# US 2012/0123918 A1 · Determination of Interchange Categories

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- Number: US 2012/0123918 A1
- Document ID: US20120123918A1
- Status: Published application
- Kind: A1
- Application number: 13/308,312
- Filed: 2011-11-30
- Published: 2012-05-17
- Earliest claimed: 2007-04-25
- Assignees: PE Systems
- Inventors: Alan Wayne McElroy; Thomas P. Parrish; Kelly Birr
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US20120123918A1

## CPC

- G06Q 40/12: Accounting
- G06Q 20/10: specially adapted for electronic funds transfer [EFT] systems; specially adapted for home banking systems
- G06Q 20/102: {Bill distribution or payments}
- G06Q 30/04: Billing or invoicing
- G06Q 40/02: Banking, e.g. interest calculation or account maintenance (credit or loans G06Q40/03)
- G06Q 40/10: Tax strategies
- G06Q: INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR

## Abstract

This document describes tools capable of auditing and/or determining reductions to card-issuer interchange fees charged for credit-card transactions. The tools may do so automatically and with user interaction for large amounts of transactions.

## Claims

### Claim 1

One or more computer-readable storage media having computer-readable instructions that, when executed by a computing device, cause the computing device to perform acts comprising:
receiving credit card transaction data from a database for credit card transactions associated with a particular merchant, the credit card transaction data indicating, for one or more credit card transactions an interchange category assigned by a card issuer;
receiving published interchange-category parameters for the interchange category assigned, the published interchange-category parameters comprising at least one merchant-status parameter specific to a status of a merchant;
receiving a parameter specific to a status of the particular merchant; and
determining, automatically and without user interaction and for the one or more credit card transactions, whether the interchange category assigned is correct based on whether the merchant-status parameter matches the status of the particular merchant.

### Claim 2 (depends on 1)

One or more computer-readable storage media as recited in claim 1, wherein the merchant-status parameter comprises a business sector, an area of operation, or a taxable or non-taxable status.

### Claim 3 (depends on 1)

One or more computer-readable storage media as recited in claim 1, wherein the published interchange-category parameters further comprise at least one transaction-status parameter, the acts further comprising:
receiving a parameter specific to a status of the one or more credit card transactions; and
determining, automatically and without user interaction and for the one or more credit card transactions, whether the interchange category assigned is correct based on whether the transaction-status parameter matches the parameter specific to the status of the one or more credit card transactions.

### Claim 4 (depends on 3)

One or more computer-readable storage media as recited in claim 3, wherein the transaction-status parameter comprises at least one of an indication of whether a credit card is present or not present at the time of a transaction, an indication of whether a signature is included with a transaction, an indication of whether a credit card is a business card or a personal card, an indication of whether a tax code is included with a transaction, or an indication of whether a ZIP code is included with a transaction.

### Claim 5 (depends on 1)

One or more computer-readable storage media as recited in claim 1, wherein the database comprises a relational database.

### Claim 6 (depends on 1)

One or more computer-readable storage media as recited in claim 1, wherein said act of receiving credit card transaction data retrieves the credit card transaction data using an Extract portion of an Extract, Transform, and Load (ETL) process, and the act of determining uses a Transform portion of the ETL process.

### Claim 7 (depends on 6)

One or more computer-readable storage media as recited in claim 6, further comprising presenting the results of the act of determining using a Load portion of the ETL process.

### Claim 8 (depends on 1)

One or more computer-readable storage media as recited in claim 1, further comprising, prior to the act of receiving the credit card transaction data:
extracting text-format, pre-transformation credit card transaction data;
transforming the text-format, pre-transformation credit card transaction data into data in a machine-usable format; and
loading the data in the machine-usable format into the database,
wherein the act of receiving the credit card transaction data receives the credit card transaction data in the machine-usable format.

### Claim 9 (depends on 1)

One or more computer-readable storage media as recited in claim 1, wherein the act of receiving comprises receiving credit card transaction data for multiple merchants, each of the multiple merchants and the particular merchant: having a merchant identifier; having received or batched customer purchases during a same time period; and being associated with a single client through their respective merchant identifiers.

### Claim 10 (depends on 1)

One or more computer-readable storage media as recited in claim 1, wherein the one or more credit card transactions are transacted with branded credit cards or processed through a network associated with a branded credit card.

