Aggregated postal billing and payment methods and systems
First Claim
1. A computer-implemented method for a Post Office to process bills, comprising the steps of:
- receiving a first list of bill recipients and corresponding first amounts owed by each bill recipient from a first biller;
receiving a second list of bill recipients and corresponding second amounts owed by each bill recipient from a second biller;
generating, for each bill recipient, an aggregated listing of the first and second amounts owed by each of the first and second billers;
making the aggregated listing available to each corresponding bill recipient;
receiving, from one of the bill recipients, an order instructing the Post Office to cause a payment of at least one of the first and second amounts listed in the aggregated listing, and instructing a financial service provider to effectuate the payment specified in the received order.
4 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A computer-implemented method for a trusted entity such as a Post Office to process bills from a plurality of billers includes generating aggregated listings of bills to be submitted each identified customer and making the aggregated listings available to each identified customer. The trusted entity may then receive orders to effectuate payment of selected ones of the bills in the aggregated listings from customers. The first trusted entity may request that a second trusted entity designated by each identified customer (such as a bank) guarantee availability of funds sufficient to cover payment of the bills selected for payment. A third trusted entity (a central bank) may then be instructed to carry out the payments specified in each of the received orders in batch mode by transferring the payments from the second trusted entities designated by the customers to respective fourth trusted entities (e.g., banks) designated by the billers.
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Citations
47 Claims
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1. A computer-implemented method for a Post Office to process bills, comprising the steps of:
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receiving a first list of bill recipients and corresponding first amounts owed by each bill recipient from a first biller;
receiving a second list of bill recipients and corresponding second amounts owed by each bill recipient from a second biller;
generating, for each bill recipient, an aggregated listing of the first and second amounts owed by each of the first and second billers;
making the aggregated listing available to each corresponding bill recipient;
receiving, from one of the bill recipients, an order instructing the Post Office to cause a payment of at least one of the first and second amounts listed in the aggregated listing, and instructing a financial service provider to effectuate the payment specified in the received order. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21)
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22. A machine-readable medium having data stored thereon representing sequences of instructions which, when executed by one or more computers coupled to a secure network, causes at least one of said computers to perform the steps of:
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receiving a first list of bill recipients and corresponding first amounts owed by each bill recipient from a first biller;
receiving a second list of bill recipients and corresponding second amounts owed by each bill recipient from a second biller;
generating, for each bill recipient, an aggregated listing of the first and second amounts owed by each of the first and second billers;
making the aggregated listing available to each corresponding bill recipient;
receiving, from one of the bill recipients, an order instructing the Post Office to cause a payment of at least one of the first and second amounts listed in the aggregated listing, and instructing a financial service provider to effectuate the payment specified in the received order. - View Dependent Claims (23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42)
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43. A computer-implemented method for a first trusted entity to process bills, comprising the steps of:
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receiving a list from each of a plurality of billers, each list including bills to be submitted to identified customers;
from the received lists, generating an aggregated listing for each identified customer, the aggregated listing including the bills to be submitted by each of the plurality of billers to each identified customer;
making each generated aggregated listing available to each corresponding identified customer;
receiving, from the identified customers, orders to effectuate payment of selected ones of the bills in the aggregated listings;
for each received order, instructing a second trusted entity designated by each identified customer to guarantee availability of funds sufficient to cover payment of the bills selected for payment;
instructing a third trusted entity to carry out the payments specified in each of the received orders by transferring the payments from the second trusted entities designated by the customers to respective fourth trusted entities designated by the billers. - View Dependent Claims (44, 45, 46, 47)
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Specification