innovation Solution
A computer-implemented method and system that allows users to link unlinked payment devices by generating a unique linking identifier, which is stored in a database, enabling the tracking and reporting of transaction activities across linked devices, and utilizing machine learning algorithms to analyze transaction data for insights.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Device complexity
If separate payment devices held by individuals within the same group are kept unlinked, then each device operates independently with simple device structure, but it becomes difficult to monitor transaction patterns and generate composite reports reflecting group activity
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments payment devices into individual device level and group level, allowing each device to operate independently while being associated with a group through a linking identifier. This segmentation enables simple individual device structure while allowing composite group reporting through the database association mechanism.
2Loss of information
If payment devices are linked through a database association, then composite reports and transaction pattern monitoring can be generated, but the system complexity and processing overhead increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a transaction processing server as an intermediary between payment devices and the database system. This intermediary handles the complexity of database associations, linking identifiers, and composite report generation, while individual payment devices remain relatively simple. The intermediary absorbs the system complexity rather than propagating it to end-user devices.
3Loss of information
If all payment devices within a group are integrated into a single linked system, then comprehensive monitoring is achieved, but processing resources are consumed for every transaction across all devices
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by pre-establishing group associations and linking identifiers in the database before transactions occur. When transactions are processed, the system efficiently retrieves pre-configured group information rather than dynamically analyzing all devices. This preliminary setup reduces processing resources needed during actual transaction handling while maintaining comprehensive monitoring capability.
Data Source
AI summary
A method includes: receiving a linking request from a first user device, the linking request identifying a first payment device of a first user and a second payment device of a second user, where the first payment device and the second payment device are not linked by an issuer system; retrieving contact data of a second user device of the second user based on the second payment device; authorizing the linking request by: transmitting a confirmation request to the second user device; and receiving a confirmation response; generating a linking identifier; storing the first payment device and the second payment device in a database in association with the linking identifier; receiving a transaction request for a transaction, the transaction request identifying the first or second payment device; and invoking a linking protocol by storing transaction data associated with the transaction in the database in association with the linking identifier.