Customized financing based on transaction information

• US 10,692,140 B1
• Filed: 11/15/2017
• Issued: 06/23/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 11/15/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Block, Inc. (f/k/a Square, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Block, Inc. (f/k/a Square, Inc.)
• Inventors: Kim, Audrey, Mao, Theodore
• Primary Examiner(s): Sheikh, Asfand M
• Application Number:
  US15/814,366
• Time in Patent Office: 951 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/02 involving a neutral party, e.g. certification authority, notary or trusted third party [TTP]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/102 Bill distribution or payments
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/202 Interconnection or interaction of plural electronic cash registers [ECR] or to host computer, e.g. network details, transfer of information from host to ECR or from ECR to ECR
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/26 Debit schemes, e.g. "pay now"
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3223 Realising banking transactions through M-devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/34 using cards, e.g. integrated circuit [IC] cards or magnetic cards
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/40 Authorisation, e.g. identification of payer or payee, verification of customer or shop credentials; Review and approval of payers, e.g. check credit lines or negative lists
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/405 Establishing or using transaction specific rules
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/03 Credit; Loans; Processing thereof

Abstract

In some examples, a payment processing system may receive, from a plurality of merchant POS terminals, transaction information of transactions performed between a plurality of merchants and a plurality of buyers. Further, the system may receive, from a first buyer, a request to finance a purchase of an item at a first merchant. The system may determine, based at least in part on the transaction information, financing terms for the first buyer for purchasing the item from the first merchant, the financing terms may include an approved financed amount for making the purchase from the first merchant. The system may receive an acceptance of the terms from the buyer and may generate a payment code associated with the financing terms and the first merchant that enables the customer to finance the purchase with the first merchant, such as at a POS terminal of the first merchant.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, by a payment processing system and from merchant devices associated with merchants, transaction information of transactions performed between the merchants and buyers, the merchant devices each executing an instance of a merchant application installed for configuring the merchant devices as point-of-sale (POS) terminals configured to communicate the transaction information over a network to the payment processing system, the POS terminals including a first POS terminal associated with a first merchant;

determining, by the payment processing system, based on analysis of the received transaction information, a first set of the merchants who are eligible for having financing provided to the buyers for conducting financed transactions with the first set of merchants, and a second set of the merchants who are ineligible for having financing provided to the buyers;

receiving, by the payment processing system, from a buyer application executing on a buyer device associated with a first buyer, a request for the payment processing system to provide financing to finance a purchase by the first buyer for a selected item from the first merchant;

determining, by the payment processing system, that the first merchant is included in the first set of merchants as a precondition to providing the financing;

determining, by the payment processing system, financing terms for the first buyer for purchasing the selected item from the first merchant, wherein the financing terms are determined based at least partially on at least one of;

past transactions of the first buyer and/or other buyers with the first merchant;

or

past transactions of the first buyer and/or other buyers with merchants classified as being similar to the first merchant,

wherein the financing terms include an approved financed amount to be provided by the payment processing system, for making the purchase from the first merchant and repayment terms;

transmitting, by the payment processing system, the financing terms to the buyer device for presentation on a user interface of the buyer device;

receiving, by the payment processing system, from the buyer device, via the user interface, an indication of acceptance by the buyer of the financing terms;

generating, by the payment processing system, a payment code useable for the purchase of the selected item via the POS terminal of the first merchant, wherein the payment code is associated with the approved financed amount, the first merchant, and the selected item;

sending, by the payment processing system, the payment code to the buyer application for making a financed purchase from the first merchant;

receiving, by the payment processing system, from the first POS terminal, the payment code and an indication of a transaction with the first buyer to purchase the selected item using the payment code;

sending, by the payment processing system, to the first POS terminal, authorization for the purchase of the selected item for a purchase price less than or equal to the approved financed amount; and

providing, by the payment processing system, the financing to the buyer by crediting, by the payment processing system, an account of the first merchant based on the purchase price as payment for the selected item.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising determining an eligibility of the first buyer to receive financing based at least partially on the received transaction information.

3. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein a portion of the payment code indicates the payment code represents financing for the transaction to enable the instance of the merchant application on the first POS terminal to determine that the transaction is a financed transaction based on the payment code.

4. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein determining, based on the received transaction information, the first set of the merchants who are eligible for having the financing provided to the buyers includes determining, from the received transaction information, at least one of:

prices of items offered by individual merchants,

an indication of credit ratings of customers of the individual merchants, or

an item return rate for the individual merchants.

5. A method comprising:

receiving, by one or more processors associated with a payment processing system, from a plurality of merchant devices associated with a plurality of merchants, respectively, transaction information of transactions performed between the plurality of merchants and a plurality of buyers, the merchant devices having respective instances of a merchant application installed thereon for configuring the plurality of merchant devices as a plurality of point-of-sale (POS) terminals configured to communicate the transaction information over a network to the payment processing system, the plurality of POS terminals including a first POS terminal associated with a first merchant;

determining, by the one or more processors, based on analysis of the received transaction information, a first set of the merchants who are eligible for having financing provided to the buyers for conducting financed transactions with the first set of merchants, and a second set of the merchants who are ineligible for having financing provided to the buyers;

receiving, by the one or more processors, via a user interface associated with a first buyer, a request for the payment processing system to provide financing to finance a purchase by the first buyer for one or more items from the first merchant;

determining, by the one or more processors, that the first merchant is included in the first set of merchants as a precondition to providing the financing;

determining, by the one or more processors, based at least in part on the transaction information, financing terms for the payment processing system to provide financing to the first buyer for purchasing the one or more items from the first merchant, the financing terms including an approved financed amount to be financed by the payment processing system for making the purchase from the first merchant;

transmitting, by the one or more processors, the financing terms to cause the financing terms to be presented on the user interface associated with the first buyer;

receiving, by the one or more processors, via the user interface, an indication of acceptance by the first buyer of the financing terms;

generating, by the one or more processors, a payment code associated with the financing terms and the first merchant, wherein the payment code enables the customer to finance a purchase with the first merchant via the first POS terminal;

transmitting, by the one or more processors, to cause the payment code to be presented on the user interface associated with the first buyer; and

in response to receipt of the payment code from the first POS terminal associated with the first merchant, providing, by the one or more processors, the financing from the payment processing system to the first buyer by crediting an account of the first merchant as payment for the one or more items.

6. The method as recited in claim 5, wherein determining, based at least in part on the transaction information, the financing terms for the first buyer comprises determining the financing terms based on least one of:

past transactions of the first buyer with the first merchant;

past transactions of other buyers with the first merchant;

past transactions of the first buyer with merchants classified as being similar to the first merchant;

or

past transactions of other buyers with merchants classified as being similar to the first merchant.

7. The method as recited in claim 5, further comprising:

receiving, from the first POS terminal, with the payment code, an indication of a transaction with the first buyer to purchase the one or more items for an indicated purchase price using the payment code;

determining that the indicated purchase price is less than or equal to the approved financed amount;

sending, to the first POS terminal, authorization for the purchase of the item for the indicated purchase price; and

crediting the account of the first merchant based on the indicated purchase price as the payment for the one or more items.

8. The method as recited in claim 5, further comprising receiving, via the user interface, at least prior to sending the payment code, debit card information for a debit card associated with a financial account of the first buyer.

9. The method as recited in claim 8, further comprising receiving, via the user interface, at least prior to sending the payment code, an authorization to charge the debit card to deduct payment from the financial account for repayment of a financed amount.

10. The method as recited in claim 5, wherein:

the payment code is a character string; and

a portion of the character string indicates to the merchant application that the payment code is associated with financing provided via the payment processing system.

11. The method as recited in claim 5, further comprising, based on sending the payment code, sending, to the first POS terminal, the payment code and an indication of approval of financing for the first buyer for purchase of the one or more items from the first merchant using the payment code.

12. The method as recited in claim 11, wherein sending the payment code to the first POS terminal comprises:

adding the payment code and information related to the buyer to a merchant-customer directory that includes customers of the merchant who have conducted transactions with the merchant; and

sending the merchant-customer directory to the first POS terminal.

13. The method as recited in claim 5, further comprising:

training a machine learning model using at least a first portion of the transaction information to train the machine learning model; and

inputting a portion of the transaction information related to at least the first merchant into the trained machine learning model to determine that the first merchant is included in the first set of merchants, and is eligible for the first buyer to receive financing for making a purchase from the first merchant.

