Granted Patent B2

US 7,603,312 · App. 11/740,190 · Granted Oct 13, 2009

Abstract

Claims (52)

1. One or more computer-readable media having computer-readable instructions therein that, when executed by a computing device, cause the computing device to perform acts comprising:

receiving interchange categories, their pricing, and one or more of their parameters, their parameters including one or more of: a merchant's area of business; information received for a transaction; how the information is received for the transaction; or a type of card used in the transaction;

receiving transaction information for a particular merchant, the transaction information indicating one or more current transactions having been assigned a first interchange category of the received interchange categories;

determining that a second interchange category having a lower cost than the first interchange category and also of the received interchange categories is potentially assignable to the one or more current transactions or future transactions similar to the one or more current transactions by making a change in information that is provided by the particular merchant to determine one or more of the parameters;

determining a potential fee savings based on the received interchange categories and their pricing if the one or more current transactions assigned the first interchange category were instead assigned the second interchange category; and

providing the potential fee savings and the change in information to the merchant.

2. The media of claim 1 , wherein the first and second interchange categories comprise a same merchant's area of business and a same type of card.

3. The media of claim 2 , wherein the second interchange category provides the greatest potential fees savings of any possible interchange category that has the same merchant's area of business and the same type of card.

4. The media of claim 1 , wherein the change in information comprises a change to the information received.

5. The media of claim 1 , wherein the change in information comprises a change to how the information is received.

6. The media of claim 1 , further comprising:

determining an assigned area of business for the particular merchant based on the received transaction information;

receiving a correct area of business for the particular merchant;

determining that the second interchange category should have been assigned based on the correct area of business; and

indicating to the particular merchant that the first interchange category was incorrectly assigned or that the second interchange category should have been assigned based on the correct area of business.

7. The media of claim 1 , further comprising:

determining that third and fourth interchange categories each having a lower cost than the first interchange category and also of the received interchange categories are potentially assignable to the one or more current transactions or future transactions similar to the one or more current transactions by making a second change in information that is provided by the particular merchant to determine one or more of the parameters for the third category and a third change in information that is provided by the particular merchant to determine one or more of the parameters for the fourth category;

determining second and third potential fee savings for each of the third and fourth categories, respectively, if the one or more current transactions assigned the first interchange category were instead assigned the third or fourth category; and

providing the second and third potential fee savings and the second and third changes in information to the merchant.

8. The media of claim 1 , wherein all of the acts are performed by the computing device automatically and without user interaction.

9. The media of claim 1 , wherein the act of receiving interchange categories and one or more of their parameters is performed effective to receive the most-current parameters and most-current pricing for all of the received interchange categories.

10. One or more computer-readable media having computer-readable instructions therein that, when executed by a computing device, cause the computing device to perform acts comprising:

receiving interchange categories currently being assigned by card issuers, pricing for each interchange category, and parameters used to determine which transactions should be assigned which interchange category, the parameters including one or more of: a merchant's area of business; information received for a transaction; or how information is received for the transaction;

determining, for interchange categories having or allowing a particular merchant's area of business and based on the pricing of these interchange categories, higher-cost interchange categories capable of being replaced by lower-cost interchange categories;

determining one or more changes in information that is provided by the particular merchant to determine one or more of the parameters or the how the information is received needed to cause each of the lower-cost interchange categories to be assigned instead of each of the higher-cost interchange categories; and

providing the one or more changes in information to a merchant having the particular merchant's area of business effective to enable the merchant to lower its interchange category fees if the merchant makes one or more of the changes in information provided to determine one or more of the parameters to future transactions that would be assigned one of the higher-cost interchange categories were the one or more of the changes in information not made.

11. The media of claim 10 , further comprising:

receiving credit-card transaction data for the merchant, the credit-card transaction data indicating that transactions for the merchant are assigned one of the higher-cost interchange categories;

determining a potential fee savings if one of the lower-cost interchange categories were assigned to the transactions for the merchant instead of said one of the higher-cost interchange categories; and

determining a particular change in information to determine a parameter needed to cause said one of the lower-cost interchange categories to be assigned instead of said one of the higher-cost interchange categories,

wherein the act of providing comprises providing the particular change in information and the potential fee savings.

12. The media of claim 11 , further comprising performing the acts of determining a potential fee savings and determining a particular change in information to determine a parameter for a second of the lower-cost interchange categories effective to determine a second potential fee savings and a second particular change in information to determine another parameter, and wherein the act of providing provides the second potential fee savings and the second particular change in information to determine the other parameter to the merchant.

13. The media of claim 11 , wherein the act of receiving credit-card transaction data receives the credit-card transaction data from a relational database for credit-card transactions accepted through the merchant, the credit-card transaction data indicating, for all credit-card transactions or groups of credit-card transactions interchange categories assigned, and further comprising:

analyzing all of the interchange categories assigned to determine which of the interchange categories assigned are higher-cost interchange categories, and wherein:

the act of determining a potential fee savings is performed for each of the determined higher-cost interchange categories that were assigned;

the act of determining a particular change in information to determine a parameter is performed for each of the determined higher-cost interchange categories that were assigned; and

the act of providing provides each particular change in information to determine a parameter and each potential fee savings for each of the determined higher-cost interchange categories that were assigned.

14. The media of claim 10 , wherein the media causes the computing device to perform the acts of determining changes in information to determine one or more parameters and providing the changes in information for every merchant in a group of merchants.

15. One or more computer-readable media having computer-readable instructions therein that, when executed by a computing device, cause the computing device to perform acts comprising:

receiving, for a particular business area, a change in information used to determine a parameter capable of replacing a higher-cost interchange category with a lower-cost interchange category;

receiving credit-card transaction data for a merchant having the particular business area, the credit-card transaction data indicating that transactions for the merchant are assigned the higher-cost interchange category;

determining a potential fee savings if the lower-cost interchange category were assigned to the transactions instead of the higher-cost interchange category; and

providing the change in information used to determine the parameter and the potential fee savings to the merchant.

16. The media of claim 15 , wherein the change in information used to determine the parameter comprises a change to a how-the-information-is-received-for-a-transaction parameter of the higher-cost interchange category.

17. The media of claim 15 , wherein the change in information used to determine the parameter comprises a change to an information-received-for-a-transaction parameter of the higher-cost interchange category.

18. The media of claim 15 , further comprising:

extracting text-format, pre-transformation credit-card transaction data;

transforming the extracted text-format, pre-transformation credit-card transaction data into an easily-machine-usable format; and

loading the data in the easily-machine-usable format into a relational database, and

wherein the act of receiving the credit-card transaction data receives the credit-card transaction data in the easily-machine-usable format.

19. The media of claim 15 , wherein the act of receiving a change in information used to determine a parameter receives additional changes in information used to determine one or more parameters capable of replacing additional higher-cost interchange categories with additional lower-cost interchange categories, the act of receiving credit-card transaction data receives additional credit-card transaction data indicating that additional transactions for the merchant are assigned the additional higher-cost interchange categories, the act of determining determines additional potential fee savings if the additional lower-cost interchange categories were assigned to the additional transactions instead of the higher-cost interchange category, and the act of providing provides the additional changes in information used to determine one or more parameters and the additional potential fee savings.

20. The media of claim 19 , wherein all of the acts are performed by the computing device automatically and without user interaction.

Assignments (11)