JP5052103B2 - Credit card settlement adjustment system - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a credit card settlement adjustment system that adjusts a credit card settlement date so that a monthly payment is made from a customer's account in payment of a monthly utility bill using a credit card.

  There are a wide variety of payment methods for public utilities to public utilities, such as payment by cash at a financial institution or at a convenience store, or by direct debit that automatically deducts monthly public charges from a financial institution's account. It is used.

  In addition to banks and post offices, in recent years, the number of users who pay public fees using a credit card is increasing.

  However, in the payment method at the bank / post office, the utility bill is paid directly from the account held by the customer, whereas in the payment method using the credit card, the utility fee to be paid by the customer is expressed by the credit card company. However, the system is different in that the credit card company bills the customer for the appropriate amount after that.

  Note that payment from a customer to a credit card company is generally made by automatic debit from a designated account of a financial institution such as a bank or post office held by the customer.

  For both customers, both methods are common in that the monthly utility bill is automatically deducted, and there are many cases where the application procedure etc. is applied for simple credit card payment without being aware of the difference in the mechanism. .

  In the payment method of public charges at the bank / post office, the public company charges the customer, sends the sales data to the designated bank / post office where the customer has an account, and uses it for the current month's usage fee. Automatically withdraw the appropriate amount. In this case, debiting is performed on a certain date determined in advance by the customer and the bank / post office.

  On the other hand, in a payment method using a credit card, a public company charges the credit card company. The credit card company bills the customer after accepting the bill from the public company. In this case, the credit card company processes the bill from the public company based on the invoice deadline determined by the company, and bills the customer on the date determined by the company. Therefore, the monthly billing from the public company to the credit card company and the billing from the credit card company to the customer are not necessarily linked.

  In general, public service providers generally measure monthly service usage and charge public fees based on the usage, but the standard usage measurement date differs depending on the area where the service is supplied. Also, it is difficult to measure on a fixed date every month due to the staffing of the measurement department, the day of the week, holidays, weather conditions, customer convenience, etc., and it is 2-3 days from the standard usage measurement date It fluctuates in the range.

  Thereafter, a usage fee is calculated based on the measured usage amount, and an invoice is created. Since the period is also substantially constant, the billing date will fluctuate in the range of 2 to 3 days before and after.

  In the payment method of public charges at banks and post offices, the account transfer schedule will not be affected if the sales data is sent by a predetermined date regardless of the billing date to the customer. However, in the payment method using a credit card, there are cases where the billing date from the public company and the billing date of the credit card company vary depending on the month.

  For example, if the credit card company's invoice deadline is 15 days, the invoice is processed after 15 days, which is the invoice deadline in a normal month, but arrives before 15th in a certain month. If that happens, invoices for the two months of the month and the previous month will be processed simultaneously on the same 15-day invoice deadline. For this reason, a charge for two months is simultaneously generated from the credit card company to the customer. On the other hand, since there is no invoice to be processed on the invoice closing date of the next month, the customer is not charged for the next month.

  For this reason, it is inconvenient for customers who want to spend regular utility bills in the household, and there are some voices of improvement.

  The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and even if it is a method for paying public charges using a credit card, it is possible to adjust the billing date from the public company to the credit card company for two months. An object of the present invention is to provide a credit card settlement adjustment system that prevents simultaneous billing and enables a customer to pay a utility bill every month.

  The credit card settlement adjustment system of the present invention eliminates the situation where a customer is billed for two months of public bills at the same time in the settlement of public bills using a credit card, so that monthly billing is made. A credit card settlement adjustment system for making adjustments to the credit card company, the deadline information acquisition means for acquiring the deadline information for billing reception from a server provided in the credit card company via the communication network, and the deadline date for the billing reception And billing date changing means for changing the billing date of each month from the public company to the credit card company.

  Here, the settlement of public charges using a credit card includes a bill from a public company to a credit card company and a bill from a customer to a credit card company. “Billing” used in claim 1 Means a charge from a credit card company to a customer.

