Firm offers of credit system

Abstract

A computer-implemented method for providing firm offers of credit to a consumer includes receiving consumer information from a consumer via a network, receiving a selection via the network from the consumer to permit at least one soft credit inquiry of the consumer's credit record, submitting a soft credit inquiry to a credit reporting agency, the soft credit inquiry based on the consumer information, receiving at least one firm offer of credit from the credit reporting agency, the firm offer of credit resulting from the credit reporting agency performing the soft credit inquiry on the consumer's credit record, each firm offer of credit provided by a credit issuer; and providing the at least one firm offer of credit to the consumer via the network.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A system for providing firm offers of credit to a consumer, comprising:
 a non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions, which when executed by a credit arranging computer system causes the credit arranging computer system to perform operations, the computer-readable medium comprising instructions to:
 receive, from a consumer via a network, consumer information; 
 receive, from the consumer via the network, a selection to opt in to a credit prescreen or a selection to opt in to a service including the credit prescreen; 
 submit, to a credit reporting agency via the network, at least a portion of the consumer information; 
 receive, from the credit reporting agency via the network, a list including at least one firm offer of credit provided by at least one credit issuer and resulting from the credit reporting agency performing the credit prescreen to determine the list; and 
 provide, to the consumer via the network, the list including the at least one firm offer of credit. 
   
     
     
         2 . The system of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 a second non-transitory computer readable medium comprising instructions, which when executed by a credit reporting agency computer system causes the credit reporting agency computer system to perform operations, the second computer-readable medium comprising instructions to:
 obtain a credit history of the consumer; 
 compare the credit history of the consumer to at least one credit prescreen model to determine if the credit history of the consumer qualifies the consumer to receive a firm offer of credit corresponding to a particular credit prescreen model; and 
 if the consumer qualifies to receive the firm offer of credit corresponding to the credit prescreen model:
 add, to the list, the firm offer of credit corresponding to the credit prescreen model; and 
 post, to a credit record of the consumer, a soft credit inquiry related to the added firm offer of credit. 
 
   
     
     
         3 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the non-transitory computer-readable medium further comprises instructions to:
 receive, from the consumer via the network, a selection of one of the at least one firm offer of credit for which the consumer is preapproved; and   transmit, to the consumer via the network, one or more terms of the selected firm offer of credit.   
     
     
         4 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the non-transitory computer-readable medium further comprises instructions to:
 receive a selection from the consumer via the network to accept one of the at least one firm offer of credit to obtain an accepted firm offer of credit.   
     
     
         5 . The system of  claim 4 , wherein the non-transitory computer-readable medium further comprises instructions to:
 transmit, to the credit issuer providing the accepted firm offer of credit via the network, the consumer information and the accepted firm offer of credit.   
     
     
         6 . The system of  claim 5 , wherein the credit issuer providing the accepted firm offer of credit performs a hard credit inquiry on a credit record of the consumer. 
     
     
         7 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the non-transitory computer-readable medium further comprises instructions to:
 provide the consumer with a network address and an identifying character string;   provide to the consumer, via the network, the consumer information based on the network address and identifying character string; and   receive updated consumer information from the consumer via the network.   
     
     
         8 . The system of  claim 7 , wherein the consumer is provided with the network address and the identifying character string by a mail piece. 
     
     
         9 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein if the consumer does not qualify to receive the firm offer of credit corresponding to the credit prescreen model:
 the firm offer of credit corresponding to the credit prescreen model is not added to the list; and   a soft credit inquiry related to the firm offer of credit corresponding to the credit prescreen model is not posted to a credit record of the consumer.   
     
     
         10 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the non-transitory computer-readable medium further comprises instructions to:
 receive, via the network from the consumer, a selection of at least one firm offer of credit to receive additional information; and   provide, to the consumer via the network, the additional information regarding the selected at least one firm offer of credit.   
     
     
         11 . The system of  claim 10 , wherein the additional information regarding the selected at least one firm offer of credit includes at least one of:
 a name of a credit issuer of the selected firm offer of credit;   an interest rate of the selected firm offer of credit; or   a repayment period of the selected firm offer of credit.   
     
     
         12 . A computer-implemented method for providing firm offers of credit to a consumer comprising:
 receiving, by one or more processors, from a credit arranger consumer information of a consumer via a network;   receiving, by the one or more processors, a consumer selection to permit a soft credit inquiry;   performing, by the one or more processors, a soft credit inquiry on credit history of the consumer based on the consumer information;   comparing, by the one or more processors, the results of the soft credit inquiry on the credit record of the consumer against at least one cascade from at least one credit issuer to obtain a comparison result;   compiling, by the one or more processors, a list of a plurality of firm offers of credit for which the consumer is preapproved based on the comparison result; and   transmitting, by the one or more processors, via the network to the credit arranger at least one firm offer of credit for which the consumer is preapproved.   
     
     
         13 . A system for providing firm offers of credit to a consumer comprising:
 a credit arranger computer system adapted to receive consumer information from a consumer via a network, receive a selection to permit a soft credit inquiry from the consumer via the network, transmit the consumer information to a credit reporting agency, receive a list including at least one firm offer of credit from the credit reporting agency, and transmit the list including at least one firm offer of credit to the consumer via the network.   
     
     
         14 . The system of  claim 13 , further comprising:
 a credit reporting agency adapted to receive the consumer information via the network from the credit arranger, perform a soft inquiry based on the consumer information to obtain a soft inquiry result, identify the at least one firm offer of credit based on the consumer information and the soft inquiry result, and transmit the list including at least one firm offer of credit to the credit arranger.