Systems and methods for automatic bill pay enrollment

• US 9,311,634 B1
• Filed: 09/21/2012
• Issued: 04/12/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: United Services Automobile Association
• Original Assignee: United Services Automobile Association
• Inventors: Hildebrand, Marc W
• Primary Examiner(s): Champagne, Luna
• Application Number:
  US13/624,672
• Time in Patent Office: 1,299 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/14 specially adapted for billing systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/04 Billing or invoicing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/02 Banking, e.g. interest calculation or account maintenance credit or loans G06Q40/03

Abstract

A system for bill pay enrollment may comprise at least one subsystem that scans a paper a bill into a digital image, at least one subsystem that recognizes information on the digital image, and at least one subsystem that uses at least some of the recognized information to enroll a payee into a bill pay system.

Claims

1. A method of bill pay enrollment, comprising:

receiving, at a bill pay system, an image of a bill associated with a user of the bill pay system, wherein the bill is a credit card bill;

identifying, by a processor, a payee, and a due date for the credit card bill by optically recognizing identifiers on the credit card bill, wherein optically recognizing identifiers on the credit card bill comprises;

locating a label on the image of the bill, and

searching within a predefined area of the label on the image of the bill;

checking a user account of the user within a database of the bill pay system for a duplicate enrollment of the payee;

enrolling the payee into the bill pay system when the duplicate enrollment of the payee is not detected in the database for the user account; and

in response to the processor identifying an interest rate of a credit card associated with the credit card bill from the image of the bill, automatically transmitting, to the user, an offer for a credit card with a lower interest rate than the credit card associated with the credit card bill.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the identifiers on the bill include one or more of the following:

an account number, a payee name, a payee address, and a payment amount.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the image of the bill is created using a scanner.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying a marketing message based on the identifiers on the bill; and

sending the marketing message to the user.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein, when the user does not have a user account, the method further comprises:

establishing the user account based at least in part on the identifiers on the bill.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

assigning the payee a unique identifier to identify the payee for subsequent bill paying procedures associated with the payee.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

presenting, to the user, the image of the bill.

8. A system for bill pay enrollment, comprising:

a means for receiving, at a bill pay system, an image of a bill associated with a user of the bill pay system, wherein the bill is a credit card bill;

a means for searching the image of the bill for information, wherein the information retrieved from the image includes an interest rate of a credit card associated with the credit card bill;

a means for identifying a payee for the credit card bill using at least a portion of the information retrieved from the image, the means for identifying the payee comprising a means for recognizing identifiers on the bill, wherein recognizing the identifiers on the bill includes;

locating a label in the image of the bill, and searching within a proximity of the label in the image of the bill;

a means for checking a user account of the user within a database of the bill pay system for a duplicate enrollment of the payee;

a means for enrolling the payee into the bill pay system when the duplicate enrollment of the payee is not detected in the database for the user account;

a means for identifying a due date for the bill; and

a means for, responsive to retrieving the interest rate of the credit card associated with the credit card bill from the image of the credit card bill, automatically transmitting, to the user, a credit card with a lower interest rate than the credit card associated with the credit card bill.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein, when the user does not have a user account, the system further comprises:

a means for establishing the user account based on the information retrieved from the image.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein the information retrieved from the image includes one or more of the following:

an account number, a payee name, a payee address, and a payment amount.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein the image of the bill is created using a scanner.

12. The system of claim 8, further comprising:

a means for identifying a marketing message based on the information retrieved from the image; and

a means for sending the marketing message to the user account.

13. A method of bill pay enrollment, comprising:

transmitting a copy of an image of a user'"'"'s credit card bill to the user over a web interface for identification of borders or areas of interest on the credit card bill by the user;

locating, by a processor, a label for information on the image of the credit card bill of the user;

identifying, by the processor, an interest rate of a credit card associated with the credit card bill, a payee, and a due date for the bill by optically recognizing identifiers on the credit card bill;

determining, by the processor, an enrollment status of the payee in a user account of the user within a database of a bill payment system;

enrolling, by the processor, the payee into the bill payment system when the payee has not been enrolled in the user account; and

in response to the processor identifying the interest rate of the credit card from the image of the credit card bill, automatically transmitting, to the user, an offer for a credit card with a lower interest rate than the credit card associated with the credit card bill.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the identifiers on the credit card bill include one or more of the following:

an account number, a payee name, a payee address, and a payment amount.

15. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

scheduling, in the bill payment system, a payment to the payee based on the due date for the bill.

16. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

scheduling, in the bill payment system, a payment to the payee based on a payment due date provided by the user.

17. The method of claim 13, wherein the image of the credit card bill is created using a scanner.

18. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

assigning the payee a unique identifier to identify the payee for subsequent bill paying procedures associated with the payee.

19. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

presenting, to the user, the image of the credit card bill.