Abstract:
In a system and method for enabling bad debt recovery in a prepaid services environment, a bad debt balance (acquired under a post-paid regime) is stored in a bad debt database associated with the customer who accumulated the bad debt. Deposits by the customer into a pre-paid account are then accepted and the balance tracked in a pre-paid account database. Requests for service by the customer, e.g. pre-paid telephone service, are tracked by the pre-paid application server and the services rendered while debiting the pre-paid service database according to the services used. Such requests for pre-paid service also serve to trigger an automatic withdrawal of an additional amount from the pre-paid account which is then applied to the bad debt balance.

Description:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS  
       [0001]     This application claims the benefit from U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/730,590 filed Oct. 26, 2005 whose contents are incorporated herein for all purposes. 
     
    
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
       [0002]     This invention relates generally to prepaid services and more particularly to a method and apparatus for recovering debt while simultaneously providing services to debtor accounts.  
         [0003]     Prepaid services, particularly utilities such as telephone services, have shown a marked increase in popularity over traditional post-paid methods. In a prepaid account, a customer deposits money into an account and is then able to use the services so long as the account shows a positive balance. Once the balance drops to zero, the services are cut off until the customer recharges the account with new funds. The advantages of prepaid accounts over postpaid to the service provider are obvious: such a system eliminates the problem that post-paid systems have with unrecoverable debt from customers who use the services but do not pay the bill at the end of the month.  
         [0004]     Post-paid services are still the primary model for providing services to customers. Unfortunately, options for utility companies to recover bad debt from unpaid accounts are very limited and typically result in the service provider not recovering the debt, and the customer being cut off from the service.  
         [0005]     Accordingly, the need remains for a better way to both ensure continued customer use of the services as well as providing a means for recovering the debt that had accumulated in the post-paid environment.  
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0006]     The invention provides a new way for a company to recover revenue that would be classified as bad debt. This bad debt is typically written off or sent to a debt collection agency, and these methods are expensive and do not allow the company to fully recover the lost revenue.  
         [0007]     This invention allows the company to fully recover the bad debt while still providing the customer with services using the bad debt software and computer hardware solution described in this invention. The bad debt software moves the customer to a prepaid account and the prepaid account balance is used to provide ongoing services while a portion of the balance is used to service the bad debt balance. This invention enables recovery of bad debt from customers using bad debt software, a bad debt application server, a bad debt database server, and other application servers, which significantly improve upon existing methods of collecting bad debt or writing the bad debt off. The bad debt software also eliminates risk of more bad debts by automatically converting a customer to a prepaid regime and automatically recovering the bad debt from the prepaid account balance.  
         [0008]     The invention teaches methods that enable continued use of a paid service by a customer from a service provider. In a preferred implementation of this method, a customer debt balance is accumulated from past service use into a post-paid debt account so that the customer debt balance is stored in a bad debt account database. The customer is then allowed to deposit pre-paid funds into a pre-paid account associated with the customer where a pre-paid account balance of said pre-paid funds is stored in a pre-paid database. The customer is then allowed continued use of services associated with the pre-paid funds. The method then operates to withdraw from the pre-paid balance an amount reflective of the services used by the customer. A triggering event associated with use by the customer of the pre-paid service is detected, an additional amount is then withdrawn from the pre-paid balance responsive to the detected triggering event, and the additional amount withdrawn is then applied to the customer debt balance stored in the bad debt account database. Finally, the pre-paid account balance and customer debt balance is reconciled with the amount withdrawn and additional amount withdrawn responsive to use by the customer of the services associated with the pre-paid funds.  
         [0009]     The invention further comprises methods for transferring a customer from post-paid to pre-paid services in which a customer is allowed to use services under a post-paid regime, accumulate a customer debt balance, where the customer balance is stored in a debt database from such use. Responsive to a debt trigger event such as the balance being overdue for longer than two months, the customer is prevented from using the services under the post-paid regime. The customer is then transferred to a pre-paid regime. Pre-paid funds and then accepted from the customer and stored into a pre-paid account. The customer is then allowed to use services only under the pre-paid regime so long as the pre-paid account shows a positive balance. Responsive to use under the pre-paid regime, funds are withdrawn from the pre-paid account including an additional amount where the additional amount is applied to the customer debt balance to lower the amount remaining.  
         [0010]     The invention furthermore teaches a bad debt recovery system comprising a bad debt application server coupled over a network to at least one service server. A bad debt database server is coupled in communication with the bad debt application server and adapted to store for each bad debt customer account a bad debt balance and a pre-paid balance. Finally, bad debt software is loaded on the bad debt application server and is operable to detect customer activity and move a customer from a postpaid account to a pre-paid account responsive to trigger criteria detected by the bad debt software. The software is also enabled to transfer balances between the pre-paid account balance and the bad debt account balance responsive to activity by the bad debt customer with the pre-paid account.  
         [0011]     The foregoing and other objects, features and advantages of the invention will become more readily apparent from the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment of the invention that proceeds with reference to the accompanying drawings. 
