Billing statement customer acquisition system

• US 20050165646A1
• Filed: 03/18/2005
• Published: 07/28/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 12/01/1997
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: PayPal, Inc. (PayPal Holdings, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: PayPal, Inc. (PayPal Holdings, Inc.)
• Inventors: Jorasch, James A., Tedesco, Daniel E., Walker, Jay S.
• Application Number:
  US11/084,431
• Publication Number:
  US 20050165646A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/14.100
• CPC Class Codes: B42D 15/00 Printed matter of special format or style not otherwise provided for
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/00 Payment architectures, schemes or protocols apparatus for performing or posting payment transactions G07F7/08, G07F19/00; electronic cash registers G07G1/12
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/102 Bill distribution or payments
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/12 specially adapted for electronic shopping systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/14 specially adapted for billing systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0207 Discounts or incentives, e.g. coupons or rebates
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0215 Including financial accounts
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0235 constrained by time limit or expiration date
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0236 Incentive or reward received by requiring registration or ID from user
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0251 Targeted advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0255 based on user history
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0261 based on user location
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/04 Billing or invoicing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes

Abstract

A customer acquisition system is disclosed that allows an offeror service provider to acquire new customers by making acquisition offers to customers through the billing statements of other businesses (“billing statement issuers”). An “acquisition offer” is an offer by the offeror service provider to pay an amount owed by the customer to the billing statement issuer, or a portion thereof, provided the customer agrees to become a customer of the offeror service provider. Predetermined criteria are used to automatically include an acquisition offer for eligible potential new customers of the offeror service provider with a billing statement or on associated promotional materials, and allows the customer to accept the acquisition offer using the billing statement. The customer acquisition system optionally ensures that the customer is not an existing customer of the offeror service provider before extending an acquisition offer. The acquisition offers can be tailored to the amount owed by the customer, and targeted to customers based on financial, geographic or historical data.

Claims

1-21. -21. (canceled)

22. A method for paying an amount due indicated on a billing statement generated from an electronic database, comprising the steps of:

receiving an offer with the billing statement to have at least a portion of said amount due paid by a third party in exchange for becoming a customer of said third party;

indicating acceptance of said offer for said third party to pay at least a portion of said amount due; and

becoming a customer of said third party.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein said amount due is less than or equal to a maximum amount specified by said second entity.

24. The method of claim 22, further comprising the step of agreeing to become a customer of said third party for a predefined minimum period of time.

25. The method of claim 22, wherein said acquisition offer is provided in a billing statement.

26. The method of claim 22, wherein said step of indicating acceptance further comprises the step of utilizing acceptance indicia on said billing statement.

27. A method comprising:

receiving data that indicates

a third party and

a maximum amount that the third party will pay for receiving a new customer;

selecting a credit card account from a plurality of credit card accounts, the credit card account indicating

a customer,

an outstanding balance, and

a minimum amount due;

determining whether the minimum amount due is less than or equal to the maximum amount;

sending a billing statement to the customer;

providing with the billing statement an offer to the customer to become a customer of the third party;

receiving an acceptance of the offer from the customer; and

applying the minimum amount due to the credit card account in response to the received acceptance without receiving the minimum amount due from the customer.

28. A method comprising:

identifying a customer account record of a first entity, said customer account record including a customer identifier and an amount due;

determining if an individual indicated by said customer identifier is a customer of a second entity; and

providing an offer via a billing statement to said individual to pay at least a portion of said amount due if said individual becomes a customer of said second entity.

29. A method comprising:

sending a billing statement to an existing customer of a first entity,

the billing statement including at least one amount due,

the billing statement including an offer to the customer to become a customer of a second entity in exchange for paying at least a portion of the at least one amount due;

receiving an acceptance of the offer from the customer; and

applying the minimum amount due to the billing statement in response after receiving the acceptance