System for remote purchase payment transactions and remote bill payments

• US 5,336,870 A
• Filed: 05/26/1992
• Issued: 08/09/1994
• Est. Priority Date: 05/26/1992
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: John E. Dowlen
• Original Assignee: John E. Dowlen
• Inventors: Hughes, Thomas S., Molina, Gustavo
• Primary Examiner(s): PITTS, HAROLD I
• Application Number:
  US07/888,780
• Time in Patent Office: 805 Days
• Field of Search: 235/379, 235/380, 902/24
• US Class Current: 235/379
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/04 Payment circuits
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/12 specially adapted for electronic shopping systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/341 Active cards, i.e. cards including their own processing means, e.g. including an IC or chip
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/0014 for vending, access and use of specific services not covered anywhere else in G07F17/00 meter-controlled dispensing of liquid, gas or electricity G07F15/00
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/26 for printing, stamping, franking, typing or teleprinting apparatus ticket printing or the like apparatus G07F17/42
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 7/0886 the card reader being portable for interacting with a POS or ECR in realizing a payment transaction
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 7/1008 Active credit-cards provided with means to personalise their use, e.g. with PIN-introduction/comparison system

Abstract

It is the object of this invention to provide a terminal and system to allow debit and credit card holders the ability to conveniently perform various transactions from their home or office. The terminal is a single device, which has an alphabetic QWERTY keyboard, a numeric touch tone type keypad, miscellaneous other keys, a magnetic card reader, a display, a printer, a modem, and a serial port. The terminal firmware supports various financial transactions including: purchase payment, bill payment, and settlement review. The terminal supports initialization, encryption, transaction generation, transaction transmission and data reception from a host system and receipt printing. A local data base including a transaction log and a profile list are maintained in the terminal memory. The transaction log stores purchase payment information and is stored as a stack and the profile list has entries for each specific bill pay account.

Claims

1. A system including a host computer system for allowing a user to conduct remote point of sale transactions, said system comprising:

an unitary terminal having a top surface;

a QWERTY alphabetic keyboard for entering alphabetic information integral to said terminal and accessible on said top surface of said terminal;

a numeric keypad for entering numeric information integral to said terminal and accessible on said top surface of said terminal;

a magnetic card reader for reading a magnetically encoded card integral to said terminal and accessible on said top surface of said terminal;

a display integral to said terminal and visible on said top surface of said terminal;

a printer integral to said terminal;

a modem for communication on telephone lines integral to said terminal; and

control means for operating said terminal and communicating to said host computer system coupled to said QWERTY alphabetic keyboard, said numeric keyboard, said magnetic card reader, said display, said printer, and said modem;

first memory means coupled to said control means for storing a transaction log of purchase payment transactions stored as a stack wherein each purchase payment transaction in said transaction log comprises a date and time of said purchase payment transaction, an amount of said purchase payment transaction, an account number of said user, a terminal number of said terminal, a merchant number for said purchase payment transaction, a trace number for said purchase payment transaction, a purchased item identifier for said purchase payment transaction, an account type of said user, a transaction sequence number, an authorization number for said purchase payment transaction, a retrieval reference number for said purchase payment transaction, and a merchant name for said purchase payment transaction;

wherein said trace number uniquely identifies a specific user;

wherein said account type specifies a specific account of said user;

wherein said transaction sequence number is incremented by one for each approved transaction;

wherein said authorization number is issued by said host computer system; and

wherein said retrieval reference number is generated by said host computer system to aid in tracking a transaction within said system.

2. A system including a host computer system for allowing a user to conduct remote point of said transactions, said system comprising:

an unitary terminal having a top surface;

a QWERTY alphabetic keyboard for entering alphabetic information integral to said terminal and accessible on said top surface of said terminal;

a numeric keypad for entering numeric information integral to said terminal and accessible on said top surface of said terminal;

a magnetic card reader for reading a magnetically encoded card integral to said terminal and accessible on said top surface of said terminal;

a display integral to said terminal and visible on said top surface of said terminal;

a printer integral to said terminal;

a modem for communication on telephone lines integral to said terminal; and

control means for operating said terminal and communicating to said host computer system coupled to said QWERTY alphabetic keyboard, said numeric keyboard, said magnetic card reader, said display, said printer, and said modem;

second memory means coupled to said control means for storing a profile list of bill payment transactions wherein each profile in said profile list comprises a profile number, a merchant name, an amount to send, an amount last sent, a last data bill payment was sent, a next data to send bill payment, an approval response, an authorization number, a retrieval reference number, and one of said transaction sequence numbers;

wherein said profile number is unique for each said profile;

wherein said approval response approves or denies said bill payment transaction;

wherein said authorization number is issued by said host computer system;

wherein said retrieval reference number is generated by said host computer system to aid in tracking a transaction within said system; and

wherein said transaction sequence number is incremented by one for each approved transaction.

