System and method for flexible payment terms

• US 10,019,697 B2
• Filed: 06/25/2014
• Issued: 07/10/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 04/17/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc. (American Express Company)
• Original Assignee: American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc. (American Express Company)
• Inventors: Ang, Mark, Choudhuri, Boudhayan, Kaplan, Jessica, Lowy, David, Narayan, Gyanesh, Nielsen, Eric, Vega, Christine
• Primary Examiner(s): APPLE, KIRSTEN SACHWITZ
• Application Number:
  US14/314,426
• Publication Number:
  US 20140310168A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,476 Days
• Field of Search: 705 35, 705 36 R
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/102 Bill distribution or payments
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/14 specially adapted for billing systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0207 Discounts or incentives, e.g. coupons or rebates
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0215 Including financial accounts
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/02 Banking, e.g. interest calculation or account maintenance credit or loans G06Q40/03

Abstract

A method is disclosed for offering transaction account consumers with payment term options to pay a minimum amount due early, defer payment into the following payment cycle, and pay a standard amount when due. When generating a periodic billing statement, the invention determines a consumer'"'"'s eligibility to elect early payment, deferred payment, and regular payment. When a consumer is eligible for early payment, a received payment is compared to a discount rate tier, then a discount amount is calculated and credited to the consumer'"'"'s account. When the consumer is eligible for deferred payment, the system calculates a new current minimum payment due by multiplying the current non-deferred balance by a predetermined percentage amount and adding the result to the deferred balance. When the consumer is not eligible for deferred payment, the system calculates a new current minimum due by summing the current non-deferred balance with the deferred balance.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

acquiring, by a computer-based system, transaction information from use of a transaction account by a consumer having a consumer system;

calculating, by the computer-based system, an early payment credit for receiving a first portion of a balance associated with the transaction account,

wherein the early payment credit is based on an eligible spend and a discount rate,

wherein the discount rate is determined by comparing an amount of the eligible spend and a current spend to an early payment tier,

wherein the discount rate varies based on the amount of eligible spend, and

wherein the current spend is associated with a value of transactions on the transaction account during a billing cycle;

posting, by the computer-based system, the early payment credit to the transaction account in response to an early payment for the first portion of the balance being received;

transmitting, by the computer-based system and to the consumer system, a second portion of the balance of previously billed charges due on the transaction account and based on the transaction information;

receiving, by the computer-based system, an election via the internet from the consumer system for a deferred payment on the second portion of the balance of the previously billed charges on the transaction account;

determining, by the computer-based system, that the election does not exceed a predetermined number of available deferred payments;

transferring, by the computer-based system and in response to the determining, the second portion of the balance of the previously billed charges on the transaction account that is a non-deferred balance to a deferred balance;

deferring, by the computer-based system and based on the election, payment on the second portion of the balance of the previously billed charges on the transaction account to the next billing cycle due date for the transaction account, such that the deferred balance for the transaction account is due at the next billing cycle due date for the transaction account; and

incrementing, by the computer-based system and in response to the transferring, a deferred payment counter.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving, by the computer-based system, the election, in response to a billing statement.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving, by the computer-based system, the election and the first portion of the balance, in response to a billing statement.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising determining the predetermined number of the available deferred payments based on at least one of:

a balance of the transaction account, a payment history, a spend history, a payment amount, a spend amount, a payment date, a merchant identifier, an industry code, a location or region associated with a purchase, a transaction amount, a spend trend, a merchant relationship, a status of the consumer, a status of the account, an affiliation with an organization, a product held by the consumer, a timing of the payment, time period for a purchase, a payment method, a participation in a program, a length of relationship between the consumer and the account, or a credit rating of the consumer.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising calculating a new non-deferred balance by subtracting the deferred balance, a delinquent amount due, and suspense from a total outstanding balance of the transaction account of the consumer.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising calculating a current minimum payment due in response to the consumer not being eligible for the deferred payment, wherein the current minimum payment due is based on adding a current non-deferred balance to the deferred balance.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising determining an update of the current minimum payment due based on adding the deferred balance to the result of multiplying the new non-deferred balance by a predetermined percentage amount.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising determining a fee amount to add to the balance based on at least one of:

a balance of the account, a value proposition, a payment history, a spend history, a payment amount, a spend amount, a payment date, a merchant identifier, an industry code, a location or region associated with a purchase, a transaction amount, a spend trend, a merchant relationship, a status of the consumer, a status of the account, an affiliation with an organization, a product held by the consumer, a timing of the payment, time period for a purchase, a payment method, a participation in a program, a length of relationship between the consumer and the account, or a credit rating of the consumer.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising determining, by the computer-based system, that the consumer is eligible for the deferred payment.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising calculating, by the computer-based system, a new current deferred payment option based on the deferred balance and the new non-deferred balance.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the transferring is in response to the non-deferred balance being greater than zero.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the transferring is in response to an account of the consumer being current.

19. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

storing, by the computer-based system, the transaction information in a database as ungrouped data elements via a fixed memory offset using a binary large object method with different data sets from different owners with different formats;

annotating, by the computer-based system, the transaction information with a header, trailer or indicator to convey information for managing the transaction information;

annotating, by the computer-based system, the transaction information to include security information establishing access levels;

providing, by the computer-based system, based on the security access level and in response to updating a permissions indicator, access to the transaction information;

designating, by the computer-based system, a type of the transaction information as a key field in a plurality of related data tables to speed searching for the data;

linking, by the computer-based system, the plurality of related data tables based on the type of the transaction information in the key fields;

partitioning, by the computer-based system and using the key field, the database according to a class of objects defined by the key field to speed searching for the transaction information;

sorting, by the computer based system, the transaction information according to a known order to simplify the lookup process; and

obtaining, by the computer-based system, the transaction information from the database.

13. A tangible, non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having computer-executable instructions stored thereon that, when executed by a computer-based system, cause the computing device to perform operations comprising:

acquiring, by the computer-based system, transaction information from use of a transaction account by a consumer having a consumer system;

calculating, by the computer-based system, an early payment credit for receiving a first portion of a balance associated with the transaction account,

wherein the early payment credit is based on an eligible spend and a discount rate,

wherein the discount rate is determined by comparing an amount of the eligible spend and a current spend to an early payment tier,

wherein the discount rate varies based on the amount of eligible spend, and

wherein the current spend is associated with a value of transactions on the transaction account during a billing cycle;

posting, by the computer-based system, the early payment credit to the transaction account in response to an early payment for the first portion of the balance being received,

transmitting, by the computer-based system and to the consumer system, a second portion of the balance of previously billed charges due on the transaction account and based on the transaction information;

receiving, by the computer-based system, an election via the internet from the consumer system for a deferred payment on the second portion of the balance of the previously billed charges on the transaction account;

determining, by the computer-based system, that the election does not exceed a predetermined number of available deferred payments;

transferring, by the computer-based system and in response to the determining, the second portion of the balance of the previously billed charges on the transaction account that is a non-deferred balance to a deferred balance;

deferring, by the computer-based system and based on the election, payment on the second portion of the balance of the previously billed charges on the transaction account to the next billing cycle due date for the transaction account, such that the deferred balance for the transaction account is due at the next billing cycle due date for the transaction account; and

incrementing, by the computer-based system and in response to the transferring, a deferred payment counter.

14. The medium of claim 13, further comprising determining, by the computer-based system, that the consumer is eligible for the deferred payment.

15. The medium of claim 13, further comprising calculating, by the computer-based system, a new current deferred payment option based on the deferred balance and a new non-deferred balance.

16. The medium of claim 13, wherein the transferring is in response to the non-deferred balance being greater than zero.

17. The medium of claim 13, wherein the transferring is in response to the transaction account of the consumer being current.

18. The medium of claim 13, further comprising receiving, by the computer-based system, the election, in response to a billing statement.

20. A system comprising:

a processor; and

a tangible, non-transitory memory configured to communicate with the processor,

the tangible, non-transitory memory having instructions stored thereon that, in response to execution by the processor, cause the processor to be capable of performing operations comprising;

acquiring, by the processor, transaction information from use of a transaction account by a consumer having a consumer system;

calculating, by the processor, an early payment credit for receiving a first portion of a balance associated with the transaction account,

wherein the early payment credit is based on an eligible spend and a discount rate,

wherein the discount rate is determined by comparing an amount of the eligible spend and a current spend to an early payment tier,

wherein the discount rate varies based on the amount of eligible spend, and

wherein the current spend is associated with a value of transactions on the transaction account during a billing cycle;

posting, by the processor, the early payment credit to the transaction account in response to an early payment for the first portion of the balance being received,

transmitting, by the processor and to the consumer system, a second portion of the balance of previously billed charges due on the transaction account and based on the transaction information;

receiving, by the processor, an election via the internet from the consumer system for a deferred payment on the second portion of the balance of the previously billed charges on the transaction account;

determining, by the processor, that the election does not exceed a predetermined number of available deferred payments;

transferring, by the processor and in response to the determining, the second portion of the balance of the previously billed charges on the transaction account that is a non-deferred balance to a deferred balance;

deferring, by the processor and based on the election, payment on the second portion of the balance of the previously billed charges on the transaction account to the next billing cycle due date for the transaction account, such that the deferred balance for the transaction account is due at the next billing cycle due date for the transaction account; and

incrementing, by the processor and in response to the transferring, a deferred payment counter.