Methods and Systems For Payment Transactions in a Mobile Environment

• US 20080010190A1
• Filed: 07/06/2006
• Published: 01/10/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 07/06/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Qualcomm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Firethorn Holdings LLC (Qualcomm, Inc.)
• Inventors: Cochran, Kyle Leighton, Porter, Warren Derek, Rackley III, Brady Lee, Rickman, Gregory Michael
• Granted Patent: US 8,160,959 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/39
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/042 characterized in that the payment protocol involves at least one cheque
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/10 specially adapted for electronic funds transfer [EFT] systems; specially adapted for home banking systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/223 based on the use of peer-to-peer networks
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/322 Aspects of commerce using mobile devices [M-devices]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3221 Access to banking information through M-devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3223 Realising banking transactions through M-devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/325 using wireless networks
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/326 Payment applications installed on the mobile devices

Abstract

Methods and systems for conducting financial transactions in a mobile environment utilizing a mobile device such as a mobile telephone or wireless connected personal digital assistant (PDA) that communicates with a mobile financial transaction system (MFTS) that stores user and transaction information. The MFTS receives information on behalf of a mobile device user corresponding to bills to pay or other payments to make. The MFTS also receives information corresponding to payment sources available for use in making payments. Selected payments information and payment source information are communicated to the mobile user via a wireless network and displayed for user selection. The user selects a payment to make and a payment source. A mobile payment instruction is generated and communicated to the MFTS. The MFTS instructs a payment instruction recipient to make a payment to an identified payee. Real-time updated account and payment balances are provided to the user'"'"'s mobile device.

Claims

30. A system for making a mobile financial payment using a mobile device connected for communications with a wireless network, comprising:

a user mobile device coupled for wireless communications with a mobile financial transaction system (MFTS), the mobile device operative for wirelessly receiving summarized payment to make information from the MFTS, displaying one or more selectable payments to make, displaying one or more selectable accounts for making the payment, receiving user input corresponding to selection of a payment to make and selection of a payment source for making a payment, generating a mobile payment instruction to the MFTS indicating a payment to make, and wirelessly communicating the mobile payment instruction to the MFTS;

a mobile financial transaction system (MFTS) database associated with the MFTS for storing user information, payment to make information associated with the one or more payees, and payment source information associated with at least one account associated with at least one financial service provider of a user;

a mobile financial transaction system (MFTS) computer system for maintaining the MFTS database and conducting electronic communications between entities involved in mobile financial payments;

a mobile communication interface for coupling user mobile devices to the MFTS via a mobile communication service provider (MSCP);

an interface for coupling the MFTS to at least one payment instruction recipient;

a bill presentment interface for coupling the MFTS to at least one billing entity that provides information corresponding to a payment to be made; and

MFTS software operative on the MFTS computer system comprising program code for carrying out the computer-implemented steps of;

receiving payment to make information via the bill presentment interface corresponding to a payment to be made by a user to a payee;

generating summarized payment to make information based on the payment to make information relating to a payment that is to be made, the summarized payment to make information comprising a predetermined selected subset of the payment to make information;

wirelessly communicating the summarized payment to make information from the MFTS to the user mobile device via the MCSP;

in response to receipt of a mobile payment instruction from a mobile device, retrieving information from the MFTS database corresponding to an identified payee for receiving the payment indicated in the mobile payment instruction and information corresponding to the selected account at the selected financial service provider identified in the payment instruction;

generating an MFTS payment instruction to a payment instruction recipient, the MFTS payment instruction including at least information identifying the selected account at the selected financial service provider, an amount, and information corresponding to the identified payee; and

communicating the MFTS payment instruction from the MFTS to the payment instruction recipient;

whereby the payment instruction recipient, in response to receipt of the MFTS payment instruction, makes a payment to the identified payee utilizing the selected account at the select financial service provider.

31. The system of claim 30, wherein the payment to make information comprises a bill, and the payee is a billing entity.

32. The system of claim 30, wherein the payment instruction recipient comprises a financial service provider, a billing aggregator, or a separate billing entity.

33. The system of claim 30, wherein the payment to make information is provided to the MFTS by an external source, is input by the user via an Internet-accessible web site accessible by the user for input of payment to make information and payee information, or is input by the user at the mobile device.

34. The system of claim 33, wherein the external source for the payment to make information is selected from the group comprising:

a bill presentment system that provides bill information from a plurality of billing entities or an individual billing entity.

