Integrated systems for electronic bill presentment and payment

• US 20040167853A1
• Filed: 01/07/2004
• Published: 08/26/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 01/12/2000
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Dushyant Sharma
• Original Assignee: Dushyant Sharma
• Inventors: Sharma, Dushyant
• Application Number:
  US10/752,874
• Publication Number:
  US 20040167853A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/40
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/02 involving a neutral party, e.g. certification authority, notary or trusted third party [TTP]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/04 Payment circuits
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/102 Bill distribution or payments
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/14 specially adapted for billing systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/04 Billing or invoicing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions

Abstract

The present invention relates generally to electronic commerce, and more particularly to methods and systems for integrating electronic bill presentment and payment among billers, consumers, banks and other financial institutions, electronic payment facilitators, and web portals and other spaces able to support an interface for presentment and/or payment of bills.

Claims

1. An electronic bill presentment and payment system, said system comprising:

a database for storing data relating to a plurality of bills sourced from a plurality of billers, and corresponding to a plurality of consumers;

a conversion processing communicating with said database for converting data from said plurality of billers into a format compatible with said database;

a biller interface communicating with said database for allowing at least some of said plurality of billers to review and obtain reports in real time from data relating to said billers and status of said biller'"'"'s bills stored in said database;

a processing capacity communicating with said database for supporting a plurality of visual interfaces, each of said visual interfaces allowing a consumer to review and pay said consumer'"'"'s bills;

a consumer interface communicating with said database for allowing said consumer to change information in said database; and

an authentication capacity communicating with said database for determining whether said consumer meets certain predetermined requirements before a new account is authorized to access said database.

2. A system as defined in claim 1, wherein said authentication capacity includes an input capacity for allowing said consumer to input personal information that can be used to identify and authenticate said consumer.

3. A system as defined in claim 1, wherein said authentication capacity includes a credit verifier for determining whether said consumer has been authorized to access said database, said credit verifier providing consumer credit information to said authentication capacity.

4. A system as defined in claim 1, wherein said credit verifier is a third party credit reporting agency.

5. A system as defined in claim 4, wherein said consumer is authorized access to said database by said credit verifier during a particular consumer session on a visual interface, only after an interactive session between said system and said credit verifier during said consumer session.

6. A system as defined in claim 1, further comprising:

a biller authentication capacity communicating with said database for authenticating each of said plurality of billers.

7. A system as defined in claim 1, further comprising:

processing capacity capable of communicating with a plurality of financial institutions to couple said financial institutions to said database to facilitate payment of bills.

8. A system as defined in claim 1, further comprising:

processing capacity capable of communicating with a plurality of payment facilitators to couple said payment facilitators to said database to facilitate payment of bills.

9. A method for electronic billing presentment and payment, said method comprising the steps of:

storing data relating to a plurality of bills sourced from a plurality of billers, and corresponding to a plurality of consumers in a database;

converting data from said plurality of billers into a format compatible with said database;

allowing at least some of said plurality of billers to review and obtain reports in real time from data relating to said billers and status of said biller'"'"'s bills stored in said database;

supporting a plurality of visual interfaces, each of said visual interfaces allowing a consumer to review and pay said consumer'"'"'s bills;

determining whether said consumer meets certain predetermined requirements before a new account is authorized to access said database;

communicating with said database for allowing said consumer to change information in said database; and

allowing said consumer to pay bills from one of said visual interfaces.

10. A method as defined in claim 9, wherein said step of allowing a consumer to pay bills further comprises the steps of:

receiving from said consumer logon information;

initiating an interactive session with a credit verifier to obtain authorization for said consumer to have access to information from said database, said credit verifier providing consumer credit information to said authentication capacity; and

after said authorization from said credit verifier has been received from said credit verifier, allowing said consumer to access information in said database in order to pay bills.

11. A method as defined in claim 10, wherein said credit verifier is a third party credit reporting agency.

12. A method as defined in claim 10, wherein said consumer is authorized access to said database by said credit verifier during a particular consumer session on a visual interface, only after an interactive session between said database and said credit verifier during said consumer session.

13. A method as defined in claim 9, further comprising the step of:

allowing said consumer to input personal information that can be used to identify and authenticate said consumer.

14. A method as defined in claim 9, further comprising the step of:

communicating with said database for authenticating each of said plurality of billers.

15. A method as defined in claim 9, further comprising the step of:

allowing said consumer to inquire online about status of at least one bill, said inquiry being conveyed to particular billers.

16. A method as defined in claim 9, further comprising the step of:

automatically notifying a biller when a consumer has paid a bill.

17. A method as defined in claim 9, further comprising the step of:

allowing a biller to modify, online, the format in which a bill is presented to said consumer on said visual interface.

18. A method as defined in claim 9, further comprising the step of:

allowing said consumer to modify, online, the format in which a bill is presented to said consumer on said visual interface.

19. A method as defined in claim 9, further comprising the step of:

allowing said consumer to pay bills from a plurality of visual interfaces, wherein each of said visual interfaces resides on a different Internet Website.

20. A method for electronic billing presentment and payment, said method comprising the steps of:

storing data relating to a plurality of bills sourced from a plurality of billers, and corresponding to a plurality of consumers in a database;

communicating with said database for authenticating each of said plurality of billers;

converting data from said plurality of billers into a format compatible with said database;

allowing at least some of said plurality of billers to review and obtain reports in substantially real time from data relating to said billers and status of said biller'"'"'s bills stored in said database;

supporting a plurality of visual interfaces, each of said visual interfaces allowing a consumer to review and pay said consumer'"'"'s bills;

determining whether said consumer meets certain predetermined requirements before a new account is authorized to access said database, said determining step including obtaining consumer credit information;

allowing said consumer to input personal information that can be used to identify and authenticate said consumer wherein said input information is compared to said consumer credit information;

communicating with said database for allowing said consumer to change information in said database; and

allowing said consumer to pay bills from one of said visual interfaces.