Method and apparatus for paying bills electronically using machine readable information from an invoice

• US 6,438,527 B1
• Filed: 08/31/1995
• Issued: 08/20/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 11/01/1993
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Visa International Service Association (Visa, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Visa International Service Association (Visa, Inc.)
• Inventors: Powar, William L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Sough, Hyung-Sub
• Assistant Examiner(s): Elisca, Pierre E.
• Application Number:
  US08/521,623
• Time in Patent Office: 2,546 Days
• Field of Search: 364/401.R, 364/408, 364/406, 235/375, 235/379, 235/380, 235/381, 235/383, 395/230, 395/234, 395/235, 395/239, 395/240, 395/242, 705/30, 705/34, 705/35, 705/39, 705/40, 705/42, 705/76, 714/700
• US Class Current: 705/40
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/02 involving a neutral party, e.g. certification authority, notary or trusted third party [TTP]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/023 the neutral party being a clearing house
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/04 Payment circuits
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/0425 the cheque being electronic only
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/102 Bill distribution or payments
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/14 specially adapted for billing systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/425 using two different networks, one for transaction and one for security confirmation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/04 Billing or invoicing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/02 Banking, e.g. interest calculation or account maintenance credit or loans G06Q40/03

Abstract

Data capture which occurs at the consumer end of an electronic bill pay transaction is assisted by machine readable information in a standardized format on an invoice where the machine readable information includes biller identification and a C-B account number and the information is readable at the consumer end without prior arrangements being made specifically between the consumer and the biller. The biller identification is either a universal biller reference number or sufficient information to allow manual identification and contact with the biller. The machine readable information is an optically-readable bar code, characters in a font designed for error-free character recognition by optical or magnetic means.

Claims

1. An electronic bill pay system wherein a consumer electronically directs a consumer financial institution to pay a biller'"'"'s bill, and where the consumer financial institution pays the biller'"'"'s bill electronically, the system comprising:

a bill received by said consumer from said biller, said bill having machine-readable data fields comprising a biller identifier field, a consumer-biller account number identifier field,

data capture means for capturing said machine-readable data fields from said bill, said data capture means controlled by said consumer; and

a consumer terminal receiving captured data fields from said data capture means, said consumer terminal including at least

means for generating a bill pay order and electronically transmitting said bill pay order to a bill pay network, said bill pay network operating to cause an electronic transfer of funds from an account of said consumer at said consumer financial institution to an account of said biller identified by said biller identification field in said bill pay order;

means for validating said captured data fields, wherein data from said captured data fields is validated using billing information tables which contain valid biller identification numbers and consumer-biller account numbers obtained from said bill payment network, wherein said validating means detects and corrects reading errors in said captured data fields using error correction and detection data, said validating means also detecting whether said captured data fields contain an expected number of bits, said consumer terminal configured to prompt said consumer to recapture said machine-readable data fields if invalid data is detected;

means for receiving data entered by said consumer, wherein said entered data comprises an identification of a source of funds which is included in said bill pay order; and

means for receiving said billing information tables from said bill payment network.

2. The bill pay system of claim 1, wherein said bill is a printed bill and the machine-readable data fields comprise printed, optically readable data fields.

3. The bill pay system of claim 2, wherein said optically readable data fields comprise printed bar codes.

4. The bill pay system of claim 3, wherein said data capture means comprise a bar code reader.

5. The bill pay system of claim 2, wherein said optically readable data fields comprise dot patterns.

6. The bill pay system of claim 2, wherein said optically readable data fields comprise glyphs.

7. The bill pay system of claim 1, wherein said bill is a printed bill and the machine-readable data fields comprise magnetically readable data fields.

8. The bill pay system of claim 7 wherein said magnetically readable data fields comprise data magnetically encoded in a magnetic strip, and said data capture means comprise a magnetic strip reader.

9. The bill pay system of claim 7 wherein said magnetically readable data fields comprise MICR encoded data printed on said bill.

10. The bill pay system of claim 1, wherein said machine-readable data fields further comprise a due date indicator field and an amount due indicator field.

11. A device for use in electronic bill payments where a consumer directs a bank to pay a biller electronically, comprising:

a computer usable medium having computer readable program code embodied therein for paying bills electronically using machine-readable information from a bill, the computer readable program code in said device including at least

computer readable program code configured to cause electronic data capture means under control of a consumer to capture machine-readable data fields from a bill received from a biller, said machine-readable data fields comprising a biller identifier field and a consumer-biller account number identifier field;

computer readable program code configured to cause a consumer terminal to receive captured data fields from said electronic data capture means;

computer readable program code configured to receive billing information tables from a bill payment network;

computer readable program code configured to cause said consumer terminal to detect whether said captured data fields contain an expected number of bits;

computer readable program code configured to cause said consumer terminal to detect and correct reading errors in said captured data fields using error correction and detection data;

computer readable program code configured to cause said consumer terminal to validate said captured data fields using said billing information tables which contain valid biller identification numbers and consumer-biller account numbers;

computer readable program code configured to cause said consumer terminal to prompt said consumer to recapture said machine-readable data fields if invalid data is detected in said captured data fields;

computer readable program code configured to cause said consumer terminal to receive data entered by said consumer, wherein said entered data comprises an identification of a source of funds which is included in said bill pay order; and

computer readable program code configured to cause said consumer terminal to electronically transmit a bill pay order to said bill pay network, said bill pay order comprising a biller identifier from said biller identifier field, said bill pay network operating on said bill pay order to electronically cause funds to be transferred from an account of said consumer at said consumer financial institution to an account of said biller identified by said consumer-biller account number identifier field.

12. The device of claim 11 further comprising:

computer readable program code configured to cause said consumer terminal to compare said captured data fields with data from a previous bill.

13. The device of claim 11, wherein said computer readable program code configured to cause electronic data capture means under control of a consumer to capture machine-readable data fields from a bill comprises:

computer readable program code configured to cause a bar code reader to read bar codes from said bill.

14. The device of claim 11, wherein said computer readable program code configured to cause electronic data capture means under control of a consumer to capture machine-readable data fields from a bill comprises:

computer readable program code configured to cause a magnetic strip reader to read magnetically encoded data from a magnetic strip on said bill.

15. The device of claim 11, wherein said computer readable program code configured to cause electronic data capture means under control of a consumer to capture machine-readable data fields from a bill comprises:

computer readable program code configured to cause an optical scanning device to read optical data on said bill.