  More specifically, it means that after the credit card company bills the customer, it is generally performed until automatic withdrawal from a designated account of a financial institution such as a bank or post office that the customer has.

  Further, the credit card settlement adjustment system of the present invention is a credit card company input means for displaying an input area of a credit card company that a customer desires to settle a public bill on a display unit of a terminal connected via a communication network, Credit card company data acquisition means for acquiring specific credit card company data input in the input area.

  In other words, when a customer applies for a public service contract, etc., an input screen is displayed that allows the selection of an individual credit card company as a payment method for public charges, and information on the specific credit card company selected by the customer. To get. Thus, the deadline date information acquisition means acquires deadline information of a specific credit card company based on the credit card company data acquired by the credit card company data acquisition means.

  Here, the term “terminal” generally refers to a computer, a mobile phone terminal, etc. provided by a customer, but also includes a terminal, etc., through which an operator of a public company inputs data when a customer applies for a contract using paper documents. .

  Furthermore, the credit card settlement adjustment system of the present invention has a service application input means for displaying an input area for a service supply application from a customer on a display unit of a terminal connected via a communication network, and input to the input area Service application data obtaining means for obtaining service application data; and billing scheduled date calculating means for calculating a scheduled billing date for utility charges from the service application data, wherein the billing date setting means includes the scheduled billing date and the billing A comparison is made with the acceptance deadline, and when the date is close to the range of the predetermined number of days, a billing date having a predetermined number of days difference is set.

  Here, it is desirable that the utility bill is charged regularly every month. Therefore, if the same date of each month is set as the reference measurement date, and the period for issuing the invoice is added based on the measurement result of the usage amount, the expected billing date can be calculated. Note that the measurement of usage is to visually check the numerical value of a meter or the like attached to the device, for example, in order to measure the amount of use of public services such as electricity and gas.

  The date of the reference measurement date is preferably set for each certain region in order to increase the efficiency of usage measurement in the method of visually recognizing numerical values such as a meter. The service application data from the customer includes information on the address (region) that receives the supply, and a corresponding reference measurement date can be set based on the information on the address (region).

  In a method in which usage measurement does not depend on visual recognition of a numerical value such as a meter, a service supply start date included in service application data from a customer can be set as a reference measurement date.

  In addition, the range of the predetermined number of days is generally that the billing date for public utility charges is not constant and varies within a range of several days. For this reason, when the credit card company's invoice deadline and the public company's scheduled billing date are close to the range, a billing date having a predetermined number of days different from the scheduled billing date is set.

  The credit card settlement adjustment system according to the present invention sets a billing date as a billing date, and sets a standard date for measuring a usage amount of a public service from which the billing date is counted. It is characterized by providing.

  Here, the standard date for measuring the usage amount of public services from which the billing date is calculated is that the utility bill measures the usage amount and calculates the fee based on that amount. Create and send an invoice from That is, since the billing date (invoice sending date) is after a certain period of time has elapsed since the measurement of the usage amount, the reference measurement date of the usage amount can be calculated from the billing date.

  Specifically, the invoice deadline date of the credit card company is set as the invoice date from the public company, and the date calculated by back-calculating a certain period from the invoice date is set as the reference measurement date by the public company.

  In addition, the reference measurement date setting means determines from the billing date, which is the deadline date for accepting the bill, to the period required for bill creation after the usage measurement and the number of days in which the usage measurement varies from the reference measurement date. Based on this, a reference measurement date is set.

  That is, after the usage amount is measured, a fee is calculated based on the measurement result, and a bill is created for the calculated fee. This requires a certain period of time. Furthermore, the measurement of the usage amount varies within a certain range from the reference measurement date (reference measurement date). Therefore, if the base date is calculated by subtracting the period required for invoicing from the invoice deadline date and the period within which the measurement date fluctuates, processing without loss from usage measurement to billing is possible. It becomes.

