Pro-rata Digital Wallet Transaction Allocation

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Solution Overview

Problem

Current systems require consumers to manually split transactions across multiple payment card accounts, leading to inefficiencies and potential imbalance in card balances, as cardholders lack the ability to check available balances during transactions.

Innovation Solution

A digital wallet service server with a processor that receives authorization requests and allocates transaction amounts proportionally across multiple payment card accounts based on their available balances, ensuring balanced loads across accounts.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Ease of operation

If a cardholder manually splits a transaction across multiple payment cards, then the cardholder can control the amount on each card, but the process is inefficient and time-consuming

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveease of splitting transactionVSAvoidtime required for manual splitting

Core Design Contradiction:

Ease of operationVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The system enables self-service by automatically calculating and allocating transaction amounts across multiple payment cards based on pre-set allocation rules or available balances, eliminating the need for manual intervention while maintaining operational control

Inventive Principle:

Principle #25Self-service

Solution Approach 2:

The system performs preliminary actions by pre-configuring allocation rules and storing multiple payment card information in advance, so that when a transaction occurs, the splitting is automatically executed without requiring real-time manual input from the cardholder

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

2Adaptability or versatility

If a cardholder manually allocates amounts to multiple cards, then the cardholder can choose distribution, but the cardholder cannot check available balances during the transaction process

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveflexibility in amount allocationVSAvoidavailable balance information

Core Design Contradiction:

Adaptability or versatilityVSLoss of information

Solution Approach 1:

The system implements feedback by automatically retrieving and utilizing available balance information from each payment card in real-time during the transaction process, providing the necessary data to make informed allocation decisions without requiring manual balance checking

Inventive Principle:

Principle #23Feedback

Solution Approach 2:

The system acts as an intermediary between the cardholder and multiple payment cards, automatically managing the information flow by retrieving balance data, applying allocation rules, and distributing amounts across cards based on real-time balance information

Inventive Principle:

Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

3Productivity

If a cardholder uses multiple payment cards without balance monitoring, then the cardholder can make transactions conveniently, but the balance on one card may become excessively high relative to others

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvetransaction processing efficiencyVSAvoidbalance proportionality across cards

Core Design Contradiction:

ProductivityVSStability of the object's composition

Solution Approach 1:

The system applies dynamics by making the allocation strategy adaptive and flexible, automatically adjusting the distribution of transaction amounts across payment cards based on real-time balance information and pre-configured rules, ensuring balanced utilization without rigid manual control

Inventive Principle:

Principle #15Dynamics

Data Source

PatentUS12147972B2Systems and methods for multiple account proportional transactions

Publication Date: 2024.11.19 MASTERCARD INT INC

AI summary

A system has a datastore including a pro-rata digital wallet associated with a cardholder. The pro-rata digital wallet includes two or more payment card accounts. The system includes a processor programmed to receive an authorization request message from a point-of-sale terminal. The authorization request includes an identification number from a transaction device presented by the cardholder. The processor is programmed to determine whether the identification number corresponds to one of the payment card accounts associated with the pro-rata digital wallet and, if so, identify each of the payment card accounts associated with the pro-rata digital wallet. The processor is programmed to determine a pro-rata payment amount for each of the payment card accounts associated with the pro-rata digital wallet. Each pro-rata payment is based on an available balance of each of the payment card accounts relative to a total available balance for a combination of each of the payment card.