### Claim 11 (depends on 1)

One or more computer-readable storage media as recited in claim 1, further comprising determining, automatically and without user interaction, for the one or more credit card transactions, a correct interchange category for the one or more credit card transactions based on other merchant-status parameters for another interchange category matching the particular merchant's status.

### Claim 12 (depends on 1)

One or more computer-readable storage media as recited in claim 1, wherein said determining comprises determining that the interchange category assigned is incorrect, the acts further comprising providing a report, in a human-readable format, indicating that the one or more credit card transactions were assigned an incorrect interchange category.

### Claim 13 (depends on 1)

One or more computer-readable storage media as recited in claim 1, wherein said determining comprises determining that the interchange category assigned is incorrect, the acts further comprising determining a savings for the one or more credit card transactions by determining a correct fee for a correct interchange-category and subtracting the correct fee from a fee charged based on the interchange-category incorrectly assigned.

### Claim 14

A computer-implemented method, comprising:
building, automatically and without user interaction, a baseline card-issuer interchange rate for a particular merchant based on:
card-issuer interchange fees associated with card-issuer interchange categories assigned to credit card transactions; and
dollar volumes on which the card-issuer interchange fees are charged, the card-issuer interchange fees and dollar volumes being from multiple historic merchant-processor statements of the particular merchant and over a historical period;
adjusting, automatically and without user interaction, the baseline card-issuer interchange rate for the particular merchant based on interchange rate changes made after the historical period to the card-issuer interchange categories assigned to credit card transactions of the particular merchant over the historical period, effective to provide an adjusted baseline card-issuer interchange rate;
receiving, automatically and without user interaction, credit card transaction data for a current billing cycle for credit card transactions associated with the particular merchant, the credit card transaction data being used to determine card issuer interchange categories currently assigned to the credit card transactions during the current billing cycle;
determining, automatically and without user interaction, a current card-issuer interchange rate for the current billing cycle based on the card issuer interchange categories assigned during the current billing cycle;
determining, automatically and without user interaction, a rate difference between the card-issuer interchange rate for the current billing cycle and the adjusted baseline card-issuer interchange rate;
determining, automatically and without user interaction, a fee savings or loss based on a credit card dollar volume for the credit card transactions during the current billing cycle and the determined rate difference; and
providing an indication of the fee savings or loss to an entity associated with the particular merchant.

### Claim 15 (depends on 14)

The computer-implemented method of claim 14, wherein the method is performed for different merchants, the different merchants and the particular merchant being associated with a particular client, and wherein the method further comprises providing, in a human-readable format and for merchants of the particular client, an indication of the fees saved and a payment due, the payment due being based on the fees saved and a percentage of the fees saved.

### Claim 16 (depends on 14)

The computer-implemented method of claim 14, wherein the act of building the baseline card-issuer interchange rate comprises:
extracting the card-issuer interchange fees and the dollar volumes from a relational database; and
transforming the card-issuer interchange fees and the dollar volumes into the baseline card-issuer interchange rate by dividing the card-issuer interchange fees by the dollar volumes.

### Claim 17

A computer-implemented method, comprising:
receiving credit card transaction data associated with a particular merchant, the credit card transaction data including an indication of at least one credit card transaction assigned to an interchange category;
determining whether the at least one credit card transaction was correctly assigned to the interchange category by comparing a status of the merchant with a merchant-status parameter used to assign the at least one credit card transaction assigned to the interchange category; and
reporting an indication of whether the at least one credit card transaction was correctly assigned to the interchange category.

### Claim 18 (depends on 17)

The computer-implemented method of claim 17, wherein the merchant-status parameter comprises at least one of a business sector, an area of operation, or a taxable or non-taxable status.

### Claim 19 (depends on 17)

The computer-implemented method of claim 17, wherein said determining comprises determining that the at least one credit card transaction was incorrectly assigned to the interchange category, the method further comprising determining a savings for the at least one credit card transaction by determining a correct fee if the at least one credit card transaction is assigned to a correct interchange category, and subtracting the correct fee from a fee charged based on the interchange category incorrectly assigned.

### Claim 20 (depends on 17)

The computer-implemented method of claim 17, wherein the at least one credit card transaction is included as part of a batch of multiple credit card transactions, and wherein the method is performed automatically on each of the multiple credit card transactions.