Conditional transaction offer system and method

Abstract

The present invention involves a system and method for coordinating the centralization of the submission of requests for offers for credit and receipt of offers for credit between an internet user and a plurality of lending institutions via the internet. This method involves the use of a single offer request form, which is the combination of required lender information from consumer credit processes, and the receipt of information from the user, and various semi-automated online processes, to populate that single offer request form. After receiving this data, a special computer, or server, sorts the information and applies a filter to the data. Once the data has been filtered, it is transmitted to a multiple number of lending institutions, or alternatively evaluated using a model of the lending institutions criteria.

1 . (canceled) 
     
     
         2 . A method comprising:
 receiving an offer request submission comprising user information from a user;   providing the user information to a centralized decision matrix comprising respective decision criteria for each of a plurality of vendors;   determining whether to generate an offer for each vendor of the plurality of vendors based on the centralized decision matrix, wherein the generation of the offer is determined without submission of the user information to the respective vendor; and   presenting one or more generated offers to the user in a unified graphical user interface as though each lender had individually responded to the offer request submission.   
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the decision criteria comprises vendor-provided criteria provided by the respective vendor of the plurality of vendors. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 2 , further comprising:
 receiving an indication of a selection from the user of one of the one or more generated offers; and   transmitting the user information to the vendor associated with the selected one of the one or more generated offers.   
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 4 , wherein transmitting the user information to the vendor associated with the selected one of the one or more generated offers comprises transforming the user information from a first machine-readable file format into a second machine-readable file format that is compatible with the vendor associated with the selected one of the one or more generated offers. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 5 , wherein the transmitting of the second machine-readable file format to the vendor associated with the selected one of the one or more generated offers comprises using an application program interface (API), an interactive connection, a browser based applet, or a file transfer protocol transmission. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein presenting the one or more generated offers to the user in a unified graphical user interface comprises transmitting instructions to generate the unified graphical user interface via a computer network. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein the computer network is the Internet. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein instructions are transmitted to a handheld mobile device. 
     
     
         10 . A method comprising:
 obtaining, via a computer network and in a first machine-readable file format, user information related to a transaction;   transforming the user information from the first machine-readable file format into a second machine-readable file format and a third machine-readable file format, each of the second machine-readable file format and third machine-readable file format compatible with a different respective vendor of a plurality of vendors;   transmitting the second machine-readable file format to a first vendor of the plurality of vendors and the third machine-readable file format to a second vendor of the plurality of vendors;   obtaining responses to the user information from the first vendor and the second vendor;   translating the responses from each vendor into entries to be displayed the user in a unified graphical user interface; and   displaying the unified graphical user interface to the user.   
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein transmitting the second machine-readable file format to the first vendor of the plurality of vendors comprises using an application program interface (API), an interactive connection, a browser based applet, or a file transfer protocol transmission. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein transmitting the second machine-readable file format to the first vendor of the plurality of vendors comprises using a first one of an application program interface (API), an interactive connection, a browser based applet, or a file transfer protocol transmission, and transmitting the third machine-readable file format to the second vendor of the plurality of vendors comprises using a second one of an application program interface (API), an interactive connection, a browser based applet, or a file transfer protocol transmission that is different from the first one. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein one of the first machine-readable file format, second machine-readable file format, and third machine-readable file format comprises an eXtensible Markup Language (XML) file format. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein displaying the unified graphical user interface to the user comprises transmitting instructions to generate the unified graphical user interface via a computer network and to a user device. 
     
     
         15 . A method comprising:
 obtaining, via a computer network, first user information related to a transaction;   comparing the first user information to a pre-aggregated data set;   providing, via the computer network, comparison results to the user through a graphical user interface;   obtaining, via the computer network, second user information related to the transaction;   providing at least the second user information to a centralized decision matrix comprising respective decision criteria for each of a plurality of vendors;   determining whether to generate an offer for each vendor of the plurality of vendors based on the centralized decision matrix, wherein the generation of the offer is determined without submission of the first or second user information to the respective vendor; and   presenting one or more generated offers to the user in a unified graphical user interface as though each lender had individually responded to the first or second user information.   
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 15 , wherein the providing, via the computer network, of the comparison results to the user through a graphical user interface is performed prior to creation of a user account associated with a user. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 15 , further comprising:
 creating a user account associated with the user, wherein the providing, via the computer network, of the comparison results to the user through a graphical user interface is performed prior to the creating of the user account associated with a user, and wherein the obtaining, via the computer network, of the second user information related to the transaction is performed in response to the creating of the user account for the user.   
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 15 , wherein the decision criteria comprises vendor-provided criteria provided by the respective vendor of the plurality of vendors. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 15 , further comprising:
 receiving an indication of a selection from the user of one of the one or more generated offers; and   transmitting the first and second user information to the vendor associated with the selected one of the one or more generated offers.   
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 17 , wherein transmitting the first and second user information to the vendor associated with the selected one of the one or more generated offers comprises transforming the first and second user information from a first machine-readable file format into a second machine-readable file format that is compatible with the vendor associated with the selected one of the one or more generated offers. 
     
     
         21 . The method of  claim 20 , wherein the transmitting of the second machine-readable file format to the vendor associated with the selected one of the one or more generated offers comprises using an application program interface (API), an interactive connection, a browser based applet, or a file transfer protocol transmission.