Method and apparatus for processing a cardholder's inquiry or dispute about a credit/charge card

• US 8,364,583 B1
• Filed: 08/14/2000
• Issued: 01/29/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 08/14/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: West Corporation
• Original Assignee: West Corporation
• Inventors: Mussman, David C., Kempkes, Rodney J., Pettay, Mark J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Kazimi, Hani M
• Application Number:
  US09/638,728
• Time in Patent Office: 4,551 Days
• Field of Search: 705/34, 705/38, 705/35, 705 39- 42, 705/36, 705/37, 705/43, 705/44
• US Class Current: 705/39
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/305 using wired telephone networks
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/4016 involving fraud or risk level assessment in transaction processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/407 Cancellation of a transaction
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/01 Customer relationship services
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/02 Banking, e.g. interest calculation or account maintenance credit or loans G06Q40/03

Abstract

A method and system for processing a credit request from a credit/charge cardholder which automatically applies a rules-based decision process to determine whether to credit the cardholder'"'"'s account, the amount of the credit, whether to do a chargeback to the merchant, and the amount of the chargeback. Individual issuing banks who issue credit/charge cards and individual merchants may specify custom rules which must be considered before a credit is issued and/or before a chargeback to the merchant is performed. The rules set forth the conditions under which the merchant will waive its right to prove the disputed transaction such that a chargeback is automatically issued to the merchant. For example, a merchant may specify that if the transaction is $20 or less, it will accept an automatic chargeback without the merchant'"'"'s involvement and if the transaction is greater than $20, the merchant wants to receive notice of the dispute and the opportunity to prove or verify the authenticity of the transaction. In one aspect, the system may optionally include the blocking of calls based upon a list of potential callers from whom further transactions or requests for chargeback will be declined. The callers ANI or calling number identification is compared against the list, and the calls are not answered by the system.

Claims

1. A method for processing a plurality of transactions that are disputed by respective cardholders, wherein the transactions involve a plurality of different merchants and appear on the cardholders'"'"' credit or charge card accounts, the method comprising:

obtaining information about disputed transactions, via an input to a data processor for a network dispute system comprising an automatic information gathering system and an interactive voice response unit, from a cardholder involved with the disputed transactions, wherein the information is stored in a memory of the dispute system, wherein the obtained information comprises accessing a file from an issuing bank to correlate a credit/charge number with the issuing bank and further obtaining a merchant'"'"'s identification number from the issuing bank for a transaction in dispute;

determining, via the automatic information gathering system wherein no manual input is applied, that a plurality of different merchants are members of the network dispute system wherein if the merchants are not members of the system, the disputed transactions are not eligible for processing in the dispute system;

applying, via the automatic information gathering system wherein no manual input is applied, at least one of a plurality of respective rules provided by the merchants having a plurality of respective third party processors, wherein the data processor accesses the memory and at least one of the plurality of respective third party processors to determine an output based on the received input, the output being one of that a credit should issue automatically to the cardholder based on the obtained information and that a credit should not issue based on the obtained information;

determining, via the automatic information gathering system obtaining information via the accessed file, that a credit should not be issued when the obtained information indicates that the cardholder made a predetermined number of requests for chargebacks related to e-commerce transactions where the cardholder'"'"'s signature was not obtained; and

blocking an incoming call by the cardholder until the cardholder reduces a frequency of attempts to call the system below a predetermined threshold when the automatic information gathering system determines that a credit should be not be issued.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of obtaining rules from a merchant.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the rules for a first one of the merchants differ from the rules for a second one of the merchants.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of obtaining rules from an issuing bank.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the rules for a first issuing bank differ from the rules for a second issuing bank.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the rules determine that a credit should issue automatically to the cardholder if the credit is less than a certain dollar amount.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the rules determine that a credit should issue automatically to the cardholder based at least in part on a characteristic of the cardholder.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the characteristic is the credit history of the cardholder.

9. The method of claim 7 wherein the characteristic is the number of previous disputes raised by the cardholder.

10. The method of claim 7 wherein the characteristic is the average monthly balance of the cardholder'"'"'s account.

11. The method of claim 7 wherein the rules determine whether a credit should issue automatically to the cardholder based at least in part on the number of previous disputes raised against a given merchant by any cardholder.

12. The method of claim 7 wherein the rules determine that a credit should issue automatically to the cardholder based at least in part on the type of good or service involved in the disputed transaction.