35. The system of claim 30, wherein the payment to make information comprises information corresponding to one or more of the following:

a recurring bill, a bill from a billing aggregator, a bill from an individual billing company, a “

pay anyone”

payment.

36. The system of claim 30, wherein user mobile device displays information corresponding to one or more payment to make in response to user activation of a “

View Bills”

function.

37. The system of claim 30, wherein the information corresponding to one or more payments to make displayed at the user mobile device comprises summarized payment to make information.

38. The system of claim 30, wherein the user mobile device displays information corresponding to one or more payments to make in response to receipt at the mobile device of a text message from the MFTS.

39. The system of claim 30, wherein the MFTS provides a Mobile Wallet application for execution on the user mobile device.

40. The system of claim 39, wherein the Mobile Wallet application provides a display on the mobile device of selectable commands including one or more of a View Bills command, a View Payment Sources command, and a Pay Bill(s) command.

41. The system of claim 40, wherein the user input corresponding to selection of a payment to make is provided in response to display of a View Bills command.

42. The system of claim 40, wherein user activation of the View Bills selectable command causes the MFTS to retrieve payment to make information from a bill presentment system and communicate the payment to make information to the mobile device upon receipt of such information from the bill presentment system.

43. The system of claim 40, wherein the user input corresponding to selection of a payment source for making a payment is provided in response to display of a View Payment Sources command.

44. The system of claim 43, wherein the selection of a payment source for making a payment includes selection of a financial service provider and selection of a particular account associated with the selected financial service provider for making the payment.

45. The system of claim 40, wherein user activation of the View Payment Sources command causes the MFTS to retrieve current account information from one or more financial service providers and communicate the current account information to the mobile device upon receipt of such information from the one or more financial service providers.

46. The system of claim 30, wherein the identified payee corresponds to a billing entity that communicated bill information to the MFTS.

47. The system of claim 30, wherein the payment to make information communicated to the mobile device by the MFTS is limited to a payee identifier, an amount, and a due date.

48. The system of claim 47, wherein the mobile device utilizes the payee identifier in the payment to make information and retrieves payee name information from a mobile device local memory corresponding to an identified payee and displays the payee name information to the user.

49. The system of claim 30, wherein the MFTS database stores transaction information corresponding to a user'"'"'s financial transactions, the transaction information stored including the payment to make information in addition to other information utilized to track status of the payment to make.

50. The system of claim 49, wherein the transaction information includes one or more of a user ID number, a transaction identifier, a bill received date, a bill due date, an amount, a financial service provider identifier, an account identifier, a payee identifier, a pending/complete flag.

51. The system of claim 30, further comprising receiving at the MFTS a payment confirmation message from the payment instruction recipient at a predetermined stage of completion of making the payment.

52. The system of claim 51, wherein the MFTS communicates a payment confirmation message to the mobile device in response to receipt of the payment confirmation message from the payment instruction recipient.

53. The system of claim 30, wherein the user mobile device receives user input corresponding to selection of a payment method for making a payment;

and in response to the user input, the user mobile device includes information in the mobile payment instruction corresponding to the selected method for making the payment.

54. The system of claim 53, wherein the selectable payment methods include:

a recipient-defined method, an ACH funds transfer, a paper check, and a stored value (SV) card.

55. The system of claim 30, wherein the MFTS is further coupled for electronic communications with a user'"'"'s computer via a data communications network such as the Internet, and further comprising program code in the MFTS software comprising a web application operative for receiving user information corresponding to financial service providers, accounts at financial service providers, and payees;

and

wherein the MFTS is operative for storing the user information input via the web application in the MFTS database for use in connection with payments initiated via the user mobile device.

56. The system of claim 55, further comprising program code in the MFTS software for retrieving and displaying transaction information corresponding to transactions conducted via the user mobile device, via the web application, to a user via a user'"'"'s computer.

57. The system of claim 30, wherein the mobile financial payment includes a balance transfer from one account associated with a user to another account associated with the same user.

58. The system of claim 30, wherein the user mobile device stores a cached account balance in the mobile device representative of the balance in the at least one account as of a particular date;

wherein the MFTS communicates with the financial service provider to obtain updated account balance information for the account and wirelessly communicates updated account balance information from the MFTS to the user mobile device; and

wherein in response to receipt of updated account balance information from the MFTS, the mobile device displays updated account balance information corresponding to the account to the user.

