Patent Publication Number: US-2005137949-A1

Title: Automatic, characterized and prioritized transactions to credit card accounts from one credit card account, method and computer software

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
      1. Field of the Invention  
      The present invention relates generally to a credit card automated billing system used by retailers who sell goods or services, and more particularly, to an improved automated billing system which facilitates the distribution of charges for such goods or services on multiple credit cards in such a manner to financially benefit the customer, taking into account lowest interest rate and better credit card benefits.  
      2. Background of the Invention  
      Consumers often purchase goods or services with a limited understanding of the interest rate, card benefits (like mileage accumulation and similar), or to obtain a free incentive being offered by the remote retailer to induce the purchase of the goods or services. This results the consumer&#39;s poor financial management. When the charge for the purchased goods or services ultimately appears on the consumer&#39;s credit card billing statement the consumer becomes aware to the fact of paying high interest and/or losing benefits. This condition creates millions of credit card consumers that are in high debt.  
      When a consumer is placing a charge to a credit card, typically he/she do not take the time to verify the interest rate and the benefits of the used card. Moreover many credit cards offer very low interest rate for the first one (1) year hence after this period the interest rate automatically becomes significantly higher which cause the consumer to lose money.  
      The tendency of the consumer to purchase using credit card is often compounded by the consumer&#39;s unfamiliarity with the credit card&#39;s interest rate and benefits. In addition, this tendency is further compounded by the industry practice of offering tempting credit cards in a very low interest rate for the first one year. After a period of one year the credit card&#39;s interest rate raises significantly causing the consumer to pay high monthly payment. Ultimately millions of consumers are going in debt due to the high interest rates that are automatically charged to their credit card account monthly. In additional the user is not aware to credit card benefits (for example mileage accusation plan) and is not utilizing them.  
      Having improved and automate distributed charging system, preventing consumers from using high interest credit cards and therefore will result a significant funds saving and debt prevention. Another advantage is the utilization of credit cards benefits for the consumer&#39;s satisfactory. 
    
    
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
      It is a primary object of the present invention to provide a method and system that automatically distributes charge into user&#39;s credit account(s) according to best interest rate and other benefits. Typical credit cards accounts are categorized by their characters. These characters are offered by the credit cards corporations to its customers and include best interest rates, membership fees, cash advanced, line of credit, benefits like mileage, gift certificates, and similar. Using an automated software tool and method, as we will describe in this invention, a credit card user combines all of his/hers credits cards accounts into one credit facilitate account. This one credit system, automatically prioritize and charges the best credit card account according to the user&#39;s best interest, furthermore it will combine all the line of credits from his/her credit cards into one “big” line of credit. The one credit system accumulates the users&#39; credit cards available credit into one account. When a transaction is made, the system searches the user&#39;s most beneficial credit card account and charges the amount to it. The most beneficial account(s) is defined by the system according to its characteristics and benefits. These characteristics are low interest, additional benefits (mileage, gift points, etc&#39;) provided by credit cards corporations and/or financial institutions. The system may automatically split the full amount between few accounts for the best interest rate and/or other benefits. The user gets a monthly statement that shows the total charges and makes one payment which will be distributed among the different credit card accounts that he/she combined to the one credit card account. The statement shows to which account the charge was made and the reasons for the credit card account selection. Also the system provides a minimal payment due to cover all necessary credit card accounts. User can setup the system to pay the minimum amount required or more according to desire. Using this system, method and computer software user may save enormous amount of money and gain all the possible additional benefits using their credit cards. The system is a secured web based computer software and method that allows users to define and prioritized their credit accounts for automatic selection according to priorities and benefits. The system automatically identifies the user&#39;s credit accounts limits and availability and charges the best amount for the user&#39;s best benefits. The system also covers refunds in a similar way. All refunds will be credited to the best credit account(s) according to the user&#39;s preset priorities.  
      The system is computer software that is connected to credit card accounts database and has the capability to charge or credit each credit card account. The system is based on Artificial Intelligence (Al) algorithm to analyze each account according to the accounts interest rate and benefits. The system combines all credit card accounts into one credit card account. Each time that a charge or credit is placed within this one credit card; the system automatically distributes the charge or credit to the available credit card account(s) according to the lowest interest rate and benefits. This is done for the user&#39;s best interest in order to save a significant amount of money over time. The system supports web based application and/or client server independent application that is connected to credit card accounts database. The system produces a monthly statement including all charges that were made to each account based on the system analysis.  
      A more complete understanding of the present invention, as well as further features and advantages of the present invention, will be obtained by reference to the following detailed description and drawings.  
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       FIG. 1  schematically illustrates the system&#39;s concept. One credit card account transactions are automatically distributed between all users&#39; available credit card accounts.  
       FIG. 2  schematically illustrates the system&#39;s operation flow. When the user&#39;s makes charge or credit to one credit card account, the system analyze all available accounts for lowest interest and benefits and re-routed the charges to the user&#39;s best credit card account.  
       FIG. 3  is a flow diagram outlining the technique of the present invention for automatic distribution of charges or credits into credit account(s)