3. A method for allowing a user to conduct remote bill payment comprising the steps of:

providing an unitary terminal having a QWERTY alphabetic keyboard for entering alphabetic information, a numeric keyboard for entering numeric information, a magnetic card reader for reading a magnetically encoded card, a display, a printer, a modem for communication on telephone lines, a control device coupled to said QWERTY alphabetic keyboard, said numeric keyboard, said magnetic card reader, said display, said printer, and said modem, and a memory coupled to said control device;

providing a host computer system coupled to said terminal by said modem;

providing a profile list of bill payment transactions stored in said memory of said terminal wherein each profile in said profile list comprises a profile number, an amount last sent, the date bill payment last sent, an authorization number, a retrieval reference number, and a sequence number;

prompting user to select and user selecting a profile from said profile list;

displaying profile data to user;

prompting user to decide whether to pay this bill for this profile and if user decides yes, prompting user for dollar amount and displaying the amount last sent as default and user entering dollar amount, blanking the date bill payment last sent, the retrieval reference number, the sequence number and the authorization number for this transaction, and if no, then continuing to the next step;

repeating the preceding three steps until user decides to go to next step;

prompting user to swipe and user swiping card through the magnetic card reader coupled to said remote point of sale terminal;

prompting user to select and user selecting credit or debit;

if debit, prompting user to enter and user entering account type, savings or checking;

if debit, then prompting user to enter and user entering a personal identification number entry and encrypting the entered personal identification number;

dialing said host computer system;

requesting authorization from a card issuing authority via said host computer system;

if authorization granted, incrementing a retrieval reference number in said host computer system and sending said retrieval reference number to said terminal;

if authorization granted, sending an authorization number via said host computer system from the card issuing authority to said terminal;

if authorization granted, incrementing said sequence number for each approved transaction;

if authorization granted, updating profile information for each profile selected for bill payment by updating the date that bill payment was last sent, the amount last sent, the retrieval reference number to the retrieval reference number sent by said host computer system for that profile bill payment, the authorization number to the authorization number sent by the card issuing authority via said host computer system to said terminal, and the sequence number;

if authorization denied, updating profile information for each profile selected for bill payment by placing denial reason in location in profile for retrieval reference number, authorization number, and sequence number; and

printing receipt for bill payment transaction.

4. A method for allowing a user to conduct remote purchase payment transactions comprising the steps of:

providing an unitary terminal having a QWERTY alphabetic keyboard for entering alphabetic information, a numeric keyboard for entering numeric information, a magnetic card reader for reading a magnetically encoded card, a display, a printer, a modem for communication on telephone lines, a control device coupled to said QWERTY alphabetic keyboard, said numeric keyboard, said magnetic card reader, said display, said printer, and said modem, and a memory coupled to said control device;

providing a host computer system coupled to said terminal by said modem;

providing a transaction log of purchase payment transactions stored as a stack in said memory of said terminal wherein each purchase payment transaction in said transaction log comprises a date and time, amount, account number, a terminal number, a merchant number, an account type, a sequence number, an authorization number, and a retrieval reference number for said purchase payment transaction;

prompting user to swipe and user swiping card through a magnetic card reader coupled to said terminal;

prompting user to select and user selecting credit or debit;

if debit, prompting user to enter and user entering account type, savings or checking;

if debit, then prompting user to enter and user entering a personal identification number entry and encrypting the entered personal identification number;

prompting user to enter and user entering dollar amount and validating that the dollar amounts are within range limits set by card issuing authority;

prompting user to enter and user entering merchant number;

prompting user to enter and user entering purchase item number;

dialing said host computer system;

requesting authorization from card issuing authority;

if authorization granted, incrementing a retrieval reference number in said host computer system and sending said retrieval reference number to said terminal;

if authorization granted, incrementing said sequence number for each approved transaction;

if authorization granted, logging message comprising a date and time received from said host computer system, amount, account number and expiration date, a terminal number, a merchant number, an account type, said sequence number, an authorization number, and a retrieval reference number sent by said host computer system for said purchase payment transaction to said transaction log and printing receipt; and

if authority denied, displaying reason for denial and printing receipt.

5. A method for allowing a user to conduct remote settlement review comprising the steps of:

providing an unitary terminal having a QWERTY alphabetic keyboard for entering alphabetic information, a numeric keyboard for entering numeric information, a magnetic card reader for reading a magnetically encoded card, a display, a printer, a modem for communication on telephone lines, a control device coupled to said QWERTY alphabetic keyboard, said numeric keyboard, said magnetic card reader, said display, said printer and said modem, and a memory coupled to said control device;

providing a host computer system coupled to said terminal by said modem;

providing a transaction log of purchase payment transactions stored as a stack in said memory of said terminal wherein each purchase payment transaction in said transaction log comprises a date and time, amount, account number and expiration date, a terminal number, a merchant number, an account type, a sequence number, an authorization number, and a retrieval reference number for said purchase payment transaction;

prompting for a settlement date and user entering a settlement date or defaulting to current date;

searching for all transactions in transaction log with entered date;

displaying settlement totals for date selected;

printing settlement review receipt for terminal comprising the terminal name and address, the date and time, the terminal number, the date for the credit transactions for the date including the sales count, the sale amount, the return count, and the return amount and the data for the debit transactions for the date including the sales count, the sales amount, the return count, and the return amount, and the net data for the date including the net count and net amount;

dialing said host computer system;

requesting authorization from said host computer system;

transmitting terminal data to said host computer system;

comparing terminal data with data for same date in said host computer system; and

if said host computer system data and terminal data do not agree, then sending said host computer system data to said terminal and printing said host computer system data comprising said host computer system data for the credit transactions for the date including the sales count, the sales amount, the return count, and the return amount and the data for the debit transactions for the date including the sales count, the sales amount, the return count, and the return amount, and the net data for the data including the net count and net amount on said settlement review receipt.