59. A method for making a mobile financial payment using a mobile device connected for communications with a wireless network, comprising the steps of:

receiving summarized payment to make information from a mobile financial transaction system (MFTS) transmitted wirelessly to the mobile device via a mobile communication service provider, the summarized payment to make information comprising a predetermined selected subset of the payment to make information stored at the MFTS;

displaying information corresponding to one or more selectable payments to make at a user mobile device, the one or more selectable payments to make including the summarized payment to make information received from the MFTS;

displaying information corresponding to one or more selectable payment sources at the user mobile device, the one or more selectable payment sources comprising financial service providers at which the user maintains at least one account selectable for making a payment;

receiving user input corresponding to selection of a payment to make and selection of a payment source for making a payment;

generating a mobile payment instruction in the user mobile device comprising information corresponding to a selected payment to make and a selected payment source for making a payment corresponding to the selected payment to make; and

wirelessly communicating the mobile payment instruction from the user mobile device to the MFTS,

whereby in response to the mobile payment instruction the MFTS effects a payment to the identified payee.

60. The method of claim 59, wherein the information corresponding to one or more payments to make displayed at the user mobile device comprises summarized payment to make information.

61. The method of claim 59, wherein the information corresponding to one or more selectable payment sources displayed at the user mobile device comprises summarized payment source information.

62. The method of claim 59, wherein the payment to make information is provided to the MFTS by an external source, is input by the user via an Internet-accessible web site accessible by the user for input of payment to make information and payee information, or is input by the user at the mobile device.

63. The method of claim 62, wherein the external source for the payment to make information is selected from the group comprising:

a bill presentment system that provides bill information from a plurality of billing entities or an individual billing entity.

64. The method of claim 59, wherein the payment to make information comprises information corresponding to one or more of the following:

a recurring bill, a bill from a billing aggregator, a bill from an individual billing company, a “

pay anyone”

payment.

65. The method of claim 59, wherein the step of displaying information corresponding to one or more payments to make at the user mobile device is provided in response to user activation of a “

View Bills”

function.

66. The method of claim 59, wherein the step of displaying information corresponding to one or more payments to make at the user mobile device is provided in response to receipt at the mobile device of a text message from the MFTS.

67. The method of claim 59, further comprising the step of providing a Mobile Wallet application on the user mobile device.

68. The method of claim 67, wherein the Mobile Wallet application provides a display on the mobile device of selectable commands including one or more of a View Bills command, a View Payment Sources command, and a Pay Bill(s) command.

69. The method of claim 68, wherein the user input corresponding to selection of a payment to make is provided in response to display of a View Bills command.

70. The method of claim 68, wherein user activation of the View Bills selectable command causes the MFTS to retrieve payment to make information from a bill presentment system and communicate the payment to make information to the mobile device upon receipt of such information from the bill presentment system.

71. The method of claim 68, wherein the user input corresponding to selection of a payment source for making a payment is provided in response to display of a View Payment Sources command.

72. The method of claim 71, wherein the selection of a payment source for making a payment includes selection of a financial service provider and selection of a particular account associated with the selected financial service provider for making the payment.

73. The method of claim 68, wherein user activation of the View Payment Sources command causes the MFTS to retrieve current account information from one or more financial service providers and communicate the current account information to the mobile device upon receipt of such information from the one or more financial service providers.

74. The method of claim 59, wherein the identified payee corresponds to a billing entity that communicated bill information to the MFTS.

75. The method of claim 59, wherein the payment to make information communicated to the mobile device from the MFTS is limited to a payee identifier, an amount, and a due date.

76. The method of claim 75, wherein the mobile device utilizes the payee identifier in the payment to make information and retrieves payee name information from a mobile device local memory corresponding to an identified payee and displays the payee name information to the user.

77. The method of claim 59, further comprising the step of receiving a payment confirmation message at the mobile device provided by the MFTS in response to receipt of a payment confirmation message from the payment instruction recipient at a predetermined stage of completion of making the payment.

78. The method of claim 59, further comprising the steps of

receiving user input corresponding to selection of a payment method for making a payment;

and

in response to the user input, including information in the payment instruction corresponding to the selected method for making the payment.

79. The method of claim 78, wherein the selectable payment methods include:

a recipient-defined method, an ACH funds transfer, a paper check, and a stored value (SV) card.