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0012]      FIG. 1  is a schematic diagram of the service and debt tracking network implemented according to a preferred embodiment of the invention.  
         [0013]      FIG. 2  is a flow diagram of a process implemented by bad debt software to evaluate if a customer with delinquent payments should be moved to a prepaid bad debt account according to another aspect of the invention.  
         [0014]      FIG. 3  is a flow diagram showing a preferred method of operation of the invention to recover bad debt. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION  
       [0015]     This invention provides a solution for recovering bad debt from customers with delinquent bills using bad debt computer software and hardware as herein described. The invention is particularly applicable to companies that provide utility services to customers, like telephony, fax, VOIP, electricity, water, power, ISP, Internet kiosk, web services, or other services. This invention uses software, computers, database servers, application servers, internet servers, telephony servers, and networking hardware to implement the solution.  
         [0016]     According to a preferred implementation of the invention, a centralized bad debt application server  11  ( FIG. 1 ) is used to provide a single access point for all communications to support the bad debt invention. This invention allows companies to recover bad debt for services by moving customers from postpaid accounts to prepaid accounts using the automatic logic in the bad debt software. The bad debt software and hardware provide the logic to automatically determine when a customer should be moved from a postpaid account to a prepaid account. The prepaid account keeps track of the prepaid account balance that is used for services and the bad debt balance which contains the total amount of the delinquent bills. The prepaid account balance is used to lower the bad debt balance based upon triggering activities occurring within the pre-paid account. Accordingly, this regime allows the company to recover the bad debt while still providing services to the customer on a prepaid basis. The bad debt software eliminates the risk of more bad debt, enables a new revenue stream (because a delinquent customer normally has his service terminate), and provides a way for the customer to still receive the company&#39;s services. The bad debt software runs on the bad debt application server.  
         [0017]      FIG. 1  shows the block diagram of the hardware elements required for a preferred embodiment of this invention. The bad debt application server  11  in  FIG. 1  provides a centralized access point to the back-end bad debt database server  10 . The bad debt software runs on the bad debt application server. The bad debt database server  10  stores the prepaid account information including the prepaid account balance and bad debt balance in a persistent database. The database also stores other attributes for the prepaid account and other service related features. The bad debt application server  11  is connected via a network to other application servers and services, and provides a layer of isolation and security. It is understood, however, that the applications can reside on a single server or several servers mounted in rack configuration depending upon desired redundancy practices.  
         [0018]     The bad debt will be recovered automatically during triggering transactions, e.g. (a) when the bad debt software converts the customer to a prepaid account, (b) when the prepaid account is used for a service, (c) when a scheduled event occurs (like a monthly surcharge), (d) when the prepaid account is recharged, or (e) during other events for the service occurs. Specific examples of when these events can occur when the customer  19  in  FIG. 1  talks with a customer service representative  16 , or when the customer  19  uses a telephony service (phone, cell, PDA, VOIP, fax, etc.)  17  which interfaces with the telephony server  13 , or when the customer  19  uses his computer to browse the Internet and uses services provided by the web server  14 , or when the customer  19  interacts with a service specific application server  15 . All such events can also be referred to as trigger events or transactions.  
         [0019]     The middle tier of servers ( 12 ,  13 ,  14 , and  15 ) all interface with the bad debt application server  11 , which provides the secured centralized access point to the bad debt database server  10 . When the events that trigger bad debt recovery occur, the middle tier application servers interface with the bad debt application server  11  to lower the bad debt balance by transferring balance from the prepaid balance. The bad debt software provides the automatic logic to transfer balances between the prepaid account balance and the bad debt balance. The bad debt software provides the logic to automatically determine when to move a customer from a postpaid account to a prepaid account via particular trigger events, e.g. when the credit score of a customer drops below a certain amount, when the balance rises above a certain amount, when monthly payment is not received after a warning has been sent out, etc.  
         [0020]     Not shown in  FIG. 1  is a post-paid accounting system. These are typically maintained on the service provider&#39;s post-paid billing system. Responsive to certain triggering events discussed further below, the post-paid account would be deactivated on the post-paid system and reactivated on the prepaid system. The account number used for the pre-paid system may be the same or different from that of the post-paid system. The account on the prepaid system is designated a bad debt account by populating the bad debt balance field with a monetary value.  
         [0021]     In an example of operation, a pre-paid customer  19  would make a long distance telephone call. The call information would be sent to the telephony server  17 . The telephony server  17  would request data specifics on this user from the bad debt database server  10 . Responsive to this request, the bad debt database server  10  would return information reflecting the deductions applied to the pre-paid customer account for the additional amounts required to pay off a portion of the bad debt. Further information would include the type of calls that the customer  19  can make. This data is passed back to the telephony server  17 . If all the data for the customer  19  is positive (i.e. not an inactive account, enough balance, etc.), then the telephony server allows the call to pass through. The data transfer is normally completed over a TCP/IP link but can be any type of data link.  