13. The method of claim 7 wherein the rules determine that a credit should issue automatically to the cardholder based at least in part on the rules of the issuing bank that issued the credit/charge card to the cardholder.

14. The method of claim 7 wherein the rules determine that a credit should issue automatically to the cardholder based at least in part on the rules of the acquiring bank that is a given merchant'"'"'s bank.

15. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of investigating the disputed transaction further when the rules determine that a credit should not automatically issue to the cardholder.

16. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of applying a second set of rules to determine that a chargeback should be made automatically to a given merchant.

17. The method of claim 16 further comprising the step of investigating the disputed transaction further when the rules determine that a chargeback should not automatically issue to a given merchant.

35. The method of claim 1, wherein the disputed transaction comprises a non-face-to-face transaction that is not associated with a written transaction slip.

37. The method of claim 1, wherein obtaining information about the disputed transaction includes obtaining information about a disputed non-face-to-face transaction that is not associated with a written transaction slip.

39. The method of claim 1, wherein applying a plurality of rules includes automatically applying a plurality of rules to determine that the credit should issue to the cardholder.

41. The method of claim 1, further comprising transferring the information to a dispute processing entity other than the issuer.

42. The method of claim 41, wherein applying a plurality of rules is performed at least in part by the dispute processing entity.

43. The method of claim 41, wherein issuing a credit to the cardholder is performed at least in part by the dispute processing entity.

47. The method of claim 1, wherein applying a plurality of rules includes applying a plurality of rules to determine that a credit should issue to the cardholder without involving an issuer of the credit or charge card account in approval of the chargeback.

48. The method of claim 1, wherein automatically issuing a credit to the cardholder includes issuing a credit to the cardholder if the rules determine that a credit should issue to the cardholder without involving an issuer of the credit or charge card account in approval of the chargeback.

49. The method of claim 1, wherein applying a plurality of rules includes applying a plurality of rules to determine that a credit should issue to the cardholder without involving an issuer of the credit or charge card account in approval of the chargeback;

and wherein automatically issuing a credit to the cardholder includes issuing a credit to the cardholder if the rules determine that a credit should issue to the cardholder without involving the issuer account in approval of the chargeback.

18. A system for processing a plurality of transactions that are disputed by respective cardholders, wherein the transactions involve a plurality of different merchants and appear on the cardholders'"'"' credit or charge card accounts, the system comprising:

an automatic information gathering system, comprising an interactive voice response unit wherein no manual input is applied, that obtains information about disputed transactions from a cardholder involved with the disputed transactions, wherein the information is stored in a memory, wherein the obtained information comprises accessing a file from an issuing bank to correlate a credit/charge number with the issuing bank and further obtaining a merchant'"'"'s identification number from the issuing bank for a transaction in dispute;

a data processor located within the automatic information gathering system that gathers information from the cardholder and determines that the merchants are members of the automatic information gathering system wherein no manual input is applied, wherein if the merchants are not members of the system, the disputed transactions are not eligible for processing in the information gathering system;

a plurality of respective rules provided by the merchants having a plurality of respective third party processors, wherein the data processor accesses the at least one of the plurality of third party processors to produce an output, and wherein the automatic information gathering system obtains information via the accessed file, which rules determine at least one of;

that a predetermined number of requests for chargebacks related to the disputed transactions had been made by the cardholder related to e-commerce transactions where the cardholder'"'"'s signature was not obtained based on the obtained information;

that a credit should issue automatically to the cardholder based on the obtained information; and

a rules-based processor which applies the plurality of rules to the output of the interaction with the data processor of the information gathering system and the at least one of the plurality of merchant'"'"'s plurality of respective third party processors to block an incoming call by the cardholder until the cardholder reduces a frequency of attempts to call the system below a predetermined threshold when the obtained information results in the predetermined number of chargebacks made by the cardholder related to e-commerce transactions where the cardholder'"'"'s signature was not obtained.

19. The system of claim 18 wherein the plurality of rules include rules specific to different ones of the merchants.

20. The system of claim 19 wherein the plurality of rules include at least one rule for a first one of the merchants and at least one rule for a second merchant that differ from the rule for the first merchant.

21. The system of claim 18 wherein the plurality of rules include rules specific to an issuing bank.

22. The system of claim 19 further comprising rules for a first issuing bank and rules for a second issuing bank which differ from the rules for the first issuing bank.