80. The method of claim 59, wherein the mobile financial payment includes a balance transfer from one account associated with a user to another account associated with the same user.

81. The method of claim 59, further comprising the steps of:

storing a cached account balance in the mobile device representative of the balance in the at least one account as of a particular date;

receiving updated account balance information from the MFTS at the user mobile device; and

in response to receipt of updated account balance information from the MFTS, displaying updated account balance information corresponding to the account to the user via the mobile device.

82-1. The device of claim 82, wherein the information corresponding to one or more payments to make displayed at the user mobile device comprises summarized payment to make information.

83-2. The device of claim 82, wherein the payment to make information is provided to the MFTS by an external source, is input by the user via an Internet-accessible web site accessible by the user for input of payment to make information and payee information, or is input by the user at the mobile device.

103. A computer-implemented method for a mobile financial transaction system (MFTS) to facilitate a mobile financial payment initiated by a mobile device connected for communications with a wireless network, comprising the steps of:

providing a mobile financial transaction system (MFTS) database for storing user information, payment to make information, and payment source information associated with at least one account associated with at least one financial service provider;

receiving payment to make information corresponding to a payment to be made by a mobile device user to a payee;

generating summarized payment to make information based on the payment to make, the summarized payment to make information comprising a predetermined selected subset of the payment to make information;

wirelessly communicating the summarized payment to make information to the user mobile device;

receiving a payment instruction communicated from the user mobile device, the payment instruction comprising information corresponding to a user'"'"'s selected payment to make and a user'"'"'s selected payment source for making a payment corresponding to the selected payment to make;

in response to receipt of the payment instruction, retrieving information from the MFTS database corresponding to an identified payee for receiving the payment indicated by the payment instruction and information corresponding to a payment instruction recipient for making the payment;

generating a MFTS payment instruction to the payment instruction recipient, the MFTS payment instruction including at least information identifying the selected account at the selected financial service provider, an amount, and information corresponding to the identified payee; and

communicating the MFTS payment instruction to the payment instruction recipient.

104. The method of claim 103, wherein the payment to make information comprises a bill, and the payee is a billing entity.

105. The method of claim 103, wherein the payment instruction recipient is one of a financial service provider, a billing aggregator, or a separate billing entity.

106. The method of claim 103, wherein the payment to make information is provided to the MFTS by an external source, is input by the user via an Internet-accessible web site accessible by the user for input of payment to make information and payee information, or is input by the user at the mobile device.

107. The method of claim 106, wherein the external source for the payment to make information is one of a bill presentment system that provides bill information from a plurality of billing entities or a single billing entity.

108. The method of claim 103, wherein the payment to make information comprises information corresponding to one or more of the following:

a recurring bill, a bill from a billing aggregator, a bill from an individual billing company, a “

pay anyone”

payment.

109. The method of claim 103, further comprising the step of communicating a text message to a user mobile device in response to receipt of bill information from a billing entity.

110. The method of claim 103, further comprising the step of providing a downloadable Mobile Wallet application for a user mobile device to facilitate communications between mobile devices and the MFTS.

111. The method of claim 110, wherein the Mobile Wallet application provides a display on a mobile device of selectable commands including one or more of a View Bills command, a View Payment Sources command, and a Pay Bill(s) command.

112. The method of claim 111, further comprising the steps of retrieving payment to make information from a bill presentment system and communicating the payment to make information to the mobile device upon receipt of such information from the bill presentment system, in response to user activation of a View Bills selectable command at the mobile device.

113. The method of claim 111, further comprising the steps of retrieving current account information from one or more financial service providers and communicating the current account information to the mobile device upon receipt of such information from the one or more financial service providers in response to user activation of the View Payment Sources command at the mobile device.

114. The method of claim 103, wherein the identified payee corresponds to a billing entity that communicated bill information to the MFTS.

115. The method of claim 103, wherein the payment to make information communicated to the mobile device is limited to a payee identifier, an amount, and a due date.

116. The method of claim 103, wherein the MFTS database stores transaction information corresponding to a user'"'"'s mobile financial transactions, the transaction information including the payment to make information in addition to other information utilized to track status of the payment to make.

117. The method of claim 116, wherein the transaction information includes one or more of the following items of information:

a user ID number, a transaction identifier, a bill received date, a bill due date, an amount, a financial service provider identifier, an account identifier, a payee identifier, a pending/complete flag.

