Bill payment incentives system
First Claim
1. A method for making financial payments by a user remote from an agent of a financial services company assisting in making the payments, comprising:
- a. receiving payee information, including an amount to pay a payee, from the user;
b. transferring said amount from a funds account from which the user is authorized to withdraw to a payment card account, together with additional payee information;
c. paying the amount to the payee from the payment card account; and
d. applying an incentive award to the payment card account based upon the amount paid.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A bill payment system, in a presently preferred embodiment, includes a system having an agent for initiating a request to make a payment to a payee from a funds account, verifying there are sufficient funds in the account to make the payment, transferring the selected amount from the funds account to a charge card account, paying the payee from the charge card account, and applying an incentive award for the charge amount. The agent will also open and configure a payee profile for the funds account if there is a new payee, and prompt the customer for a reduced payment if the funds account does not have sufficient funds to make the requested payment. The agent additionally prompts the customer for new services based on predetermined parameters. The agent can be a human agent, an intelligent program, or combination of the two working together. Thus, bill payment can be performed by a single rewarding telephone call to an agent who assists the customer through the process, or by an online transaction, at the customer'"'"'s preference.
46 Citations
16 Claims
-
1. A method for making financial payments by a user remote from an agent of a financial services company assisting in making the payments, comprising:
-
a. receiving payee information, including an amount to pay a payee, from the user;
b. transferring said amount from a funds account from which the user is authorized to withdraw to a payment card account, together with additional payee information;
c. paying the amount to the payee from the payment card account; and
d. applying an incentive award to the payment card account based upon the amount paid. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
-
-
8. A financial payment system for making financial payments by a user remote from an agent of a financial services company assisting in making the payments, comprising:
-
an agent capable of receiving payee information, including an amount to pay a payee, from the remote user;
a financial services program operable to (i) receive the payee information from the agent, (ii) transfer said amount from a funds account from which the user is authorized to withdraw to a payment account, together with additional payee information, (iii) pay the amount to the payee from the payment account, and (iv) apply an incentive award to the payment account based upon the amount paid. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
-
Specification