PROXY CARD REPRESENTING MANY MONETARY SOURCES FROM A PLURALITY OF VENDORS

• US 20090043702A1
• Filed: 08/06/2007
• Published: 02/12/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 08/06/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Enpulz LLC
• Original Assignee: Enpulz LLC
• Inventors: Bennett, James D.
• Granted Patent: US 8,326,758 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/41
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/105 involving programming of a portable memory device, e.g. IC cards, "electronic purses"
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/20 Point-of-sale [POS] network systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3572 Multiple accounts on card
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/02 Banking, e.g. interest calculation or account maintenance credit or loans G06Q40/03

Abstract

A proxy card used at an ATM or at any vendor store that has a legacy point of sale unit or at a store with the smart point of sale. In general, it can be used with any vendor and otherwise as any credit or debit card might be used. The point-of sale unit interacts with a multi-source processing system (MSPS) that, instead of servicing a single money source, interacts with more than one of a plurality of monetary sources that may be associated with the proxy card. The money transferred from credit or debit accounts of the user may be either transferred directly or indirectly via a proxy central account associated with the MSPS that a user maintains.

Claims

1. A point of sale (POS) device for conducting a sales transaction, the POS device comprising:

a proxy card reader that reads a customer'"'"'s proxy card when it is readably coupled to the proxy card reader; and

the POS device conducting a sales transaction for the customer by interacting with a plurality of monetary sources, with which the customer has at least one account, employing information retrieved from the proxy card.

2. The POS device of claim 1 wherein the proxy card provides information that enables interaction with the plurality of monetary sources in order to complete the sales transaction.

3. The POS device of claim 2 wherein each of the plurality of monetary sources are one of a credit card system, a debit card system, a charge card system, a banking system, an payment settlement system, and a stock account system.

4. The POS device of claim 3 further comprising:

the POS device communicatively coupled to a multi-source processing system which is communicatively coupled to the plurality of monetary sources; and

the POS device conducting the sales transaction for the customer by interacting with the plurality of monetary sources via the multi-source processing system.

5. The POS device of claim 3 further comprising:

the POS device communicatively coupled to a multi-source processing system which is communicatively coupled to the plurality of monetary sources; and

the POS device communicating details of the sales transaction and the proxy card to the multi-source processing system, and, in response, receiving an approval and an authorization code from the multi-source processing system for conducting the sales transaction.

6. The POS device of claim 3 further comprising:

the POS device communicatively coupled to a multi-source processing system which is communicatively coupled to the plurality of monetary sources; and

the POS device communicating details of the sales transaction and the proxy card to the multi-source processing system;

the POS device receiving a response from the multi-source processing system for completing the sales transaction comprising an approval and an authorization code provided by each of the plurality of monetary sources to the multi-source processing system.

7. The transaction card processing system communicatively coupled to a transaction device, the transaction card processing system comprising:

the transaction card processing system communicatively coupled to a plurality of monetary sources;

a mapping between a proxy card identification associated with a user and at least one transaction account maintained by the user with at least one of the plurality of monetary sources;

processing rules for processing transaction information received from the transaction device, wherein the transaction information comprises the proxy card identification;

the transaction card processing system receiving the transaction information from the transaction device and processing it based on the processing rules;

the transaction card processing system determining a targeted monetary sources from the plurality of monetary sources based on the transaction information, the mapping and the processing rules, wherein the targeted monetary sources comprises at least one of the plurality of monetary sources;

the transaction card processing system interacting with the targeted monetary sources to conduct transactions based on the transaction information and receiving a response from each of the targeted monetary sources; and

the transaction card processing system communicating the response from each of the targeted monetary sources to the transaction device.

8. The transaction card processing system of claim 7 wherein the transaction device is one of a point-of sale device, an automated teller machine (ATM), a transaction card swiping machine, a self-service kiosk machine and a web-based online transaction service.

9. The transaction card processing system of claim 8 wherein the transaction information is one of a sales transaction information, a cash withdrawal information, a money deposit information, a credit account charge information, a debit account charge information, a checking account transfer information, a payment information and a money transfer information.

10. The transaction card processing system of claim 9 wherein the response comprises an approval information and authorization code.

11. The transaction card processing system of claim 10 further comprising:

the transaction card processing system receiving the response from each of the targeted monetary sources and generating a proxy approval information and a proxy authorization code; and

the transaction card processing system communicating the proxy approval information and the proxy authorization code to the transaction device as a proxy response to receiving the transaction information from the transaction device.

12. The transaction card processing system of claim 10 further comprising:

the at least one transaction account comprising a first credit card account with a first credit card system, a second credit card account with a second credit card system, wherein both the first credit card system and the second credit card system are comprised by the targeted monetary sources;

the mapping comprising mapping of the proxy card identification to the first credit card account and the second credit card account;

the first credit card account comprising a corresponding first maximum charge and the second credit card account comprising a corresponding second maximum charge;

the transaction information comprising a charge amount that is larger than the first maximum charge; and

the transaction card processing system, based on the mapping and the processing rules, conducting a first transaction with the first credit card system and a second transaction with the second credit card system; and

the transaction card processing system communicating the response from each of the targeted monetary sources to the transaction device.

13. The transaction card processing system of claim 12 wherein the first credit card account and the second credit card account are selected from the at least one transaction account based on interest rates currently charged in those accounts.

14. The transaction card processing system of claim 12 wherein the first credit card account and the second credit card account are selected from the at least one transaction account based on at least one of an available balance, a mileage offer, an interest rate and a maximum limit associated with the at least one transaction account.

15. The transaction card processing system of claim 7 further comprising:

the at least one transaction account maintained by the user comprises a plurality of user accounts;

each of the plurality of user accounts comprising an account detail information comprising at least an account number, a current balance, an interest rate and a maximum amount;

the transaction card processing system determining one of the plurality of user accounts as the most appropriate account based on the transaction information and the account detail information; and

the transaction card processing system conducting transactions employing the most appropriate account.

16. The transaction card processing system of claim 11 wherein the transaction card processing system receives the transaction information that also comprises a transaction type indicator from a set comprising “

customer signature required”

, “

no customer signature required”

, “

self-check-out”

, “

online purchase” and

“

bill payment”

, from the transaction device.

17. The transaction card processing system of claim 11 wherein the transaction card processing system conducts an account lock, an account delete and an account unlock operation, on the at least one transaction account, as needed.

18. A transaction card for conducting financial transactions, the transaction card comprising:

a readable and programmable set of information comprising;

identifications for a proxy card transaction account that is associated with a plurality of transaction accounts used by a user of the transaction card; and

security information associated with the proxy card transaction account.

a mechanism to securely store and retrieve the set of information.

19. The transaction card of claim 18 further comprising:

a mapping between the proxy card transaction account and the plurality of transaction accounts; and

an authorized user'"'"'s names, an account number and an expiration date for each of the plurality of transaction accounts.

20. The transaction card of claim 19 further comprising:

a storage for storing an historical record of transactions; and

an associated user image that can be retrieved from the storage and displayed by a point of sale device for identification purposes.