Financial Intermediary System for Blocking Auto-Renewal Charges
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Solution Overview
Problem
Users often face difficulties in preventing auto-renewal charges from service providers after trial periods, leading to unintended continued payments. Financial institutions lack the necessary information and tools to assist users in blocking these charges effectively.
Innovation Solution
A system and method implemented by financial institutions to detect when a user has signed up for a trial with a service provider, identify the service provider, and provide the user with the option to block future charges. This involves tracking preauthorizations, using a service provider identification model built via machine learning to process incoming charge data, and maintaining a blocked list for each electronic payment method.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If trials are designed to auto-renew automatically, then service providers can collect payments from users without the user getting the equivalent value, but users face difficulties in preventing auto-renewal charges and locating deactivation forms
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a financial institution as an intermediary between the user and the service provider. The financial institution receives notifications about trial periods, identifies them through machine learning models, and provides a user-friendly interface for blocking charges. This mediator resolves the contradiction by making deactivation easy for users while maintaining automated payment collection for service providers who have not been blocked.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary identification and notification of trial periods before the auto-renewal charge occurs. By detecting trial periods in advance through analysis of payment notifications and using machine learning to identify service providers, the system allows users to proactively block charges before they are applied, making deactivation simple and timely.
2Reliability
If users must locate deactivation forms on websites or call customer service centers, then service providers maintain control over the cancellation process, but users spend significant time and effort to cancel services
Solution Approach 1:
The financial institution serves as a mediator that handles the deactivation process on behalf of users. Instead of users directly interacting with service provider websites or customer service centers, the financial institution's system automatically identifies trial periods, presents blocking options to users, and executes charge blocks. This reduces user time investment from hours to minutes while maintaining service provider control through the opt-in nature of the system.
Solution Approach 2:
The system enables users to self-manage their trial subscriptions through an automated interface provided by the financial institution. Users receive notifications about upcoming charges and can independently block them without needing to navigate service provider websites or speak with customer service representatives, dramatically reducing the time and effort required for cancellation.
3Reliability
If service contracts require users to pay cancellation fees or finish minimum periods, then service providers protect their revenue, but users cannot stop payments immediately even when not intending to use the service
Solution Approach 1:
The system allows users to take preliminary action by blocking charges before the trial period ends and before any cancellation fees or minimum period requirements kick in. By identifying trial periods in advance and enabling users to block charges proactively, the system provides payment flexibility without compromising service provider revenue protection, as providers only lose revenue from users who explicitly choose to block charges.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements a preliminary anti-action mechanism where users can preemptively block auto-renewal charges before they are applied. This prevents the harmful effect of unintended continued payments by allowing users to counter the service provider's revenue collection action in advance, providing flexibility while maintaining provider control over users who do not block charges.
Data Source
AI summary
Aspects provided may allow for a user to block charges from an entity without having to contact the entity. After detecting that the user has enrolled in a trial or subscription of an entity offering, the user may be provided with the option to block charges from the entity. Using incoming data, charges from the blocked entity may be identified and prevented from being applied to the user. Further aspects may provide for more discrete charge blocking, such as blocking charges for one activity while allowing other charges for different activities from the same entity to go through, and training an identification model that isolates the entity identifier from the incoming data and matches the entity identifier to known entities.