  In conventional payment methods using public credit cards, the billing date from the public service provider to the credit card company is not uniform, and the credit card company only accepts the invoice from the public service provider. Since the customer is charged on the basis of this, there is a problem that two months are charged at the same time.

  ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to this invention, the situation where the above two months are charged simultaneously can be prevented by adjusting the billing date etc. from a public company to a credit card company.

  This makes it possible for customers to pay monthly public bills regularly, making it easier to manage their households.

  Further, in the case of two-month billing exceeding the payment amount of the utility bill scheduled by the customer, a case where payment cannot be made due to insufficient balance can be assumed, but this can be avoided by the present invention.

Hereinafter, a first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram of a credit card settlement adjustment system according to the present invention, a measurement department server, a customer terminal, and a credit card company server connected via a communication network.

  The credit card settlement adjustment system 1 includes a transmission / reception unit 11 that communicates with the communication network 2, a central processing unit 12 that performs processing related to credit card settlement, a storage unit 13 that stores data related to customers and billing, and data input. An input unit 14 such as a keyboard and a display device for outputting data or an output unit 15 such as a printer.

  A transmission / reception unit 11 of the credit card settlement adjustment system 1 is connected to a measurement department server 3 of a public company, a customer terminal 4, a credit card company server 5 and the like via a communication network 2.

  The storage unit 13 includes a customer DB 131 that holds information related to the customer's address, name, contact information, and the like, a billing DB 132 that holds information related to transaction status such as billing and payment for each customer (FIG. 2 and FIG. 2). 3).

  The central processing unit 12 includes a credit card company input means 503 for selecting and inputting a credit card company that the customer wishes to settle when the customer wishes to apply for a service supply contract, and the credit card company selected by the customer Credit card company data acquisition means 504 for acquiring data, deadline information acquisition means 505 for acquiring a credit card company's invoice deadline via the communication network 2, and when a customer wishes to apply for a service supply contract, Service application input means 506 for displaying an input screen such as an area for supplying a service and a date when the service is started, service application data acquisition means 507 for acquiring information related to a customer service supply contract application via the communication network 2, and service Estimated billing date to calculate the estimated billing date from the region where supply is desired A setting unit 508, a billing date changing unit 509 that changes the billing date from the credit card company billing deadline date and a billing date to the customer, and a standard measurement date setting unit 510 that sets a standard measurement date based on the billing date. .

  FIG. 4 is a flowchart of the transaction flow in the first embodiment of the credit card settlement adjustment system 1.

  First, a service application contract is received from a customer via the communication network 2 such as the Internet. In the contract application reception screen, in addition to the contract contents desired by the customer, the address (region) where the service is supplied, the date on which the service is desired to be started, the payment method of the fee, and the input area such as the financial institution that handles the service are displayed ( Credit card company input means 503 and service application input means 506). In this embodiment, options are provided by a pop-up menu, radio buttons, etc., and the customer selects a desired service (S201).

  In addition, even when a customer who has already contracted has applied for a payment method change, the input area is displayed by the credit card company input means 503 and the service application input means 506 on the change acceptance screen.

  When the payment method of the fee selected by the customer is “credit card payment” and the customer inputs a specific credit card company as a financial institution that handles payment, the credit card company data acquisition means 504 receives the specific credit. Card company data is acquired and stored in the customer DB 131 of the storage unit 13.

  Moreover, the deadline date information acquisition unit 505 acquires the invoice deadline date of the credit card company specified by the credit card company data acquisition unit 504 (S202). Specifically, it communicates with the server 5 of the specified credit card company via the communication network 2, acquires necessary bill deadline data, and stores it in the billing DB 132 of the storage unit 13.

  Next, in the above-described contract application screen, the service application input means 506 displays the area where the service supply is desired to start and the date input area. The service supply area and start date input by the customer are acquired by the service application data acquisition unit 507 and stored in the customer DB 131 of the storage unit 13.

