System and Mehtod for Providing a Credit Account for Debt Recovery

Abstract

The invention includes systems and methods for providing a credit account for debt recovery. A recovery credit account is provided for a customer with an existing charged-off debt. Some of the customer's charged-off debt may be forgiven as part of a settlement when the customer enrolls in the recovery credit account, but the opening balance of the recovery credit account will represent the entire debt obligation of the customer going forward. The recovery credit account includes a credit limit that is lower than the opening balance. Reducing the account balance to less than the credit limit triggers open-to-buy status, issuance of a credit card, and activation of over the limit fees for future balances over the credit limit.

1 .- 24 . (canceled) 
     
     
         25 . One or more computers operating with a network and comprising one or more memories for storing program instructions and one or more processors, responsive to the program instructions, configured to:
 create a single recovery credit account for a customer with a charged-off credit account balance, the single recovery credit account not having a debt balance record;   set an opening credit balance of the recovery credit account to a value equal to at least a portion of the charged-off credit account balance and wherein the opening credit balance represents the entire debt obligation of the customer corresponding to the charged-off credit balance;   receive a plurality of required payments;   adjust the opening credit balance based on the received payments;   in response to receiving the received payments, initiating an issuance of a card to the customer.   
     
     
         26 . The one or more computers of  claim 25 , wherein the program instructions are further configured to:
 compare the received payments to the opening credit balance; and   where the received payments exceed the opening credit balance, marking the single recovery account with an open-to-buy status.   
     
     
         27 . The one or more computers of  claim 25 , wherein the program instructions are further configured to:
 compare the received payments to the opening credit balance; and   where the received payments exceed the opening credit balance by at least a predetermined margin, marking the single recovery account with an open-to-buy status.   
     
     
         28 . The one or more computers of  claim 25 , wherein the program instructions are further configured to:
 suggest a suggested payment for the single recovery credit account to achieve an open-to-buy status within a predetermined period to the customer.   
     
     
         29 . The one or more computers of  claim 28 , wherein the suggest a suggested payment comprises dividing an open-to-buy payment divided by a number of billing cycles remaining in the predetermined period. 
     
     
         30 . The one or more computers of  claim 25 , wherein the program instructions are further configured to:
 deliver a settlement contingency to the customer, wherein the settlement contingency comprises conditions that must be met for the customer to comply with terms corresponding to the single recovery credit account.   
     
     
         31 . The one or more computers of  claim 30 , wherein the terms comprise one or more of making minimum payments for a fixed period, achieving open-to-buy status within a fixed period, or demonstrating progress and commitment to paying down at least a portion of the charged-off debt. 
     
     
         32 . The one or more computers of  claim 25 , wherein the program instructions are further configured to:
 increase a credit limit upon the customer establishing a regular payment history after submitting payments exceeding the opening credit balance.