         [0022]      FIG. 2  shows an exemplary flow diagram of the bad debt software when used to evaluate if a customer with delinquent payments should be moved to a prepaid bad debt account. The customer  50  in  FIG. 2  is using a service offered by the company. In step  51  the bad debt software running on the bad debt application server  11  in  FIG. 1  will evaluate the risk factors for the customer and the history and delinquent bills for the customer. These bad debt triggering events may be automatically detected using logic stored within the post-paid accounting system, or such accounts may be manually selected for transfer to a pre-paid regime according to set criteria. For instance, the system could detect and ‘event’, compare the event to a list of possible triggering events stored in memory, and if in the list then create the pre-paid account, enact a balance transfer, send out a letter, etc. Examples of bad debt triggering events include the following: 5 late payments over a 12 month period, no payments for 2 months, the credit score drops below some threshold amount, etc. The actual criteria used could be selected or determined by the service provider using the invention. The system could look up the actual credit score assigned to the customer, or alternately analyze the payment history and come up with a close approximation of the credit score based on this information. Upon detecting the triggering event, the post-paid system would “trigger” or send an activation notice to the pre-paid system and transfer the amount owning within a bad debt data field.  
         [0023]     In step  52  of the  FIG. 2  flow diagram, the evaluation from step  51  is used by the bad debt software to determine if there is any recoverable bad debt, if there is bad debt then the flow continues to step  53 , otherwise the next customer is evaluated in step  50 . In step  53  the bad debt software will automatically evaluate if the customer can be changed from a postpaid customer to a prepaid customer. In step  54  if the bad debt software determines the account can be converted to a prepaid bad debt account, then the flow continues to step  55 , otherwise the flow continues to step  56 . If the customer is converted to a prepaid bad debt account by the software, then the service is continued and the bad debt is automatically recovered in step  55 . The bad debt is recovered by the bad debt software using one of the methods in  FIG. 3 . If the customer cannot be converted to a prepaid customer in step  54 , then the service is stopped and traditional collection methods are used in step  56 . The bad debt software uses risk assessment logic, evaluation of the customer&#39;s payment history, and delinquent bills to determine if the account should be converted to a prepaid account.  
         [0024]      FIG. 3  shows the flow diagram of the bad debt software to recover the bad debt. Step  100  in  FIG. 3  occurs when the bad debt software converts a postpaid customer to a prepaid customer in step  55  of  FIG. 2 . When this occurs the customer must make an initial deposit of money to continue using the service of the company. This initial deposit is placed in the prepaid account balance, and the amount of bad debt is placed in the bad debt balance. These balances and other account information and configuration information are stored in the bad debt database server  10  in  FIG. 1 . In step  101  the configuration settings in the bad debt software will determine if some of the prepaid balance should be applied towards the bad debt balance, and the flow continues to step  102  if the criteria is met. In step  102  the bad debt software automatically applies a specific amount from the prepaid account balance towards the bad debt balance. The amount can be based on a percentage or a fixed amount. Either of these methods can be applied to all accounts, all transactions within an account, or selected ones based on the criteria of the service provider using the invention. For instance, a fixed amount can be applied to certain triggering events (e.g. each telephone call made, each data transaction, once a month, etc.), while other triggering events (e.g. recharging the pre-paid balance) would be assessed a percentage of the amount deposited to the pre-paid account.  
         [0025]     Step  200  in  FIG. 3  occurs when the customer uses a prepaid service of the company. In step  201  the configuration settings in the bad debt software will determine if some of the prepaid balance should be applied towards the bad debt balance, and the flow continues to step  202  if the criteria is met. In step  202  the bad debt software automatically applies a specific amount from the prepaid account balance towards the bad debt balance. The amount can be based on a percentage or a fixed amount.  
         [0026]     Step  300  in  FIG. 3  occurs at a scheduled time. The schedule could be a monthly interval for a surcharge. In step  301  the configuration settings in the bad debt software will determine if some of the prepaid balance should be applied towards the bad debt balance, and the flow continues to step  302  if the criteria is met. In step  302  the bad debt software automatically applies a specific amount from the prepaid account balance towards the bad debt balance. The amount can be based on a percentage or a fixed amount.  
         [0027]     Step  400  in  FIG. 3  occurs when the customer recharges his prepaid account balance. The recharge can occur via a customer service representative  16  ( FIG. 1 ), automated telephony interface  13 , web interface  18 , Point of sales, or other method of recharging. In step  401 , the configuration settings in the bad debt software will determine if some of the prepaid balance should be applied towards the bad debt balance, and the flow continues to step  402  if the criteria is met. In step  402  the bad debt software automatically applies a specific amount from the prepaid account balance towards the bad debt balance. The amount can be based on a percentage or a fixed amount.  
         [0028]     Having described and illustrated the principles of the invention in a preferred embodiment thereof, it should be apparent that the invention can be modified in arrangement and detail without departing from such principles. We claim all modifications and variation coming within the spirit and scope of the following claims.