Automatic classification of credit card customers

• US 20070288299A1
• Filed: 06/13/2006
• Published: 12/13/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 06/13/2006
• 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: Juang, David, Fusillo, Iwao, Rane, Rajendra R., Alvarez, Eduardo J.
• Granted Patent: US 7,690,564 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/10
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0202 Market predictions or forecasting for commercial activities
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0204 Market segmentation
• 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

According to embodiments of the present invention there is provided a computer-based method and a computer program product for automatically sorting customers who make purchases from merchants using a credit card. The computer-based method includes the following steps. An adjusted index is calculated for a customer based on an amount of money the customer spent across merchants during a time period. The adjusted index is compared to a cut-off value. The customer is classified based on the comparison of the adjusted index to the cut-off value. In an embodiment, the method also includes re-classifying the customer based on at least one of (i) information about the merchants, or (ii) a number of transactions in a predetermined industry.

Claims

1. A computer-based method for automatically sorting customers who make purchases from merchants using a credit card, comprising:

calculating an adjusted index for a customer based on an amount of money the customer spent across merchants during a time period;

comparing the adjusted index to a cut-off value; and

classifying the customer based on the comparison of the adjusted index to the cut-off value.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

re-classifying the customer based on at least one of (i) information about the merchants, or (ii) a number of transactions in a predetermined industry.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the calculating step comprises:

calculating an adjusted index for the customer based on (i) an aggregate amount of money the customer spent at all merchants during the time period, and (ii) an individual amount of money the customer spent at each merchant during the time period.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the comparing step comprises:

comparing the adjusted index to a cut-off value, wherein the cut-off value is determined based on a manual classification of a training data set.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the classifying step comprises:

assigning the customer to one of (i) a first category when the adjusted index is greater than the cut-off value, or (ii) a second category when the adjusted index is less than the cut-off value.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

ranking the merchants at which the customer spent money based on an individual amount of money the customer spent at each merchant, the N highest ranked merchants being designated as top-ranked merchants, wherein N is a positive integer; and

switching the customer between the first category and the second category based on an industry of at least one of the top-ranked merchants.

7. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

switching the customer between the first category and the second category based on a keyword search of names of merchants at which the customer spent money.

8. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

switching the customer from the second category to the first category if a number of airline transactions exceeds a threshold.

9. The method of claim 3, wherein the calculating step comprises:

calculating an adjusted index for a customer, wherein the adjusted index is given by

10. A computer program product comprising a computer usable medium having control logic stored therein for causing a computer to automatically sort customers who make purchases from merchants using a credit card, said control logic comprising:

first computer readable program code that causes the computer to calculate an adjusted index for a customer based on an amount of money the customer spent across merchants during a time period;

second computer readable program code that causes the computer to compare the adjusted index to a cut-off value; and

third computer readable program code that causes the computer to classify the customer based on the comparison of the adjusted index to the cut-off value.

11. The computer program product of claim 10, further comprising:

fourth computer readable program code that causes the computer to re-classify the customer based on at least one of (i) information about the merchants, or (ii) a number of transactions in a predetermined industry.

12. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein the first computer readable program code comprises:

code that causes the computer to calculate an adjusted index for the customer based on (i) an aggregate amount of money the customer spent at all merchants during the time period, and (ii) an individual amount of money the customer spent at each merchant during the time period.

13. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein the second computer readable program code comprises:

code that causes the computer to compare the adjusted index to a cut-off value, wherein the cut-off value is determined based on a manual classification of a training data set.

14. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein the third computer readable program code comprises:

code that causes the computer to assign the customer to one of (i) a first category when the adjusted index is greater than the cut-off value, or (ii) a second category when the adjusted index is less than the cut-off value.

15. The computer program product of claim 14, further comprising:

fourth computer readable program code that causes the computer to rank the merchants at which the customer spent money based on an individual amount of money the customer spent at each merchant, the N highest ranked merchants being designated as top-ranked merchants, wherein N is a positive integer; and

fifth computer readable program code that causes the computer to switch the customer between the first category and the second category based on an industry of at least one of the top-ranked merchants.

16. The computer program product of claim 14, further comprising:

fourth computer readable program code that causes the computer to switch the customer between the first category and the second category based on a keyword search of names of merchants at which the customer spent money.

17. The computer program product of claim 14, further comprising:

fourth computer readable program code that causes the computer to switch the customer from the second category to the first category if a number of airline transactions exceeds a threshold.

18. The computer program product of claim 12, wherein the first computer readable program code further comprises:

code that causes the computer to calculate an adjusted index for a customer, wherein the adjusted index is given by