Patent ID: 7660764

Claim:
Apparatus for providing a customer with an opportunity to request a refund or waiver of a fee or charge on a customer account, the apparatus comprising: a network interface for sending and receiving a customer request for a refund or waiver of a fee or charge over an electronic network; a service charge adjustment system coupled to the network interface, the service charge adjustment system including processing components for automatically performing at least the functions of: receiving, through the network interface, the customer request to refund or waive a fee or charge on the account, wherein the request for refund or waiver relates to a charge or fee posted against the customer account; delivering the customer request to an automated interface of the service charge adjustment system, establishing validity of the customer request by validating the existence of a service charge; retrieving data for evaluation; and applying at least one business rule to the retrieved data to determine whether the customer request should be granted, the retrieved data including at least customer account information; automatically rendering a decision on the customer request using the automated interface; and presenting the customer with the decision, wherein the decision is one of the following: granting a refund or waiver request, denying a refund or waiver request, and referring a request to an external system for further consideration.