International authorization system
First Claim
1. A system for handling a telephone request for authorizing an international financial transaction, said request being from a merchant desiring to accept a transaction card for a purchase, said request being directed to the issuer of the transaction card, wherein said issuer is located in country different from the merchant, and wherein said transaction card has a unique account number associated therewith which identifies the cardholder and the issuer, said system comprising:
- switch means for receiving a telephone call from a merchant requesting authorization information about a financial transaction, said switch means functioning to identify the country in which the merchant is located, said switch means including;
memory means for storing a table which includes information correlating data included in the account number of the card with the issuer of the card, said table further identifying the country in which the issuer is located, said memory means further including a list of bilingual operators and the languages in which those operators are fluent;
means for determining the issuer of the card based on the account number of the card and the information stored in the table and for identifying the country in which the issuer is located;
means for initiating a telephone call to the issuer of the card; and
means for connecting the call from the merchant and the call to the issuer with an operator fluent in both the principal language of the country where the merchant is located and the principal language of the country where the issuer is located such that the operator can translate the verbal communications between the merchant and the issuer so that the issuer can evaluate the transaction.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A network system is disclosed for handling telephone requests for authorizing financial transactions between a merchant (10) and the issuer (20) of the transaction card presented for the transaction. The network system includes an intelligent switch (14) for receiving an incoming call from a merchant. The switch includes a Voice Response Unit (VRU) (16) which generates a request for the merchant to enter the account number of the transaction card. The switch then determines the issuer based on data contained in the account number received from the merchant (118). The switch then initiates a call to the issuer (120). The switch then connects the merchant and issuer to enable the issuer to obtain additional information, directly from the merchant, for evaluating the transaction (132). Once the information has been received, the issuer will generate an approval code which is relayed by the switch to the merchant (146, 148). The switch will also keep a record of the transaction parameters (154). If the merchant and issuer are located in different countries, the switch can add a bilingual operator to the call for translating the verbal communications between the merchant and the issuer (232).
232 Citations
19 Claims
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1. A system for handling a telephone request for authorizing an international financial transaction, said request being from a merchant desiring to accept a transaction card for a purchase, said request being directed to the issuer of the transaction card, wherein said issuer is located in country different from the merchant, and wherein said transaction card has a unique account number associated therewith which identifies the cardholder and the issuer, said system comprising:
switch means for receiving a telephone call from a merchant requesting authorization information about a financial transaction, said switch means functioning to identify the country in which the merchant is located, said switch means including; memory means for storing a table which includes information correlating data included in the account number of the card with the issuer of the card, said table further identifying the country in which the issuer is located, said memory means further including a list of bilingual operators and the languages in which those operators are fluent; means for determining the issuer of the card based on the account number of the card and the information stored in the table and for identifying the country in which the issuer is located; means for initiating a telephone call to the issuer of the card; and means for connecting the call from the merchant and the call to the issuer with an operator fluent in both the principal language of the country where the merchant is located and the principal language of the country where the issuer is located such that the operator can translate the verbal communications between the merchant and the issuer so that the issuer can evaluate the transaction. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. A method for handling a telephone request for authorizing an international financial transaction, said request being from a merchant desiring to accept a transaction card for a purchase, said request being directed to the issuer of the transaction card, wherein said issuer is located in a country different from the merchant, and wherein said transaction card has a unique account number associated therewith which identifies the cardholder and the issuer, said method comprising the steps of:
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receiving a telephone call from a merchant requesting authorization information about a financial transaction; identifying the country in which the merchant is located; determining the issuer of the card based on the account number of the card; identifying the country in which the issuer is located; initiating a telephone call to the issuer of the card; and connecting the call from the merchant and the call to the issuer with an operator fluent in both the principal language of the country where the merchant is located and the principal language of the country where the issuer is located such that the operator can translate the verbal communications between the merchant and the issuer so that the issuer can evaluate the transaction. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
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Specification