Method and apparatus for development and use of a credit score based on spend capacity

• US 7,814,004 B2
• Filed: 06/30/2005
• Issued: 10/12/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 10/29/2004
• 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: Williamson, Peter L., Haggerty, Kathleen, Yuan, Chao M., Okoh, Benedict O.
• Primary Examiner(s): Kazimi; Hani
• Assistant Examiner(s): Rankins; William E
• Application Number:
  US11/169,779
• Publication Number:
  US 20060242051A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,930 Days
• Field of Search: 705 35- 45
• US Class Current: 705/38
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/067 Enterprise or organisation modelling
• 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 30/0269 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 40/03 Credit; Loans; Processing thereof
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/12 Accounting

Abstract

Share of Wallet (“SOW”) is a modeling approach that utilizes various data sources to provide outputs that describe a consumers spending capability, tradeline history including balance transfers, and balance information. These outputs can be appended to data profiles of customers and prospects and can be utilized to support decisions involving prospecting, new applicant evaluation, and customer management across the lifecycle. A SOW score focusing on a consumer'"'"'s spending capability can be used in the same manner as a credit bureau score.

Claims

1. A method of developing a credit score for an individual consumer comprising:

modeling, by a computer-based system comprising a processor and a non-transitory, tangible memory, consumer spending patterns using individual and aggregate consumer data, including tradeline data, internal customer data, and consumer panel data;

estimating, by the computer-based system, credit-related information of the individual consumer based on tradeline data of the individual consumer, balance transfers of the individual consumer, and the model of consumer spending patterns, wherein the credit-related information comprises a spend amount associated with the individual consumer; and

offsetting, by the computer-based system, the previous balance transfers from the estimated credit-related information;

assigning, by the computer-based system, a credit score to the individual consumer based on the estimated credit-related information, wherein the credit score includes an indicator indicating a trend of the consumers'"'"' spending over a given time and wherein the indicator is a positive or negative integer.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the estimated credit-related information includes at least one of the following data types:

spend capacity of the consumer, size of the consumer'"'"'s spending wallet over a particular time period, total number of the consumer'"'"'s revolving cards, the consumer'"'"'s revolving balance, the consumer'"'"'s average pay-down percentage for revolving cards, total number of the consumer'"'"'s transacting cards, the consumer'"'"'s transacting balance, a number of balance transfers, the consumer'"'"'s maximum revolving balance, the consumer'"'"'s maximum transacting balance, the consumer'"'"'s credit limit, size of the consumer'"'"'s revolving spending, and size of the consumer'"'"'s transacting spending.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein each data type is given an individual score.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the estimating comprises:

(i) determining which data types are most indicative of the consumer'"'"'s spending patterns; and

(ii) assigning a credit score to the consumer based on a combination of scores of data types most indicative of the consumer'"'"'s spending patterns.

5. A method of developing a consumer credit score, comprising:

modeling, by a computer-based system comprising a processor and a non-transitory, tangible memory, consumer spending patterns using individual and aggregate consumer data, including tradeline data, internal customer data, and consumer panel data;

estimating, by the computer-based system, a spend capacity of the individual consumer based on tradeline data of the individual consumer, balance transfers of the individual consumer, and the model of consumer spending patterns, wherein the spend capacity comprises a spend amount associated with the individual consumer; and

offsetting, by the computer-based system, the previous balance transfers from the estimated credit-related information;

assigning, by the computer-based system, a credit score to the consumer based on the estimated spend capacity of the consumer, wherein the credit score includes an indicator indicating a trend of the consumers'"'"' spending over a given time and wherein the indicator is a positive or negative integer.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the given time period is at least one of a year a quarter, and a month.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the indicator is an exponent.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein the credit score is further based on at least one of the following data types:

size of the consumer'"'"'s spending wallet over a particular time period, total number of the consumer'"'"'s revolving cards, the consumer'"'"'s revolving balance, the consumer'"'"'s average pay-down percentage for revolving cards, total number of the consumer'"'"'s transacting cards, the consumer'"'"'s transacting balance, a number of balance transfers, the consumer'"'"'s maximum revolving balance, the consumer'"'"'s maximum transacting balance, the consumer'"'"'s credit limit, size of the consumer'"'"'s revolving spending, and size of the consumer'"'"'s transacting spending.

9. An apparatus for developing a consumer credit score, comprising;

a processor; and

a memory in communication with the processor, wherein the memory stores a plurality of processing instructions for directing the processor to;

model consumer spending patterns using individual and aggregate consumer data, including tradeline data, internal customer data, and consumer panel data;

estimate credit-related information of an individual consumer based on tradeline data of the individual consumer, previous balance transfers of the individual consumer, and the model of consumer spending patterns, wherein the credit-related information comprises a spend amount associated with the individual consumer;

offset the previous balance transfers from the estimated credit-related information;

and

assign a credit score to the consumer based on the estimated credit-related information, wherein the credit score includes an indicator indicating a trend of the consumers'"'"' spending over a given time and wherein the indicator is a positive or negative integer.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the credit-related information includes a plurality of data types.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the processing instructions further direct the processor to give an individual score to each data type.

12. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the processing instructions further direct the processor to output a scorecard including analysis of each data type.

13. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the instructions to assign a credit score to the consumer include instructions for directing the processor to:

determine which data types are most indicative of the consumer'"'"'s spending patterns; and

assign a credit score to the consumer based on a combination of individual scores of data types most indicative of the consumer'"'"'s spending patterns.

14. An article of manufacture including a non-transitory computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon that, in response to execution by a computing device, cause the computing device to perform operations comprising:

modeling consumer spending patterns using individual and aggregate consumer data, including tradeline data, internal customer data, and consumer panel data;

estimating credit-related information of an individual consumer based on tradeline data of the individual consumer, previous balance transfers of the individual consumer, and the model of consumer spending patterns, wherein the credit-related information comprises a spend amount associated with the individual consumer; and

offsetting the previous balance transfers from the estimated credit-related information;

assigning a credit score to the consumer based on the estimated credit-related information, wherein the credit score includes an indicator indicating a trend of the consumers'"'"' spending over a given time and wherein the indicator is a positive or negative integer.

15. The article of manufacture of claim 14, wherein the credit-related information includes a plurality of data types.

16. The article of manufacture of claim 15, further comprising giving an individual score to each data type.

17. The article of manufacture of claim 16, wherein the assigning further comprises determining which data types are most indicative of the consumers'"'"' spending patterns;

and

assigning a credit score to the consumer based on a combination of individual scores of data types most indicative of the consumers'"'"' spending patterns.

18. The article of manufacture of claim 15, further comprising outputting a scorecard including analysis of each data type.