PRE-AUTHORIZATION OF A TRANSACTION USING PREDICTIVE MODELING

• US 20100280927A1
• Filed: 05/04/2010
• Published: 11/04/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 05/04/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Visa International Service Association (Visa, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Visa International Service Association (Visa, Inc.)
• Inventors: Faith, Patrick, Hammad, Ayman, Siegel, Kevin P.
• Granted Patent: US 8,352,315 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/30
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/04 Forecasting or optimisation specially adapted for administrative or management purposes, e.g. linear programming or "cutting stock problem" market predictions or forecasting for commercial activities G06Q30/0202
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06375 Prediction of business process outcome or impact based on a proposed change
• 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 20/4016 involving fraud or risk level assessment in transaction processing
• 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 30/0205 Location or geographical consideration
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0224 based on user history
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0269 based on user profile or attribute
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/12 Accounting

Abstract

Systems, apparatus, and methods are provided for efficiently authorizing a transaction initiated by a consumer. An authorization can be generated before the consumer actually initiates the transaction. For example, a future transaction can be predicted, and an authorization can be generated for the predicted transaction. In this manner, the authorization can be ready and quickly used when the consumer does initiate the transaction. Previous transactions made by the consumer can be used to predict when the future transaction is likely. In various examples, the authorization can be sent to a specific merchant or to the consumer for use when the consumer initiates the predicted transaction, or saved by an authorization server for use in response to an authorization request from the merchant.

Claims

1. A method of pre-authorizing a future transaction of a consumer, the method comprising:

receiving data corresponding to previous transactions;

a computer system determining one or more patterns of the previous transactions;

based on the determined patterns, predicting when the consumer is likely to initiate the future transaction; and

prior to the consumer initiating the transaction, generating an authorization of the future transaction.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

after predicting when the consumer is likely to initiate the future transaction, determining a cost associated with the future transaction;

generating the authorization based on an analysis of a likelihood of the future transaction and the cost.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the previous transactions are associated with the consumer and/or with one or more other consumers similar to the consumer.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein determining one or more patterns of the previous transactions includes:

associating one or more keys with each previous transaction;

correlating pairs of previous transactions, each correlated pair associated with a particular pair of keys; and

for each correlated pair, determining time intervals between the transactions of the correlated pair; and

for each key pair;

tracking numbers of occurrences of correlated pairs having time intervals within specified time ranges, the transactions of the correlated pairs being associated with corresponding keys of the key pair.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a merchant associated with the future transaction; and

transmitting the generated authorization to a server associated with the merchant, wherein the generated authorization is transmitted prior to the consumer initiating the future transaction.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

transmitting the generated authorization to a computing device associated with the consumer.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the transmitting is performed a predetermined amount of time before the start of a predicted time window for the future transaction.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving an authorization request associated with a current transaction;

using data in the authorization request to match the current transaction to the generated authorization; and

providing an approval to the authorization request when a match is found.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein matching the current transaction to the generated authorization includes:

matching an amount of the current transaction with an amount associated with the generated authorization; and

matching a time of the current transaction with a time window associated with the generated authorization.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein predicting when the consumer is likely to initiate the future transaction includes identifying a time window in which the consumer is likely to initiate the transaction.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the authorization is valid only during the identified time window.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein determining a pattern of the previous transactions includes creating a probability function that approximates the pattern of the previous transactions, and

wherein identifying the time window includes identifying when the probability function has values above a threshold.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the time window is centered around a peak probability of when the future transaction is predicted to occur.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein the time window ends at a peak probability of when the transaction is predicted to occur.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the computer system is part of a payment processing network.

16. A computer program product comprising a tangible computer readable medium storing a plurality of instructions for controlling one or more processors to perform the method of claim 1.

17. A computer system comprising:

one or more processors; and

the computer program product of claim 16.

18. A method of using an authorization for a future transaction by a consumer, the method comprising:

performing a plurality of previous transactions;

receiving a token for authorization of a future transaction, wherein the authorization is for a time when the future transaction is predicted to be likely based on the previous transactions; and

providing the authorization to a merchant at the time when the future transaction is predicted to be likely.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the time when the future transaction is predicted to be likely is a time window, wherein the authorization is only valid within the time window.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein the previous transactions are performed with an account of the consumer, and wherein the authorization is for a future transaction using the account.

21. The method of claim 18, wherein the authorization is for a future transaction within a specified price range.