  Public utilities generally calculate utility charges based on customer usage over a one-month period and bill customers (credit card companies in the case of payment methods using a credit card). The standard measurement date, which is the start of the one-month period, varies from one region to another in order to improve the operational efficiency and cost of the measurement department.

  The billing date calculation means 508 calculates a predetermined reference measurement date from the area where the customer acquired by the service application data acquisition means 507 desires to supply the service. Specifically, the reference measurement date master provided in advance is stored in the customer DB 131 with reference to the reference measurement date corresponding to the input ZIP code.

  In the case of a measurement method that does not require efficiency, the usage amount can be measured on the same date after one month from the service start date.

  After that, a usage fee is calculated based on the measured usage amount and an invoice is created. In the present embodiment, about 10 days from the measurement date are required as the period, and the day to which the period is added is calculated as the scheduled billing date (billing scheduled date calculating means 508) (S203).

  Here, since it is desirable to measure the utility bill regularly every month, in this embodiment, a reference measurement date is set as a reference for the usage measurement date. However, since the first usage measurement is a reference measurement date that comes first from the service start date, the usage measurement is performed before one month has elapsed.

  The service start date is transmitted to the measurement department server 3 together with the customer data (S204), and the service to the customer is started (S205). In the measurement department, measurement is performed based on the reference measurement date (S208), and the measurement result is transmitted to the management department for billing (S209). However, in measurement, it is difficult to measure on a fixed date every month due to the staffing of the measurement department, the day of the week, public holidays, weather conditions, customer convenience, etc. The actual measurement date is the standard measurement date Varies from 2 to 3 days. Therefore, the day on which the subsequent invoice is created also varies between two and three days depending on the month.

  Credit card companies, on the other hand, make payments on behalf of customer fees based on invoices from public utilities. Since credit card companies have invoice deadlines, When a billing scheduled date is set on a close day, there is a possibility that the date may fluctuate before and after the month.

  In the past, there were cases where the date before and after the credit card company's invoice deadline was not constant, as a result of fluctuations in the usage measurement date of public utilities and the credit card company's billing reception date. For this reason, the month of billing from the credit card company to the customer fluctuates, and so-called two-month payment has been a problem (FIG. 5 (a)). The payment to the customer's credit card company is generally made by automatic withdrawal from a designated account of a financial institution such as a bank / post office owned by the customer.

  The billing date changing unit 509 compares the billing deadline date acquired by the deadline date information acquiring unit 505 with the planned billing date calculated by the billing scheduled date calculating unit 508, and the billing deadline date may vary. A billing scheduled date within the range is detected (S206). Next, the detected billing date is changed to a billing date having a predetermined number of days difference (S207).

  In other words, normal utility bills are billed as the billing date, but billing dates close to the billing deadline are billed on the modified billing date ( S210) and sent to the credit card company (FIG. 5B).

  In changing the billing date, the bill deadline date after the elapse of a period in a generally close range is changed as the billing date. In the present embodiment, since a certain period is required to create a bill from the usage amount measurement date, the bill deadline date before the lapse of the adjacent period cannot be set as the billing date.

  FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the data flow in the billing date changing unit 509 when the predetermined number of days difference is plus or minus 3 days.

  First, the invoice deadline date information (S101) of a specific credit card company acquired by the deadline date information acquisition means 504 is compared with the expected billing date (S102) calculated by the expected billing date calculation means 508 (S103). When it is determined that the difference in days is within plus or minus 3 days (S104), the invoice deadline is set as the invoice date (S105). On the other hand, when it is determined that the difference in days is not within plus or minus 3 days (S104), the billing date is set as the billing date as it is (S106).

  Thereafter, the arrival of the billing date set in either one is detected, bill data is created and sent to the credit card company (S107). Specifically, the invoice data is transmitted to a specific credit card company server 5 via the communication network 2.

