PAYMENT SELECTION AND AUTHORIZATION

• US 20120330787A1
• Filed: 06/27/2011
• Published: 12/27/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 06/27/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Hanson, Robert, Seeley, Brad L.
• Granted Patent: US 10,055,740 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/26.41
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/00 Payment architectures, schemes or protocols apparatus for performing or posting payment transactions G07F7/08, G07F19/00; electronic cash registers G07G1/12
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/00 Commerce

Abstract

When making a payment with an electronic payment type, a user may provide additional verification of ownership through communications with the user'"'"'s mobile computing device. For example, the user may swipe her bank card at a retailer'"'"'s store. The retailer may authorize the bank card through an issuing party (“host”). The host may transmit a request to the user via a mobile application running on the mobile computing device, which may request the user to approve or decline the purchase request. In various embodiments, the host'"'"'s request may require the user to enter personal and/or authorization information (e.g., a PIN, password, biometrics, etc.) via the mobile application to approve the request. In some aspects, the host may allow the user to split or allocate a payment amount across one or more electronic payment types available to the user from the host via the mobile application during the authorization process.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

under control of one or more servers with executable instructions,

receiving a request to authorize a payment from a merchant, the payment provided by a user to the merchant using a bank card and in satisfaction of a transaction, the request including at least a payment identifier and an amount;

identifying a mobile device of the user associated with the payment identifier;

determining an authorization requirement to impose on the user based at least in part on one or more rules, wherein at least one of the one or more rules determines whether to automatically reply to the request to authorize the payment from the merchant;

transmitting an authorization message to the mobile device that includes the authorization requirement, the authorization message to enable the user to accept or reject the request to authorize the payment;

receiving a user response from the user via the mobile device based at least in part on the transmitting of the authorization message, the response being received from a communication with a payment application that is different than an application used to transmit the payment to the merchant;

determining, by using a processor, whether the authorization requirement is fulfilled based at least in part on the user response;

transmitting a response to the merchant that includes one of an acceptance or rejection of the payment to the merchant, the acceptance contingent on the fulfillment of the authorization requirement; and

transferring the amount of the payment to an account of the merchant on behalf of the user

2. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the authorization message includes a request for at least one of a personal identification number (PIN) or biometric data to satisfy the authorization requirement.

3. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the user response includes a selection of an electronic payment type other than the bank card having the payment identifier, the electronic payment type to be used to satisfy at least a portion of the amount due to the merchant for the transaction.

4. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising applying at least one rule that determines the authorization requirement.

5. The method as recited in claim 4, wherein the at least one rule is created based at least in part on input from the user.

21. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the at least one of the one or more rules indicates that the payment is to be declined utilizing a black list or to be accepted utilizing a white list.

6. A method, comprising:

under control of one or more servers with executable instructions,

receiving a request to authorize a payment from a merchant, the payment provided by a user to the merchant in satisfaction of a transaction and the request including at least a payment identifier and an amount;

identifying a mobile device of the user associated with the payment identifier;

determining an authorization requirement to impose on the user based at least in part on whether the payment is automatically authorized;

transmitting an authorization message to the mobile device that includes the authorization requirement, the authorization message to enable the user to accept or reject the request to authorize the payment;

receiving a user response from the user via the mobile device based at least in part on the transmitting of the authorization message;

determining, by using a processor, whether the authorization requirement is fulfilled based at least in part on the user response; and

transmitting a response to the merchant that includes one of;

an acceptance of the payment to the merchant when the authorization requirement is fulfilled and the user accepts the request to authorize the payment, or

a rejection of the payment to the merchant.

7. The method as recited in claim 6, further comprising transferring the amount of the payment to an account of the merchant on behalf of the user.

8. The method as recited in claim 6, wherein the receiving the response from the user is performed in communication with a payment application that is different than an application used to transmit the payment to the merchant.

9. The method as recited in claim 6, wherein the user request includes at least one of a personal identification number (PIN) or biometric data to satisfy the authorization requirement.

10. The method as recited in claim 6, further comprising creating at least one rule that determines the authorization requirement, the at least one rule created based at least in part on user input from the user.

11. The method as recited in claim 10, wherein the rules include at least one of white listing or black listing the merchant, a category, or a genre in association with a threshold payment amount for a specified period of time.

12. The method as recited in claim 6, further comprising:

requesting a location of the mobile device of the user; and

receiving the location of the mobile device,

wherein the location information is used to determine the authorization requirement or a fraud risk associated with the payment to the merchant.

13. The method as recited in claim 6, wherein the user response includes a selection of an electronic payment type other than a payment type having the payment identifier, the electronic payment type to be used to satisfy at least a portion of the amount due to the merchant for the transaction.

14. The method as recited in claim 6, wherein the authorization message is a second authorization message, and wherein the acts further comprise:

transmitting a first authorization message to the user prior to the second authorization message; and

transmitting a soft decline notification to the merchant to at least temporarily reject the payment prior to transmitting the second authorization message to the user.

15. The method as recited in claim 6, further comprising:

determining whether the user is unavailable to receive the authorization message at a current time based at least in part on predetermined rules; and

delaying transmission of the authorization message to the user when the user is unavailable to receive the authorization message at the current time based at least in part on the predetermined rules.

16. One or more computer-readable storage media storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed on one or more processors, performs acts comprising:

receiving a request to authorize a payment from a merchant, the request including at least a payment identifier and an amount;

identifying a user associated with the payment identifier;

determining an authorization requirement to impose on the user based at least in part on the amount, wherein the authorization requirement imposed on the user is determined to include biometrics of the user based at least in part on a location condition;

transmitting an authorization message to the user, the authorization message to include at least the amount and the authorization requirement to enable the user to accept or reject the request to authorize the payment;

receiving a user response from the user via the mobile device based at least in part on the transmitting of the authorization message;

determining, by using the one or more processors, whether the authorization requirement is fulfilled based at least in part on the user response; and

transmitting a response to the merchant that includes one of an acceptance or rejection of the payment to the merchant, the acceptance contingent on the fulfillment of the authorization requirement.

17. The one or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 16, wherein the authorization message is a second authorization message, and wherein the acts further comprise:

transmitting a first authorization message to the user prior to the second authorization message; and

transmitting a soft decline notification to the merchant to at least temporarily reject the payment prior to transmitting the second authorization message to the user.

18. The one or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 16, wherein the acts further comprise:

determining whether the user is unavailable to receive the authorization message at a current time based at least in part on predetermined rules; and

delaying transmission of the authorization message to the user when the user is unavailable to receive the authorization message at the current time based at least in part on the predetermined rules.

19. The one or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 16, wherein the user response includes a selection of a second electronic payment type that is different than an initial electronic payment type associated with the payment identifier, and wherein the acts further comprising transacting a payment to the merchant using the second electronic payment type.

20. The one or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 16, wherein the authorization requirement is based on a rule that selects an authentication process based at least in part on an amount of payment and the merchant, wherein at least one selection of the authentication process includes requesting the user to provide a personal identification number (PIN) in the user response.