System and method for providing financing

Abstract

A method of providing financing is provided. The method provides financing for allowing a customer to purchase a product selected from an inventory of products maintained by a dealer. The method includes the steps of maintaining a database of the dealer's inventory, gathering information from the customer, calculating a credit score for the customer based at least in part on the information gathered from the customer, determining an advance amount to be paid to the dealer for each individual product in the dealer inventory in the event that that particular product is sold to the customer, calculating a front-end profit to be realized by the dealer for each individual product in the dealer inventory, and presenting a financing package to the dealer for each individual product in the dealer's inventory.

1 . A method for providing a financing package, comprising: 
 receiving information related to a database of a dealer's inventory, wherein the dealer's inventory includes at least one product, wherein the at least one product has a dealer cost associated therewith;    receiving information from the customer including a down payment amount which the customer has available for a down payment towards the purchase of each of the at least one product;    determining an advance amount to be paid to the dealer from the financing source for the at least one product in the dealer inventory in the event that that particular product is sold to the customer;    calculating a front-end profit to be realized by the dealer for the at least one product in the dealer inventory, based on the dealer cost associated with each individual product, the advance amount determined for each individual product, and the down payment amount; and    calculating a financing package to the dealer for each individual product in the dealer's inventory for immediate offer for sale to the customer.    
   
   
       2 . The method of providing financing of  claim 1 , further comprising calculating a credit score for the customer based at least in part on the information gathered from the customer;  
   
   
       3 . The method of providing financing of  claim 1  wherein changes to the financing package are automatically recalculated to produce a new financing package and is transmitted to the user terminal for immediate offer for sale to the customer.  
   
   
       4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the financing package includes the sale price, the down payment amount, an amount financed, an interest rate, a total payment amount, and a monthly payment amount to be paid by the customer until the total payment amount has been paid.  
   
   
       5 . The method of  claim 4  further comprising the step of collecting monthly payments from the customer in the monthly payment amount and paying a fraction of the collected monthly payments to the dealer.  
   
   
       6 . The method of  claim 5  wherein the fraction of received payments paid to the dealer is at least 50%.  
   
   
       7 . The method of  claim 5  further comprising the step of applying the fraction of the collected monthly payments paid to the dealer to offset the advance amount paid to the dealer at the time the product was sold.  
   
   
       8 . The method of  claim 1  further comprising the steps of: 
 providing a user terminal for entering the customer information;    providing a server connected to the user terminal via a network, and having access to the dealer inventory database; and    configuring the server to receive the customer information from the user terminal, to access the dealer inventory database, to generate the financing packages for each individual product in the dealer's inventory based on the customer information and the inventory data stored in the database, and to transmit the financial packages to the user terminal over the network for display on the user terminal.    
   
   
       9 . A method for providing a financing package, comprising: 
 receiving information related to a database of a dealer's inventory, wherein the dealer's inventory includes a plurality of products, wherein the plurality of products have a dealer cost associated therewith;    receiving information from the customer including a down payment amount which the customer has available for a down payment towards the purchase of each of the plurality of product;    determining an advance amount to be paid to the dealer from the financing source for each of the plurality product in the dealer inventory in the event that that particular product is sold to the customer;    calculating a front-end profit to be realized by the dealer for each of the plurality of products in the dealer inventory, based on the dealer cost associated with each individual product, the advance amount determined for each individual product, and the down payment amount; and    calculating a financing package to the dealer for each individual product in the dealer's inventory for immediate offer for sale to the customer.    
   
   
       10 . The method of  claim 9  further comprising the steps of providing financing to a plurality of customers for the purchase of each of the plurality of products from the dealer, and applying the advance amount from each transaction to a collateral pool, whereby the fraction of the collected payments from each customer is applied to offset a total amount advanced for all transactions.  
   
   
       11 . The method of  claim 10  further comprising the step of capping the collateral pool after a fixed number of financing transactions have been entered such that advances paid to the dealer for financing transactions entered after the collateral pool has been capped are applied to a second collateral pool.  
   
   
       12 . The method of  claim 11  further comprising the steps of: 
 at a predefined time after the first collateral pool has been capped, determining a collection rate of monthly payments received for all financing transactions entered by the dealer; and    issuing a payment to the dealer in an amount equal to a percentage of the fraction of the collected monthly payments to be paid to the dealer multiplied by an amount expected to be collected from all of the transactions, when the collection rate exceeds a predefined threshold.    
   
   
       13 . A system for providing guaranteed financing to a customer for allowing the customer to purchase a product from an inventory of a dealer, the system comprising: 
 a financing package generating unit including a database configured to store the inventory of the dealer including at least one individually priced item, and a calculation unit;    a user terminal, operatively coupled to the financing package generating unit; and    a server, operatively coupled the financing package generating unit, wherein the financing package generating unit generates financing packages for each of the at least one individually priced item in the database, the financing packages including a front-end profit calculated based on payment of an advance amount to the dealer in furtherance of the sale, and dealer costs associated with each of at least one individually priced item, the server beings further configured to transmit the financing packages to the user terminal for presentation to the dealer for immediate offer for sale to the customer.    
   
   
       14 . The system for providing guaranteed financing as claimed in  claim 13 , wherein the user terminal processes a sale of an approved individually priced item to the customer for which financing options are displayed on the user terminal, and wherein processing the sale includes accepting a down payment amount from the customer and extending financing to the customer.  
   
   
       15 . The system for providing guaranteed financing as in  claim 13 , wherein changes in the financing packages are automatically recalculated to produce a new financing package for an item and transmitted to the user terminal for immediate offer for sale to the customer.  
   
   
       16 . The system for providing guaranteed financing as claimed in  claim 13 , wherein the server is further configured to collect periodic payments from the customer in satisfaction of the financing extended to the customer.  
   
   
       17 . The system for providing guaranteed financing as claimed in  claim 16 , wherein the dealer receives a share of the payments collected from the customer.  
   
   
       18 . The system for providing guaranteed financing as claimed in  claim 17 , wherein the share received by the dealer is at least 50%.  
   
   
       19 . The system for providing guaranteed financing as claimed in  claim 18 , wherein the share received by the dealer is applied to offset the amount of the advance paid to the dealer.  
   
   
       20 . The system for providing guaranteed financing as claimed in  claim 17 , wherein the server is further adapted to calculate the dealer's back-end profits based on estimated collection rates of the periodic payments and to process a payment of the back-end profits to the dealer, wherein the back-end profits are the dealer's share of collected payments received after the advance has been fully offset.