PRE-AUTHORIZATION OF A TRANSACTION USING PREDICTIVE MODELING

• US 20140006284A1
• Filed: 12/10/2012
• Published: 01/02/2014
• 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, Siegel, Kevin P., Hammad, Ayman
• Granted Patent: US 9,773,246 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/44
• 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 using an authorization for a specific future transaction by a consumer, the method comprising:

performing a plurality of previous transactions;

receiving, with an electronic device, a token for authorization of a specific future transaction, wherein the authorization is for a time when the specific future transaction is predicted to be likely based on the previous transactions, and wherein the specific future transaction is identifiable by one or more keys that characterize the specific future transaction; and

providing, with the electronic device, the authorization to a merchant at the time when the specific future transaction is predicted to be likely, wherein the generated authorization token is operable to be used during a process for authorizing a transaction that is initiated by the consumer and that matches the one or more keys, the authorization token authorizing payment from one or more accounts of the consumer.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the time when the specific future transaction is predicted to be likely is a time window.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the authorization token is valid only within the time window.

4. 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.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the previous transactions are performed with the one or more accounts of the consumer.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the authorization is for the specific future transaction using the account.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the authorization is for the specific future transaction within a specified price range.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

transmitting data corresponding to previous transactions to a computer system.

9. The method of claim 8, where the data corresponding to previous transactions includes at least one or more of consumer data, transaction data, and merchant data.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the token for authorization of the specific future transaction is generated based on an analysis of at least the previous transactions.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the token for authorization of the specific future transaction is received a predetermined amount of time before the start of a predicted time window for the specific future transaction.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the token for authorization of the specific future transaction is received in an electronic message at the electronic device associated with the consumer.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the electronic device is a phone.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the token for authorization of the specific future transaction includes a coupon for the specific future transaction.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the token for authorization of the specific future transaction is received in an electronic message at a merchant access device.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein the transmitting is performed a predetermined amount of time before the start of a predicted time window for the specific future transaction.

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

receiving data corresponding to previous transactions of the consumer;

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

based on the determined patterns, predicting, by the computer system, when the consumer is likely to initiate the specific future transaction, the specific future transaction being identifiable by one or more keys that characterize the specific future transaction; and

based on the prediction and prior to the consumer initiating the specific future transaction, generating a token, by the computer system, for an authorization of the specific future transaction that matches the one or more keys.

17. The method of claim 16, 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.

18. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

determining a merchant associated with the specific future transaction; and

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

19. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

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