14. The method as recited in claim 5, further comprising determining that a transaction for the one or more items is eligible for receiving financing based at in part on a price for the one or more items at the first merchant determined based on item pricing information previously received from the first merchant.

15. The method as recited in claim 5, wherein the user interface associated with the first buyer is presented on a display associated with at least one of:

a buyer device associated with the first buyer;

or

the first POS terminal.

16. The method as recited in claim 5, further comprising determining, based at least in part on the transaction information, that the first merchant is included in the first set of merchants and is eligible to have financing provided to the first buyer for conducting a financed transaction with the first merchant based on determining, from the received transaction information, at least one of:

prices of items offered by the first merchant,

an indication of credit ratings of customers of the first merchant, or

an item return rate for the first merchant.

17. A system comprising:

one or more processors; and

one or more computer-readable media storing instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors, program the one or more processors to perform operations comprising;

receiving, from a plurality of merchant devices associated with a plurality of merchants, respectively, transaction information of transactions performed between the plurality of merchants and a plurality of buyers, the merchant devices having respective instances of a merchant application installed thereon for configuring the plurality of merchant devices as a plurality of point-of-sale (POS) terminals configured to communicate the transaction information over a network to the system, the plurality of POS terminals including a first POS terminal associated with a first merchant;

determining, based on analysis of the received transaction information, a first set of the merchants who are eligible for having financing provided to the buyers for conducting financed transactions with the first set of merchants, and a second set of the merchants who are ineligible for having financing provided to the buyers;

receiving, from an application executing on a buyer device associated with a first buyer, a request for the payment processing system to provide financing to the first buyer to finance a purchase from the first merchant;

determining, by the payment processing system, that the first merchant is included in the first set of merchants as a precondition to providing the financing;

determining, based at least in part on the transaction information, financing terms for the payment processing system to provide financing to the first buyer, the financing terms including an approved financed amount to be financed by the payment processing system for the purchase from the first merchant;

transmitting, by the one or more processors, the financing terms to the buyer device;

receiving, by the one or more processors, from the application on the buyer device, an indication of acceptance of the financing terms;

generating, by the one or more processors, a payment code associated with the financing terms and the first merchant;

sending, by the one or more processors, a payment code to the buyer device for making the purchase at the first merchant; and

in response to receipt of the payment code from the first POS terminal associated with the first merchant, providing, by the one or more processors, the financing from the payment processing system to the first buyer by crediting an account of the first merchant as payment for the purchase.

18. The system as recited in claim 17, wherein the operation of determining, based at least in part on the transaction information, the financing terms for the first buyer comprises determining the financing terms based on least one of:

past transactions of the first buyer with the first merchant;

past transactions of other buyers with the first merchant;

past transactions of the first buyer with merchants classified as being similar to the first merchant;

or

past transactions of other buyers with merchants classified as being similar to the first merchant.

19. The system as recited in claim 17, the operations further comprising:

receiving, from the first POS terminal, with the payment code, an indication of a transaction with the first buyer to purchase an item for an indicated purchase price using the payment code;

determining that the indicated purchase price is less than or equal to the approved financed amount;

sending, to the first POS terminal, authorization for the purchase of the item for the indicated purchase price; and

crediting the account of the first merchant based on the indicated purchase price as payment for the item.

20. The system as recited in claim 17, the operations further comprising determining an eligibility of the first buyer to receive financing based at least partially on the received transaction information.

21. The system as recited in claim 17, the operations further comprising receiving, at least prior to sending the payment code, debit card information for a debit card associated with a financial account of the first buyer.

22. The system as recited in claim 17, wherein:

the payment code is a character string; and

a portion of the character string indicates to the merchant application that the payment code is associated with financing provided via the system.

23. The system as recited in claim 17, the operations further comprising:

training a machine learning model using at least a first portion of the transaction information to train the machine learning model; and

inputting a portion of the transaction information related to at least the first buyer into the trained machine learning model to determine at least one of;

eligibility of the first buyer for receiving financing;

or

the financing terms for the first buyer.

24. The system as recited in claim 17, the operations further comprising determining, based at least in part on the transaction information, that the first merchant is included in the first set of merchants and is eligible to have financing provided to buyers for conducting financed transactions with the first merchant based on determining, from the received transaction information, at least one of:

prices of items offered by the first merchant,

an indication of credit ratings of customers of the first merchant, or

an item return rate for the first merchant.