23. The system of claim 18 wherein the rules determine that a credit should issue automatically to the cardholder if the credit is less than a certain dollar amount.

24. The system of claim 18 wherein the rules determine that a credit should issue automatically to the cardholder based at least in part on a characteristic of the cardholder.

25. The system of claim 24 wherein the characteristic is the credit history of the cardholder.

26. The system of claim 24 wherein the characteristic is the number of previous disputes raised by the cardholder.

27. The system of claim 24 wherein the characteristic is the average monthly balance of the cardholder'"'"'s account.

28. The system of claim 18 wherein the rules determine that a credit should issue automatically to the cardholder based at least in part on the number of previous disputes raised against a given merchant by any cardholder.

29. The system of claim 18 wherein the rules determine that a credit should issue automatically to the cardholder based at least in part on the type of good or service involved in the disputed transaction.

30. The system of claim 18 wherein the rules determine that a credit should issue automatically to the cardholder based at least in part on the rules of the issuing bank that issued the credit/charge card to the cardholder.

31. The system of claim 18 wherein the rules determine that a credit should issue automatically to the cardholder based at least in part on the rules of the acquiring bank that is a given merchant'"'"'s bank.

32. The system of claim 18 wherein the rules-based processor initiates an investigation of the disputed transaction when the rules determine that a credit should not automatically issue to the cardholder.

33. The system of claim 18 wherein the plurality of rules includes rules which determine that a chargeback should be made automatically to a given merchant.

34. The system of claim 33 wherein the rules-based processor initiates an investigation of the disputed transaction further when the rules determine that a chargeback should not automatically issue to a given merchant.

36. The system of claim 18, wherein the disputed transaction comprises a non-face-to-face transaction that is not associated with a written transaction slip.

38. The system of claim 18, wherein the information gathering system obtains information about a disputed non-face-to-face transaction that is not associated with a written transaction slip.

40. The system of claim 18, wherein the rules-based processor automatically applies the plurality of rules and automatically issues the credit to the cardholder if the plurality of rules determine that the credit should issue automatically to the cardholder.

44. The system of claim 18, further comprising at least one dispute processing entity other than the issuer, the dispute processing entity receiving the information.

45. The system of claim 44, wherein the dispute processing entity applies the plurality of rules.

46. The system of claim 44, wherein the dispute processing entity issues the credit to the cardholder.

50. The system of claim 18, wherein at least one of the rules is adapted to determine that a credit should issue to the cardholder without involving an issuer of the credit or charge card account in approval of the chargeback.

51. The system of claim 18, wherein the rules-based processor is adapted to issue a credit to the cardholder without involving an issuer of the credit or charge card account in approval of the chargeback.

52. The system of claim 18, wherein at least one of the rules is adapted to determine that a credit should issue to the cardholder without involving an issuer of the credit or charge card account in approval of the chargeback;

and wherein the rules-based processor is adapted to issue a credit to the cardholder without involving the issuer of the credit or charge card account in approval of the chargeback.

53. A method for enabling a third-party dispute processing entity to process a plurality of transactions that are disputed by respective cardholders, wherein the transactions involve a plurality of different merchants and appear on the cardholders'"'"' credit or charge card accounts, the method comprising:

obtaining initial information about disputed transactions, via an automatic information gathering system and an interactive voice response unit, from a cardholder involved with the disputed transactions through a data processor of an interactive information gathering mechanism, wherein the obtained information comprises accessing a file from a financial institution to correlate a credit/charge number with the financial institution and further obtaining a merchant'"'"'s identification number from the financial institution for a transaction in dispute;

determining, via the automatic information gathering system wherein no manual input is applied that a plurality of different merchants are members of the network dispute system wherein if the merchants are not members of the system, the disputed transactions are not eligible for processing in the interactive information gathering mechanism;

determining, via automatic information gathering system obtaining information via the accessed file, that a predetermined number of requests for chargebacks had been made by the cardholder related to e-commerce transactions where the cardholder'"'"'s signature was not obtained, wherein the data processor is communicably coupled to at least one of a plurality of third party processors of at least one of a plurality of respective merchants and/or financial institutions and the coupling establishes the determining;

and

blocking an incoming call by the cardholder until the cardholder reduces a frequency of attempts to call the system below a predetermined threshold when determined that the cardholder exceeded the predetermined number of requests for chargebacks.