  In addition, for customers who have selected a payment method using a credit card, the date of the invoice deadline at each credit card company (or the invoice deadline date after the expiration of a period close to the expected billing date) ).

  Next, in the credit card company, based on the billing date from the public company, the public company pays the public utility fee to the public company (S211). Thereafter, a bill for the customer is created and sent based on the billing date from the public company (S212). Furthermore, the amount corresponding to the utility bill is automatically deducted from the specified account of a financial institution such as a bank or post office held by the customer to the specified account of the credit card company.

  In FIG. 7, the flow from the customer's contract application to billing in the first embodiment in the conventional system and the credit card settlement adjustment system 1 according to the present invention is simply shown.

  FIG. 7A shows the flow of a conventional system. A public company that accepts an application from a customer bills a credit card company after measuring and calculating a fee. The credit card company bills the customer after the reimbursement payment based on the bill from the public company, and receives the debit amount from the customer's account.

  FIG.7 (b) shows the flow of 1st Embodiment in the credit card payment adjustment system 1 of this invention. The public company that accepts the application from the customer confirms the deadline date of the invoice with the credit card company and sets the invoice date. From the subsequent measurement by the public business operator, when the customer's account is debited by the credit card company, the flow is the same as the conventional system.

  As described above, in the first embodiment of the credit card settlement adjustment system 1 according to the present invention, at the stage of accepting an application from a customer, information on the credit card company's invoice deadline date is acquired, and two months' worth is obtained. Invoices can be issued on a date that does not require consolidated billing.

  This makes it possible for customers to pay monthly public bills regularly, making it easier to manage their households. Further, in the case of two-month billing exceeding the payment amount of the utility bill scheduled by the customer, a case where payment cannot be made due to insufficient balance can be assumed, but this can be avoided by the present invention.

  Next, a second embodiment of the credit card settlement adjustment system 1 according to the present invention will be described.

  In the second embodiment, a reference measurement date setting unit 510 is provided that sets a reference measurement date based on the credit card company's invoice deadline date.

  The reference measurement date setting means 510 sets the optimum date calculated backward from the invoice deadline of the selected credit card company for the customer who has selected the payment method using the credit card in the contract application from the customer. It can be a measurement date.

  Specifically, referring to the credit card company's invoice deadline date from the credit card company master, which will be described later, reduce the invoice creation period to be retained in advance, and further measure the usage for 2-3 days in advance. A day obtained by subtracting the range in which the day fluctuates is set as the reference measurement day.

  In the first month, the amount of usage is less than one month, but regular billing (account withdrawal) is possible from the following month. In addition, when the period from the service start date to the reference measurement date is short, the usage amount can be set to be measured in a period in which several days are added to one month.

  In the second embodiment, the billing DB 132 is provided with information such as the billing deadline date of each credit card company in the billing DB 132 as a credit card company master (FIG. 9), and the billing date and usage measurement date for each customer are set. Can be easily referred to.

  The maintenance of the credit card company master is performed by communication with the credit card company server 5. This makes it possible to collectively manage the customer billing date or usage measurement date setting.

  FIG. 8 is a flowchart of the transaction flow in the second embodiment of the credit card settlement adjustment system 1.

  In the second embodiment, specific credit card company data input on the customer service contract application screen is obtained (S302). Next, the invoice closing date data is acquired by referring to the corresponding company name data from the credit card company master (S304). Subsequently, the acquired invoice deadline is set as the date of invoice to the credit card company (S305).

  In response to the setting of the billing date, a date obtained by subtracting the number of days in the range of fluctuation of the bill creation period and the usage measurement date is set as the first measurement date (S307). The set reference measurement date is transmitted to the measurement department server 5 (S308), and the usage amount is measured after the arrival of that date (S309).

  Note that the credit card company master included in the billing DB 132 is maintained by update information transmitted from the credit card company server 5 or the like (S301).

