Managed purchase account for defined commodities

Abstract

A purchase account may be managed to control purchases made using the account. An account number may be provided at a point of sale. The account number is associated with or includes an identifier for a class or type of goods or services. A merchant computer may receive the identifier and process it to determine whether what is proposed for purchase using the account is a qualified type of good or service. The computer may obtain a list of qualified or unqualified products and compare the list to what is proposed for purchase. In the alternative, the computer may provide instructions to a human operator for the merchant, who may determine whether or not the proposed product is qualified. If the proposed product is deemed qualified for purchase, use of the account may be approved; if otherwise, use of the account may be refused.

1 . A computer-readable storage medium having instructions stored thereon that, in response to execution by a computing system, causes the computing system to perform operations comprising:
 determining a purchase account associated with a user in response to receiving a request for purchase of a product by the user;   determining one or more classes of commodities associated with the purchase account;   displaying an indicator of the one or more classes of commodities and instructions for providing input indicating whether the product is included in the one or more classes of commodities; and   authorizing use of the purchase account for purchase of the product in response to input at the computing system indicating that the product is included in the one or more classes of commodities.   
     
     
         2 . The computer-readable storage medium of  claim 1 , wherein the purchase account associated with the user is determined from an article presented by the user. 
     
     
         3 . The computer-readable storage medium of  claim 1 , wherein the one or more classes of commodities associated with the purchase account are determined from an identifier determined from one or more digits within a purchase account number for the purchase account, wherein respective identifiers are associated with different classes of commodities. 
     
     
         4 . The computer-readable storage medium of  claim 1 , wherein displaying an indicator of the one or more classes of commodities comprises displaying alphanumeric text. 
     
     
         5 . The computer-readable storage medium of  claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise:
 determining whether the product is in the one or more classes of commodities.   
     
     
         6 . The computer-readable storage medium of  claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise:
 receiving the input from a merchant offering the product for sale.   
     
     
         7 . The computer-readable storage medium of  claim 1 , wherein the input comprises a manual input. 
     
     
         8 . A system comprising:
 a computing device in communication with a display device; and   a communication device in communication with the computing device, the communication device configured to receive an identifier for a purchase account associated with a user;   wherein the computing device is configured to:
 receive a request for purchase of a product by the user; 
 display an indicator of one or more classes of commodities associated with the purchase account and instructions for providing input to the computing device indicating whether the product is not included in the one or more classes of commodities; and 
 refuse use of the purchase account for purchase of the product in response to input at the display device or the computing device indicating that the product is not included in the one or more classes of commodities associated with the purchase account. 
   
     
     
         9 . The system of  claim 8 , wherein the identifier for the purchase account is an account number for the purchase account. 
     
     
         10 . The system of  claim 8 , wherein indicators of classes of commodities are determined based on one or more digits of a purchase account number for the purchase account. 
     
     
         11 . The system of  claim 8 , wherein the computing device is further configured to cause the display device to display a description of the one or more classes of commodities. 
     
     
         12 . The system of  claim 8 , wherein the computing device is further configured to determine whether the product is included in the one or more classes of commodities. 
     
     
         13 . The system of  claim 8 , wherein the computing device is further configured to automatically determine whether the product is included in the one or more classes of commodities by communicating with a server. 
     
     
         14 . A method comprising:
 under control of one or more configured computer systems:
 determining a purchase account associated with a user in response to receiving a request for purchase of a product by a user at a computing device; and 
 authorizing use of the purchase account for purchase of the product in response to input provided at the computing device indicating that the product is included in at least one class of commodities associated with the purchase account. 
   
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 14 , further comprising determining one or more classes of commodities associated with the purchase account. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 14 , further comprising displaying a description of the at least one class of commodities at the computing device. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 14 , further comprising displaying instructions for entering the input at the computing device. 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 14 , wherein the input comprises interaction between a human operator and the computing device. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 14 , further comprising determining whether the product is included in the at least one class of commodities. 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 14 , further comprising authorizing use of the purchase account for purchase of the product only in response to input provided at the computing device.