Patent ID: 8364544
Filing Date: 2013-01-29
Classification: G06Q

Abstract:
1. A computer mediated method for auctioning merchant processing services over an electronic network, including a system computer, a merchant computer and a plurality of sales representative computers, said computers being coupled to the electronic network for communicating data among said computers, the method comprising: (a) receiving on said system computer merchant processing services bid request data from said merchant computer; (b) storing said bid request data in a bid request database on said system computer; (c) said system computer transmitting said bid request data to said sales representative computers; (d) receiving merchant processing services bid proposal data from sales representatives via said sales representative computers in response to said bid request data; (e) storing said bid proposals data in a bid proposal database of said system computer; (f) computing an estimated monthly expense for each of said merchant processing services bid proposals, wherein the estimated monthly expense is computed by summing a discount expense and other merchant processing fees and expenses, wherein said discount expense is computed by a pricing method selected from the group consisting of: (g) computing a bid ranking for each of said merchant processing services bid proposals based on said estimated monthly expense and qualitative feedback from merchants that have selected said sales representatives to provide merchant processing services, wherein the bid ranking is computed by multiplying a feedback forum weighting by a weighting factor percentage to determine an interim feedback weighting value and multiplying a monthly estimated expense weighting by a weighting factor percentage to determine an interim monthly estimated expense value and then adding said interim feedback weighting value and said interim monthly estimated expense value to determine a total bid weighting for said bid ranking; (h) communicating said estimated monthly expense and said bid ranking to said merchant computer over said electronic network; (i) communicating said bid ranking to said sales representative computers over said electronic network; and (j) allowing each of said sales representatives to change its bid proposal data in consideration of said bid ranking.