Method for administering a credit card with a finance charge waiver period

A method of administering a credit card account, comprising:

• defining a finance charge waiver period for each debit to the credit card account, the finance charge waiver period comprising more than one billing cycle;
• determining, for each debit, whether a finance charge waiver period associated with a debit will expire during a next billing cycle;
• and
• adding, to a set of billed charges, all debits for which the finance charge waiver period will expire during the next billing cycle,
• wherein a cardholder may pay off each debit by the end of its associated finance charge waiver period without incurring any finance charges on the one or more debits.

A method of administering a credit card account comprising:

• defining a billing cycle that comprises a predetermined number of days;
• defining a finance charge waiver period that comprises more than one billing cycle;
• grouping, for each billing cycle, a billing cycle group including a set of debits to the account for a corresponding billing cycle;
• determining, for each billing cycle group, whether a finance charge waiver period associated with a billing cycle has expired;
• and
• setting billed charges based on debits in billing cycle groups for which the finance charge waiver period has expired.

A system for administering a credit card account with a finance charge waiver period comprising more than one billing cycle, said system comprising:

• a set of virtual transaction repositories, each virtual transaction repository corresponding to a billing cycle and being associated with a billing cycle closing date, and each virtual transaction repository for holding transaction data for one or more credit card transactions made during a corresponding billing cycle;
• an outstanding balance repository for holding an outstanding balance comprising a total value of billable transactions plus interest and fees therefor;
• and
• calculation means for calculating balances, finance charges, and fees, said calculation means calculating a total value of billable transactions based on each virtual transaction repository group for which the finance charge waiver period has expired and adds the total value of newly-billable transactions to the outstanding balance.

A system for administering a credit card account with a finance charge waiver period comprising more than one billing cycle, said system comprising:

• a current transactions repository for holding raw transaction data for recent billing cycles;
• a customer payment master file repository for holding customer and billing data;
• a financial master files repository for holding credit card account parameters;
• an unbilled billing cycle file repository for holding data from billing cycles for which the finance charge waiver period has not yet expired;
• and
• a billing computer comprising a billing application operatively connected to the current transactions repository, the customer payment master file repository, the financial master files repository, and the unbilled billing cycle file repository for calculating billed balances.

A system for administering a credit card account with a finance charge waiver period comprising more than one billing cycle, said system comprising:

• current transactions storage means for storing raw transaction data for recent billing cycles;
• customer payment master file storage means for storing customer and billing data;
• financial master files storage means for storing credit card account parameters;
• unbilled billing cycle file storage means for storing data from billing cycles for which the finance charge waiver period has not yet expired;
• and
• computation means operatively connected to the current transactions repository, the customer payment master file repository, the financial master files repository, and the unbilled billing cycle file repository for computing billed balances.