Advanced payment management system

Abstract

The present disclosure involves a method that involves: receiving a request to pay a bill having a billing date; identifying a plurality of funding instruments available for paying the bill; retrieving respective billing cycles of the funding instruments; and recommending one of the funding instruments to pay the bill based on the billing date of the bill and the respective billing cycles of the funding instruments. The present disclosure also involves a system that involves: means for receiving a request to make a payment, the payment having a payment deadline; means for identifying a plurality of different funding sources; means for retrieving billing period information associated with each funding source; and means for recommending using one of the funding sources to make the payment, wherein the means for recommending includes means for comparing the payment deadline with the respective billing period information of the funding sources.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A system, comprising:
 a non-transitory computer readable medium comprising executable instructions; and   a computer processor communicatively coupled to the non-transitory computer readable medium, wherein the computer processor executes the executable instructions to perform the steps of:   receiving a request to pay a bill for a user;   identifying a plurality of funding instruments available for paying the bill;   determining, for each funding instrument, an impact on a credit score of the user if said funding instrument is selected to pay the bill; and   automatically recommending, in response to the determining, one of the funding instruments for paying the bill.   
     
     
         2 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the automatically recommending is performed in a manner such that the recommended funding instrument causes the least amount of negative impact to the credit score of the user. 
     
     
         3 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the determining the impact on the credit score comprises:
 retrieving a credit utilization rate for each of the funding instruments; and   eliminating any funding instrument whose credit utilization rate exceeds a predetermined threshold from being recommended.   
     
     
         4 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the steps further comprise: determining a period of free working capital for each funding instrument. 
     
     
         5 . The system of  claim 4 , wherein the automatically recommending is performed further in response to the determining the period of free working capital. 
     
     
         6 . The system of  claim 5 , wherein the automatically recommending is performed in a manner such that the recommended funding instrument has an associated period of free working capital that is longer than at least some of the other funding instruments. 
     
     
         7 . The system of  claim 1 , wherein the steps further comprise: prompting the user to register the plurality of funding instruments in a manner such that the funding instruments have respective billing cycles that are spaced apart from one another. 
     
     
         8 . A method, comprising:
 receiving a request to pay a bill for a user;   identifying a plurality of funding instruments available for paying the bill;   determining, for each funding instrument, an impact on a credit score of the user if said funding instrument is selected to pay the bill; and   automatically recommending, in response to the determining, one of the funding instruments for paying the bill;   wherein at least one of the receiving, the identifying, the retrieving, and the recommending is performed using an electronic processor.   
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein the automatically recommending is performed in a manner such that the recommended funding instrument causes the least amount of negative impact to the credit score of the user. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein the determining the impact on the credit score comprises:
 retrieving a credit utilization rate for each of the funding instruments; and   eliminating any funding instrument whose credit utilization rate exceeds a predetermined threshold from being recommended.   
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 8 , further comprising: determining a period of free working capital for each funding instrument. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein the automatically recommending is performed further in response to the determining the period of free working capital. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 12 , wherein the automatically recommending is performed in a manner such that the recommended funding instrument has an associated period of free working capital that is longer than at least some of the other funding instruments. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 8 , further comprising: prompting the user to register the plurality of funding instruments in a manner such that the funding instruments have respective billing cycles that are spaced apart from one another. 
     
     
         15 . A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising executable instructions that when executed by a processor, causes the processor to perform the steps of:
 receiving a request to pay a bill for a user;   identifying a plurality of funding instruments available for paying the bill;   determining, for each funding instrument, an impact on a credit score of the user if said funding instrument is selected to pay the bill; and   automatically recommending, in response to the determining, one of the funding instruments for paying the bill;   wherein at least one of the receiving, the identifying, the retrieving, and the recommending is performed using an electronic processor.   
     
     
         16 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of  claim 15 , wherein the automatically recommending is performed in a manner such that the recommended funding instrument causes the least amount of negative impact to the credit score of the user. 
     
     
         17 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of  claim 15 , wherein the determining the impact on the credit score comprises:
 retrieving a credit utilization rate for each of the funding instruments; and   eliminating any funding instrument whose credit utilization rate exceeds a predetermined threshold from being recommended.   
     
     
         18 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of  claim 15 , wherein the steps further comprise: determining a period of free working capital for each funding instrument. 
     
     
         19 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of  claim 18 , wherein the automatically recommending is performed further in response to the determining the period of free working capital. 
     
     
         20 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of  claim 19 , wherein the automatically recommending is performed in a manner such that the recommended funding instrument has an associated period of free working capital that is longer than at least some of the other funding instruments. 
     
     
         21 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of  claim 20 , wherein the steps further comprise: prompting the user to register the plurality of funding instruments in a manner such that the funding instruments have respective billing cycles that are spaced apart from one another.