FOREIGN CURRENCY EXCHANGE SYSTEM AND METHOD

• US 20110238549A1
• Filed: 03/24/2011
• Published: 09/29/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 03/25/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Leftovercash, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Leftovercash, Inc.
• Inventors: Poon, Ferdinand
• Granted Patent: US 9,881,336 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/35
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/381 Currency conversion
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes

Abstract

A foreign currency exchange system and method are provided that allows the user to exchange various foreign currency for a physical or electronic gift card, a donation to a charity, a stored foreign currency value card and/or a multi-currency debit cash card.

Claims

1. A currency exchange system, comprising:

a kiosk with a physical housing;

a user input device within the housing coupled to a core computer that is capable of accepting input from a user;

a currency acceptor mechanism within the housing coupled to the core computer that is capable of accepting foreign currency from a user into the kiosk;

a card dispenser mechanism within the housing coupled to the core computer that is capable of dispensing a physical gift card to the user from the kiosk;

the core computer, being within the housing and being coupled to the user input device, the currency acceptor mechanism and the card dispenser mechanism, having a processor and a memory that contains a plurality of lines of code executed by the processor that control the operations of the user input device, the currency acceptor mechanism and the card dispenser mechanism; and

the core computer determines a total value of the currency received by the currency acceptor mechanism and generates a kiosk currency value and, based on user inputs by the user input device, delivers one or more of a physical gift card dispensed using the card dispenser mechanism, an electronic gift card and a donation to a charity in response to the currency inserted into the kiosk by the user.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the kiosk further comprises a bill acceptor mechanism that accepts and counts bill foreign currency and a coin acceptor mechanism that accepts and counts coin foreign currency.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the kiosk currency value is a United States dollar value and the foreign currency accepted into the kiosk is Japanese yen, British pound sterling, European Union euros, Swiss Francs and Canadian dollars.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the foreign currency is a currency for a country in which the kiosk is not physically located.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the memory of the core computer stores a set of foreign exchange rates that are used to generate the kiosk currency value of the currency received by the currency acceptor mechanism.

6. The system of claim 5 further comprising a foreign exchange system remote from the kiosk that periodically updates the set of foreign exchange rates.

7. The system of claim 1 further comprising a foreign exchange system remote from the kiosk that converts the total value of the currency received by the currency acceptor mechanism into the kiosk currency value and transmits the kiosk currency value to the kiosk.

8. The system of claim 1 further comprising a backend system that communicates with the kiosk to handle credit card clearing operations.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the core computer delivers a multi-currency cash debit card in response to the multiple different currencies inserted into the kiosk by the user.

10. A method for foreign currency exchange, comprising:

inserting foreign currency into a kiosk;

determining, in a processor of the kiosk, a total value of the foreign currency and generating a kiosk currency value; and

delivering, by the kiosk, one or more of a physical gift card dispensed using a card dispenser mechanism of the kiosk, an electronic gift card and a donation to a charity in response to the currency inserted into the kiosk by the user.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein inserting foreign currency further comprises inserting, using a bill acceptor mechanism of the kiosk, bill foreign currency and inserting, using a coin acceptor mechanism of the kiosk, coin foreign currency.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the kiosk currency value is a United States dollar value and the foreign currency accepted into the kiosk is Japanese yen, British pound sterling, European Union euros, Swiss Francs and Canadian dollars.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the foreign currency is a currency for a country in which the kiosk is not physically located.

14. The method of claim 10 further comprising storing, in a memory of the core computer of the kiosk, a set of foreign exchange rates that are used to generate the kiosk currency value of the currency received by the currency acceptor mechanism.

15. The method of claim 14 further comprising periodically updating the set of foreign exchange rates.

16. The method of claim 10 further comprising converting, using a foreign exchange system remote from the kiosk, the total value of the currency received by the currency acceptor mechanism into the kiosk currency value and transmitting the kiosk currency value to the kiosk.

17. The method of claim 10, wherein delivering further comprises delivering a multi-currency cash debit card in response to the multiple different currencies inserted into the kiosk by the user.

18. The method of claim 10 further comprising determining if a particular user has exceeded a maximum kiosk currency value during a predetermined period and delivering one or more of the physical gift card, the electronic gift card and the donation to a charity occurs if the particular user has not exceeded the maximum kiosk currency value during the predetermined period.

19. The method of claim 10 further comprising requesting the user to make up a difference between the kiosk currency value and a value of one of the physical gift card and the electronic gift card.