118. The method of claim 103, further comprising the step of receiving a payment confirmation message from the payment instruction recipient at a predetermined stage in making the payment.

119. The method of claim 118, further comprising the step of communicating a payment confirmation message to the mobile device in response to receipt of the payment confirmation message from the payment instruction recipient.

120. The method of claim 103, further comprising the steps of receiving information from the user mobile device corresponding to selection of a payment method for making a payment, and providing information corresponding to the selected payment method to the selected payment instruction recipient.

121. The method of claim 120, wherein the selectable payment methods include:

a recipient-defined method, an ACH funds transfer, a paper check, and a stored value (SV) card.

122. The method of claim 103, wherein the MFTS is coupled for electronic communications with a user'"'"'s computer via a data communications network such as the Internet, and further comprising the steps of:

providing a web application in association with the MFTS;

receiving user information via the web application corresponding to financial service providers, accounts at financial service providers, and payees; and

storing the user information input via the web application in the MFTS database for use in connection with payments initiated via the user mobile device.

123. The method of claim 122, further comprising the step of retrieving and displaying transaction information corresponding to transactions conducted via the user mobile device, via the web application, to a user via a user'"'"'s computer.

124. The method of claim 103, wherein the mobile financial payment includes a balance transfer from one account associated with a user to another account associated with the same user.

125. The method of claim 103, further comprising the steps of:

communicating with the financial service provider to obtain updated account balance information for the account; and

wirelessly communicating updated account balance information from the MFTS to the user mobile device;

whereby in response to receipt of updated account balance information from the MFTS, the user mobile device displays updated account balance information corresponding to the account to the user.

126. A mobile financial transaction system (MFTS) for facilitating a mobile financial payment initiated by a user mobile device connected for communications with a wireless network, comprising:

a mobile financial transaction system (MFTS) database for storing user information, payment to make information associated with the one or more payees, and payment source information associated with at least one account associated with at least one financial service provider associated with a mobile device user;

a mobile financial transaction system (MFTS) computer system for maintaining the MFTS database and conducting electronic communications between entities involved in mobile financial payments; and

MFTS software operative on the MFTS computer system comprising program code for carrying out the computer-implemented steps of;

receiving payment to make information corresponding to a payment to be made by a mobile device user to a payee;

generating summarized payment to make information comprising a predetermined selected subset of the payment to make information;

communicating the summarized payment to make information to a user mobile device via a mobile communication service provider associated with the user mobile device;

receiving a mobile payment instruction communicated from the user mobile device, the payment instruction comprising information corresponding to a user'"'"'s selected payment to make and a user'"'"'s selected payment source for making a payment corresponding to the selected payment to make;

in response to receipt of the mobile payment instruction, retrieving information from the MFTS database corresponding to an identified payee for receiving the payment indicated by the mobile payment instruction and information corresponding to a selected account at a selected financial service provider;

generating an MFTS payment instruction to a payment instruction recipient, the MFTS payment instruction including at least information identifying the selected account at the selected financial service provider, an amount, and information corresponding to the identified payee; and

communicating the MFTS payment instruction to the payment instruction recipient,

whereby in response to the MFTS payment instruction the payment instruction recipient effects a payment to the identified payee.

127. The system of claim 126, wherein the payment to make information comprises a bill, and the payee is a billing entity.

128. The system of claim 126, wherein the payment instruction recipient comprises a financial service provider, a billing aggregator, or a separate billing entity.

129. The system of claim 126, wherein the payment to make information is provided to the MFTS by an external source, is input by the user via an Internet-accessible web site accessible by the user for input of payment to make information and payee information, or is input by the user at the mobile device.

130. The system of claim 129, wherein the external source for the payment to make information is one or more of a bill presentment system that provides bill information from a plurality of billing entities or an individual billing entity.

131. The system of claim 126, wherein the payment to make information comprises information corresponding to one or more of the following:

a recurring bill, a bill from a billing aggregator, a bill from an individual billing company, a “

pay anyone”

payment.

132. The system of claim 126, wherein the MFTS software is further operative for communicating a text message to a user mobile device in response to receipt of bill information from a billing entity.

133. The system of claim 126, wherein the MFTS software is further operative for providing a downloadable Mobile Wallet application to a user mobile device to facilitate communications between mobile devices and the MFTS.

