DEBT TRENDING SYSTEMS AND METHODS

• US 20090319414A1
• Filed: 06/18/2009
• Published: 12/24/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/18/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Consumerinfo.com Incorporated (Experian plc)
• Original Assignee: Consumerinfo.com Incorporated (Experian plc)
• Inventors: DeBie, Tod
• Granted Patent: US 8,095,443 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/35
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/102 Bill distribution or payments
• 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 debt trending device accesses credit reports and/or other financial data that is available from one or more financial data sources, for a user and extracts financial account information. The debt trending device may then analyze the account information in order to generate debt trending information that indicates in the form of lists, tables, graphs, charts, etc., information regarding multiple debt accounts associated with the user.

Claims

1. A computing system for providing information associated with a plurality of consumer debts, the system comprising:

a financial data integration module configured to retrieve financial data associated with a user, wherein the financial data comprises at least a credit report of the user, the financial data integration module being further configured to extract account information regarding each of a plurality of debt accounts associated with the user from the financial data, wherein the debt accounts are selected from the group comprising at least credit card, mortgage, automobile loan, and personal loan, and the account information for at least some of the debt accounts comprises one or more of an outstanding balance and a monthly payment amount; and

a debt trending module configured to generate a user interface comprising information that is based on at least the account information for at least some of the debt accounts, the user interface indicating at least

a total debt for each of a plurality of previous months based on calculated sums of outstanding balances for each of the plurality of debt accounts at the respective previous month; and

a total debt estimate for one or more future months based on calculated sums of estimated outstanding balances for each of the plurality of debt accounts at the respective future month.

2. The computing system of claim 1, wherein the debt trending module is further configured to generate a user interface comprising information regarding

a total monthly debt payment for each of a plurality of previous months based on calculated sums of total monthly debt payments for each of the plurality of debt accounts at the respective previous month;

and

a total estimated monthly debt payment for one or more future months based on calculated sums of estimated monthly debt payments for each of the plurality of debt accounts at the respective future month.

3. The computing system of claim 1, wherein the user interface comprises one or more web accessible documents that are viewable in a web browser.

4. The computing system of claim 1, wherein the financial data integration module is further configured to receive input from the user indicating account information for a debt account not included in the financial data.

5. The computing system of claim 1, wherein the financial data integration module is further configured to receive input from the user indicating changes to account information for one or more debt accounts.

6. The computing system of claim 1, wherein the financial information includes a credit score of the user.

7. The computing system of claim 1, wherein the debt trending module is configured for execution on a computing device of the user and

8. A method of providing debt information for a plurality of debt accounts associated with a user, the method comprising:

receiving consumer information identifying a consumer, the consumer information comprising at least one of a consumer'"'"'s name, social security number, and residence address;

transmitting at least some of the consumer information to a credit data source;

receiving credit information associated with the consumer from the credit data source;

detecting one or more financial accounts in the received credit information, the financial accounts selected from the group comprising at least credit card and loan accounts;

determining account information associated with each of the detected financial accounts, wherein the account information comprises one or more of an outstanding balance, a periodic minimum payment amount, an interest rate, and a payoff date;

determining estimated outstanding balances and/or periodic minimum payment amounts for one or more future periods for each of one or more financial accounts; and

determining total estimated outstanding balances and/or total periodic minimum payment amounts based on the determined outstanding balances and/or periodic minimum payment amounts for each of the one or more financial accounts.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

generating one or more user interfaces comprising the determined total estimated outstanding balances for each of a plurality of periods prior to a current period and one or more periods after the current period.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein one or more of the user interfaces comprises a chart, graph, table, or list.

11. The method of claim 8, further comprising receiving credit information from one or more additional credit data sources.

12. A method of providing information associated with a plurality of consumer debts, the method comprising:

accessing financial data associated with a user, wherein the financial data comprises at least a credit report of the user;

identifying account information regarding each of a plurality of debt accounts associated with the user from the financial data; and

generating a user interface comprising information regarding a total debt for each of a plurality of previous months based at least on calculated sums of outstanding balances for each of the plurality of debt accounts at the respective previous month as determined from at least the identified account information, the user interface further comprising information regarding total debt estimate for one or more future months based on calculated sums of estimated outstanding balances for each of the plurality of debt accounts at the respective future month.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the debt accounts are selected from the group comprising at least credit card, mortgage, automobile loan, and personal loan accounts.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the account information for at least some of the debt accounts comprises an outstanding balance and monthly payment amount.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein said identifying comprises evaluating one or more regular expressions on at least portions of the financial data.

16. The method of claim 12, wherein a user comprises one or more of an individual, multiple individuals, a married couple, a family, or a business.

17. A computer-readable storage medium containing a set of instructions that, if executed by a computing system, causes the computing system to perform a method comprising:

accessing financial data associated with a user, wherein the financial data comprises at least a credit report of the user;

identifying account information regarding each of a plurality of debt accounts associated with the user from the financial data; and

based at least on the identified account information, generating a user interface comprising information regarding a total debt for each of a plurality of previous months based at least on calculated sums of outstanding balances for each of the plurality of debt accounts at the respective previous month, the user interface further comprising information regarding total debt estimates for one or more future months based on calculated sums of estimated outstanding balances for each of the plurality of debt accounts at the respective future month.

18. The computer readable medium of claim 17, wherein the method further comprises:

based at least on the identified account information, generating a user interface comprising information regarding a total monthly minimum payment for each of a plurality of previous months based at least on calculated sums of monthly minimum payments for each of the plurality of debt accounts at the respective previous month, the user interface further comprising information regarding estimated minimum monthly payments for one or more future months based on calculated sums of estimated monthly minimum payments for each of the plurality of debt accounts at the respective future month.

19. A method of determining estimated debt information for each of a plurality of debt accounts associated with a consumer, the method comprising:

receiving at a consumer computing device account information associated with each of a plurality of debt accounts associated with the user from a debt trending device, wherein the debt trending device is configured to extract the account information from at least a credit report of the consumer; and

based at least on the received account information, generating a user interface comprising information regarding estimated total debt for one or more future months based on calculated sums of estimated outstanding balances for each of the plurality of debt accounts at the respective future month.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising:

wherein the user interface further comprises information regarding a total monthly minimum payment for each of a plurality of previous months based at least on calculated sums of monthly minimum payments for each of the plurality of debt accounts at the respective previous month,