Method and apparatus for determining credit characteristics of a consumer

Abstract

Share of Wallet (“SOW”) is a modeling approach that utilizes various data sources to provide outputs that describe a consumers spending capability, tradeline history including balance transfers, and balance information. These outputs can be appended to data profiles of customers and prospects and can be utilized to support decisions involving prospecting, new applicant evaluation, and customer management across the lifecycle. A SOW score focusing on a consumer's spending capability can be used in the same manner as a credit bureau score.

1 - 20 . (canceled) 
     
     
         21 . A method comprising:
 modeling, by a computer-based system for managing a consumer lifecycle comprising a processor and a tangible, non-transitory memory, consumer spending patterns using individual consumer data and aggregate consumer data, including tradeline data, internal consumer data, and consumer panel data;   estimating, by the computer-based system, a credit-related characteristic of a consumer based on tradeline data of the consumer, an existence and an amount of an identified balance transfer of the consumer, and the model of consumer spending patterns, wherein the existence of the identified balance transfer is identified based on a change in magnitude of a balance on at least one tradeline of the consumer during a given time period as compared to the balance of the at least one tradeline of the consumer in a time period prior to the given time period such that the change at least one of meets or exceeds a given threshold;   excluding, by the computer-based system, the identified balance transfer from the credit-related characteristic; and   outputting, from the computer-based system, the credit-related characteristic of the consumer.   
     
     
         22 . The method of  claim 21 , wherein the credit-related characteristic is a size of the consumer's spending wallet. 
     
     
         23 . The method of  claim 22 , wherein the spending wallet is one of a twelve-month spending wallet and a quarterly spending wallet. 
     
     
         24 . The method of  claim 22 , wherein the size of the spending wallet is output as a monetary amount. 
     
     
         25 . The method of  claim 21 , wherein the credit-related characteristic is at least one of: a consumer's average pay-down percentage of revolving cards; a size of the consumer's revolving spending; or a size of the consumer's transacting spending. 
     
     
         26 . The method of  claim 21 , wherein the credit-related characteristic is a share of wallet size for a particular spend category. 
     
     
         27 . The method of  claim 26 , wherein the particular spend category is credit card spend. 
     
     
         28 . The method of  claim 21 , wherein the credit-related characteristic is a spend capacity of the consumer. 
     
     
         29 . The method of  claim 21 , wherein the credit-related characteristic is an amount of balance transfers transacted by the consumer. 
     
     
         30 . An apparatus comprising:
 a processor for managing a consumer lifecycle in a credit related industry; and   a tangible, non-transitory memory in communication with the processor, wherein the memory stores a plurality of processing instructions for directing the processor to:
 model, by the processor, consumer spending patterns using individual and aggregate consumer data, including tradeline data, internal consumer data, and consumer panel data; 
 estimate, by the processor, a credit-related characteristic of an individual consumer based on tradeline data of the individual consumer, an existence and an amount of an identified balance transfer of the individual consumer, and the model of consumer spending patterns, wherein the existence of the identified balance transfer is identified based on a change in magnitude of a balance on at least one tradeline of the consumer during a given time period as compared to the balance of the at least one tradeline of the consumer in a time period prior to the given time period such that the change at least one of meets or exceeds a given threshold; 
 exclude, by the processor, the identified balance transfer from the credit-related characteristic; and 
 output, by the processor, the credit-related characteristic of the individual consumer. 
   
     
     
         31 . The apparatus of  claim 30 , wherein the credit-related characteristic is a size of the individual consumer's spending wallet. 
     
     
         32 . The apparatus of  claim 31 , wherein the spending wallet is one of a twelve-month spending wallet and a quarterly spending wallet. 
     
     
         33 . The apparatus of  claim 30 , wherein the size of the spending wallet is output as a monetary amount. 
     
     
         34 . The apparatus of  claim 30 , wherein the credit-related characteristic is at least one of: a consumer's average pay-down percentage of revolving cards; a size of the consumer's revolving spending; or a size of the consumer's transacting spending. 
     
     
         35 . The apparatus of  claim 30 , wherein the credit-related characteristic is a share of wallet size for a particular spend category. 
     
     
         36 . The apparatus of  claim 30 , wherein the credit-related characteristics is spend capacity of the consumer. 
     
     
         37 . The apparatus of  claim 30 , wherein the credit-related characteristic is an amount of balance transfers transacted by the consumer. 
     
     
         38 . A tangible, non-transitory article of manufacture including a computer readable medium having instructions stored thereon that, in response to execution by a computing device for managing a consumer lifecycle in a credit related industry, cause the computing device to perform operations comprising:
 modeling, by the computing device, consumer spending patterns using individual consumer data and aggregate consumer data, including tradeline data, internal consumer data, and consumer panel data;   estimating, by the computing device, a credit-related characteristic of a consumer based on tradeline data of the consumer, an existence and an amount of an identified balance transfer of the consumer, and the model of consumer spending patterns, wherein the existence of the identified balance transfer is identified based on a change in magnitude of a balance on at least one tradeline of the consumer during a given time period as compared to the balance of the at least one tradeline of the consumer in a time period prior to the given time period such that the change at least one of meets or exceeds a given threshold;   excluding, by the computing device, the identified balance transfer from the credit-related characteristic; and   outputting, by the computing device, the credit-related characteristic of the consumer.   
     
     
         39 . The article of manufacture of  claim 38 , wherein the credit-related characteristic is a size of the consumer's spending wallet. 
     
     
         40 . The article of manufacture of  claim 39 , wherein the spending wallet is one of a twelve-month spending wallet and a quarterly spending wallet.