134. The system of claim 133, wherein the Mobile Wallet application provides a display on a mobile device of selectable commands including one or more of a View Bills command, a View Payment Sources command, and a Pay Bill(s) command.

135. The system of claim 134, wherein the MFTS software is further operative for retrieving payment to make information from a bill presentment system and communicating the payment to make information to the mobile device upon receipt of such information from the bill presentment system, in response to user activation of a View Bills selectable command at the mobile device.

136. The system of claim 134, wherein the MFTS software is further operative for retrieving current account information from one or more financial service providers and communicating the current account information to the mobile device upon receipt of such information from the one or more financial service providers in response to user activation of the View Payment Sources command at the mobile device.

137. The system of claim 126, wherein the identified payee corresponds to a billing entity that communicated bill information to the MFTS.

138. The system of claim 126, wherein the payment to make information communicated to the mobile device is limited to a payee identifier, an amount, and a due date.

139. The system of claim 126, wherein the MFTS database stores transaction information corresponding to a user'"'"'s mobile financial transactions, the transaction information including the payment to make information in addition to other information utilized to track status of the payment to make.

140. The system of claim 139, wherein the transaction information includes one or more of the following items of information:

a user ID number, a transaction identifier, a bill received date, a bill due date, an amount, a financial service provider identifier, an account identifier, a payee identifier, a pending/complete flag.

141. The system of claim 126, wherein the MFTS software is further operative for receiving a payment confirmation message from payment instruction recipient at a predetermined stage in making the payment.

142. The system of claim 141, wherein the MFTS software is further operative for communicating a payment confirmation message to the mobile device in response to receipt of the payment confirmation message from the payment instruction recipient.

143. The system of claim 126, wherein the MFTS software is further operative for receiving information from the user mobile device corresponding to selection of a payment method for making a payment, and providing information corresponding to the selected payment method to the payment instruction recipient.

144. The system of claim 143, wherein the selectable payment methods include:

a recipient-defined method, an ACH funds transfer, a paper check, and a stored value (SV) card.

145. The system of claim 126, wherein the MFTS is coupled for electronic communications with a user'"'"'s computer via a data communications network such as the Internet, and further comprising the computer-implemented steps of:

providing a web application in association with the MFTS;

receiving user information via the web application corresponding to financial service providers, accounts at financial service providers, and payees; and

storing the user information input via the web application in the MFTS database for use in connection with payments initiated via the user mobile device.

146. The system of claim 145, wherein the MFTS software is further operative for retrieving and displaying transaction information corresponding to transactions conducted via the user mobile device, via the web application, to a user via a user'"'"'s computer.

147. The system of claim 126, wherein the mobile financial payment includes a balance transfer from one account associated with a user to another account associated with the same user.

148. The system of claim 126, wherein the MFTS communicates with the financial service provider to obtain updated account balance information for the account and wirelessly communicates updated account balance information from the MFTS to the user mobile device,

whereby in response to receipt of updated account balance information from the MFTS, the user mobile device displays updated account balance information corresponding to the account to the user.

149. A method for making a financial payment to a payee via a paper check utilizing a mobile device connected for communications via a wireless network, comprising the steps of:

displaying information corresponding to one or more selectable payments to make at the user mobile device;

displaying information corresponding to at least one selectable payment source for the payment at the user mobile device;

displaying information corresponding to one or more selectable payment methods at the user mobile device, the payment methods at least including a paper check payment method;

at the user mobile device, receiving user input corresponding to selection of a payment to make, selection of a payment source for making a payment, and selection of a paper check payment method;

at the user mobile device in response to the user input, generating a mobile payment instruction comprising information corresponding to a selected payment to make, a selected payment source for making a payment corresponding to the selected payment to make, and the paper check payment method;

wirelessly communicating the mobile payment instruction from the user mobile device to a mobile financial transaction system (MFTS);

at the MFTS and in response to receipt of the mobile payment instruction, determining an identified payee for receiving the payment indicated by the payment instruction;

at the MFTS, generating an MFTS payment instruction to a payment instruction recipient, the MFTS payment instruction including at least information identifying, an amount, information corresponding to the identified payee, and information indicating payment by the paper check payment method;

communicating the MFTS payment instruction from the MFTS to the selected payment instruction recipient; and

at the payment instruction recipient, in response to receipt of the MFTS payment instruction, making a payment to the identified payee by printing and mailing a paper check to the payee.

