REFUND REQUEST TOOL

• US 20080103967A1
• Filed: 10/31/2006
• Published: 05/01/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 10/31/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Bank of America Corp.
• Original Assignee: Bank of America Corp.
• Inventors: Winick, Deborah M., Ackert, Catherine H., Aheron, LouAnn, Calarco, Michelle, Howell, Marcus Brian, Eickenhorst, Glenn Earl, English, Anahita, Stott, Caroline Beal
• Granted Patent: US 7,797,212 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/39
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/10 specially adapted for electronic funds transfer [EFT] systems; specially adapted for home banking systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/00 Commerce
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/611 for multicast or broadcast systems for broadcast or conference H04L12/18; arrangements for broadcast or distribution combined with broadcast H04H20/00; arrangements for broadcast applications with a direct linkage to broadcast information or to broadcast space-time H04H60/00; selective distribution of broadcast services, e.g. multimedia broadcast multicast service [MBMS], H04W4/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23614 Multiplexing of additional data and video streams arrangements for simultaneous broadcast of plural pieces of information H04H20/28
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6131 involving transmission via a mobile phone network wireless downlink channel access H04W74/006
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6405 Multicasting data broadcast and multicast in packet switching networks H04L12/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6408 Unicasting
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/00 Local resource management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/20 Control channels or signalling for resource management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/30 Resource management for broadcast services

Abstract

A business may uniformly calculate and offer a fee refund to customers requesting refunds for fees charged to the customers'"'"' accounts. Rather than relying on individual employee discretion, a server may use account information and customer information to generate the fee refund amount to be offered to the customer. The calculated refund amount may be based on a variety of considerations including, but not limited to, the amount the account is overdrawn, the profitability of the account, the number of occurrences of charged fees, and/or other factors such as family relationships to other bank customers. Additionally, a fee refund offer may be stored and referred to when the customer subsequently requests a refund.

Claims

1. A method for providing a fee refund to a customer, comprising:

receiving a refund request relating to a fee charged to a first account, the refund request initiated by a first account holder associated with the first account;

retrieving account information associated with the first account;

retrieving account holder information associated with the first account;

determining a refund amount using a predetermined refund rule corresponding to the fee charged, wherein the determining is based on at least the fee charged, the account information, and the account holder information; and

outputting the refund amount, wherein the refund amount is used to offer a refund to the first account holder for the fee charged to the first account.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein first account is an account at a financial institution and the fee charged to the first account is a non-sufficient funds or overdrawn account (NSF/OD) fee charged by the financial institution to one or more account holders of the first account.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the account information comprises an amount of time that the first account was in a NSF/OD state.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the account holder information comprises the number of different accounts that the first account holder has at the financial institution.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the refund amount is a partial refund calculated as a percentage of the fee charged.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the account information comprises at least one of a calculation of profitability for the first account, an account type associated with the first account, and the tenure of the first account.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the account information comprises a time and an amount for a previous fee refund associated with the first account.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising identifying a second account holder associated with the first account holder, wherein determining the refund amount is further based on account information associated with a second account held by the second account holder.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein identifying the second account holder comprises executing a query for other account holders having an address in common with the first account holder.

10. One or more computer-readable media storing computer-executable instructions which, when executed on a computer system, perform a method for handling a refund request from a first customer, the method comprising:

receiving a first refund request relating to a fee charged to a first account;

retrieving account information associated with the first account;

identifying one or more account holders associated with the first account;

retrieving account holder information associated with the one or more account holders;

determining a refund amount using a predetermined refund rule corresponding to the fee charged, wherein the determining is based on at least the fee charged, the account information, and the account holder information; and

outputting the refund amount, wherein the refund amount is used to offer a refund to a first customer for the fee charged.

11. The computer-readable media of claim 10, wherein the method further comprises:

storing on the computer system the determined refund amount, a first request time corresponding to the received refund request, and a first request location associated with the received first refund request.

12. The computer-readable media of claim 11, wherein the method further comprises:

receiving a second refund request relating to the same fee charged to first account; and

retrieving information corresponding to the stored determined refund amount, the request time, and the request location, wherein the retrieved information is used to offer a refund in response to the second refund request.

13. The computer-readable media of claim 12, wherein the second refund request is received from a second location different from the first request location.

14. The computer-readable media of claim 10, wherein the account holder information comprises the number of different accounts that the one or more account holders have at the financial institution.

15. The computer-readable media of claim 10, wherein the account information comprises at least one of a calculation of profitability for the first account, an account type associated with the first account, and the tenure of the first account.

16. The computer-readable media of claim 10, wherein the method further comprises:

identifying a different account holder having the same address as at least one of the account holders associated with the first account, wherein the determining the refund amount is further based on account information associated with a different account held by the different account holder.

17. A computing device enabling a financial institution to handle a refund request from a customer for a fee charged to an account, the computing device comprising:

means for receiving a refund request relating to a fee charged to a first account;

means for retrieving account information associated with the first account;

means for identifying a first customer with the first account;

means for retrieving customer information associated with the first customer;

means for determining a refund amount using a predetermined refund rule corresponding to the fee charged, wherein the determining is based on at least the fee charged, the account information, and the customer information; and

means for offering for the fee charged to the first account based on the determined refund amount.

18. The computing device of claim 17, wherein the customer information comprises the number of different accounts that the first customer has at the financial institution.

19. The computing device of claim 17, wherein the account information comprises at least one of a calculation of profitability for the first account, an account type associated with the first account, and the tenure of the first account.

20. The computing device of claim 17, further comprising:

means for storing the determined refund amount, a first request time corresponding to the received refund request, and a first request location associated with the received refund request;

means for receiving a second refund request relating to the same fee charged to first account; and

means for retrieving information corresponding to the stored determined refund amount, the first request time, and the first request location, wherein the retrieved information is used to offer a refund in response to the second refund request.

21. The computing device of claim 17, further comprising:

means for identifying a second customer having an address in common with the first customer, wherein the determining the refund amount is further based on account information associated with a second account held by the second customer.