  As described above, according to the second embodiment, the customer can receive a timely invoice because the invoice deadline date remains the current month and the reference measurement date is changed to the previous date. On the other hand, since the public company has an invoice deadline immediately after the credit card company is charged, the payment date from the credit card company is accelerated. In particular, the measurement of the amount used is effective in a method that does not depend on visual recognition of numerical values such as a meter.

  Further, in the reference measurement date setting method, it is also possible to set by the customer's selection as to which usage amount is measured based on which measurement date in the first embodiment and the second embodiment. it can.

  According to the credit card settlement adjustment system of the present invention, it is possible to handle the payment method of public charges using a credit card in the same manner as a bank / post office, and the customer's selection of payment methods can be further expanded.

1 is a functional block diagram of a credit card settlement adjustment system 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention, a measurement department server 3, a customer terminal 4, a credit card company server 5, and the like. It is a structural example of customer DB131 in the memory | storage part 13 of FIG. It is a structural example of claim DB132 in the memory | storage part 13 of FIG. It is a flow figure of a public enterprise server, a measurement department server, a customer terminal, and a credit card company server in billing from a customer service application of the credit card settlement adjustment system 1 according to the first embodiment of the present invention. It is a figure explaining the example which 2 months payment generate | occur | produces in the conventional system, and that 2 months payment is eliminated with the system which concerns on this invention. FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a data flow in a billing date changing unit 509. It is a figure explaining the outline by comparing a conventional system and a system according to the present invention. It is a flowchart of the public enterprise server in the credit card payment adjustment system 1 which concerns on the 2nd Embodiment of this invention from a customer's service application, a measurement department server, a customer terminal, and a credit card company server. It is an example of composition of charge DB132 and a credit card company master in a 2nd embodiment.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Credit card payment adjustment system 2 Communication network 3 Measurement department server 4 Customer terminal 5 Credit card company server 11, 31, 41, 51 Transmission / reception part 12, 32, 42, 52 Central processing part 13, 33, 43, 53 Storage part 14, 34, 44, 54 Input unit 15, 35, 45, 55 Output unit 131 Customer DB
132 Request DB
501 Transmission / reception processing means 502 Input / output processing means 503 Credit card company input means 504 Credit card company data acquisition means 505 Deadline date information acquisition means 506 Service application input means 507 Service application data acquisition means 508 Billing date calculation means 509 Billing date change means 510 Reference measurement date setting means

Claims (5)

A credit card settlement adjustment system that adjusts so that customers can be billed each month, eliminating the situation where customers are billed for two months of utility bills at the same time. There,
Deadline information acquisition means for acquiring deadline information for claim acceptance from a server provided by the credit card company via a communication network;
Billing date changing means for changing the billing date of each month from the public company to the credit card company based on the deadline of the billing reception;
A credit card settlement adjustment system comprising: A credit card company input means for displaying an input area of a credit card company for which a customer wishes to settle a utility bill on a display unit of a terminal connected via a communication network;
Credit card company data acquisition means for acquiring specific credit card company data input in the input area;
The credit card settlement adjustment system according to claim 1, further comprising: A service application input means for displaying an input area of a service supply application from a customer on a display unit of a terminal connected via a communication network;
Service application data acquisition means for acquiring service application data input in the input area;
A billing date calculation means for calculating a billing date for utility bills from the service application data,
The billing date changing means compares the billing scheduled date with the billing deadline, and sets a billing date having a predetermined number of days difference when the date is close to a predetermined number of days. The credit card settlement adjustment system according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that:   3. A reference measurement date setting unit that sets a deadline date of the claim reception as a billing date and sets a reference date for measuring a usage amount of a public service from which the billing date is calculated. The credit card settlement adjustment system described.   The reference measurement date setting means, based on a billing date which is a deadline date of the claim acceptance, based on a period required for bill creation after usage amount measurement, and the number of days in which usage measurement varies from the reference measurement date 5. The credit card settlement adjustment system according to claim 4, wherein a reference measurement date is set.

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