150. The system of claim 149, wherein the payment instruction recipient comprises a financial service provider or a billing aggregator.

151. The method of claim 149, wherein the mobile financial transaction system (MFTS) includes a mobile financial transaction system (MFTS) database for storing user information, payment to make information associated with the one or more payees, and payment source information associated with at least one account associated with at least one financial service provider;

and

wherein the step of determining the identified payee identified payee for receiving the payment indicated by the payment instruction and information corresponding to the selected account at the selected financial service provider identified in the payment instruction is effected by retrieving said information from information prestored in the MFTS database.

152. The method of claim 151, wherein the MFTS database stores transaction information corresponding to a user'"'"'s financial transactions, the transaction information including the payment to make information in addition to other information utilized to track status of the payment to make.

153. The method of claim 152, wherein the transaction information includes one or more of the following items of information:

a user ID number, a transaction identifier, a bill received date, a bill due date, an amount, a financial service provider identifier, an account identifier, a payee identifier, a pending/complete flag.

154. The method of claim 149, wherein the payment to make information is first provided to the MFTS by an external source, is input by the user via an Internet-accessible web site accessible by the user for input of payment to make information and payee information, or is input by the user at the mobile device, and is thereafter communicated to the mobile device for display to the user.

155. The method of claim 154, wherein the external source for the payment to make information is selected from the group comprising:

a bill presentment system that provides bill information from a plurality of billing entities or an individual billing entity.

156. The method of claim 149, wherein the payment to make information comprises information corresponding to one or more of the following:

a recurring bill, a bill from a billing aggregator, a bill from an individual billing company, a “

pay anyone”

payment.

157. The method of claim 149, wherein the step of displaying information corresponding to one or more payment to make at the user mobile device is provided in response to user activation of a “

View Bills”

function.

158. The method of claim 149, wherein the step of displaying information corresponding to one or more payment to make at the user mobile device is provided in response to receipt at the mobile device of a text message from the MFTS.

159. The method of claim 149, further comprising the step of providing a Mobile Wallet application on the user mobile device.

160. The method of claim 159, wherein the Mobile Wallet application provides a display on the mobile device of selectable commands including one or more of a View Bills command, a View Payment Sources command, and a Pay Bill(s) command.

161. The method of claim 160, wherein the user input corresponding to selection of a payment to make is provided in response to display of a View Bills command.

162. The method of claim 160, wherein user activation of the View Bills selectable command causes the MFTS to retrieve payment to make information from a bill presentment system and communicate the payment to make information to the mobile device upon receipt of such information from the bill presentment system.

163. The method of claim 160, wherein the user input corresponding to selection of a payment source for making a payment is provided in response to display of a View Payment Sources command.

164. The method of claim 163, wherein the selection of a payment source for making a payment includes selection of a financial service provider and selection of a particular account associated with the selected financial service provider for making the payment.

165. The method of claim 163, wherein user activation of the View Payment Sources command causes the MFTS to retrieve current account information from one or more financial service providers and communicate the current account information to the mobile device upon receipt of such information from the one or more financial service providers.

166. The method of claim 149, wherein the identified payee corresponds to a billing entity that communicated bill information to the MFTS.

167. The method of claim 149, wherein payment to make information is communicated to the mobile device by the MFTS for selected by the user, and wherein the payment to make information is limited to a payee identifier, an amount, and a due date.

168. The method of claim 149, further comprising the step of communicating a payment confirmation message from the selected financial service provider to the MFTS in response to completion of a predetermined stage in making the payment.

169. The method of claim 168, further comprising the step of communicating a payment confirmation message to the mobile device in response to receipt of the payment confirmation message from the selected financial service provider.

170. The method of claim 149, wherein the MFTS is further coupled for electronic communications with a user'"'"'s computer via a data communications network such as the Internet, and further comprising the steps of:

providing a web application in association with the MFTS;

receiving user information via the web application corresponding to financial service providers, accounts at financial service providers, and payees; and

storing the user information input via the web application in the MFTS database for use in connection with payments initiated via the user mobile device.

171. The method of claim 149, further comprising the steps of:

storing a cached account balance in the mobile device representative of the balance in the at least one account as of a particular date;

receiving updated account balance information from the MFTS to the user mobile device; and

whereby in response to receipt of updated account balance information from the MFTS, the mobile device displays updated account balance information corresponding to the account to the user.